Clara Barton at Fairfax Station

The fictional Scarlett O'Hara witnessed the horrors of the Civil War at the Atlantic train station in the classic Gone with the Wind. The real-life Clara Barton, future founder of the American Red Cross, experienced this and more here at Fairfax Station during the battles of Second Manassas and Oxhill in 1862. Station and depot stood here in 1862. Over 3,000 soldiers were brought here by ambulance, mere horse-drawn carts. The others came by foot to receive treatment for their wounds, before being sent by rail to hospitals in Washington, D.C. or Alexandria. The wounded laid upon this hill from St. Mary's Church and beyond to where Fairfax Station Square currently stands. Clara Barton later described the scene in a letter to a friend. I cannot tell you the scenes which awaited our eyes. The wounded were constantly arriving. The men were brought down from the field and laid on the ground beside the train and so back up the hill till they covered acres and acres. The men lay so thick we could not take one step in the dark. By midnight there must have been 3,000 helpless men laying on hay. At length morning came and we sent up the trains with thousands. Still the ambulances came down, the cars went up and we worked on and on and on. With the battle turning against them, Union forces abandoned Fairfax Station. In response to orders, the commanding officer removed telegraph equipment, burning the station and remaining supplies that could not be saved. Compliance with orders were confirmed by a terse telegraph message. Have fired it. Goodbye. The experiences here at Fairfax Station had a lasting and profound effect in future relief efforts. Despite the chaos, this was the first logistically integrated evacuation of the American Civil War. The Union forces introduced such innovations as the hospital train based in part on their experiences here. What Clara Barton witnessed here shaped her thinking and approach toward large-scale relief efforts during the Civil War and the American Red Cross, affecting countless thousands of lives. And it all happened here on the ground we stand on today. I'm Ainsley Meyer. Thank you for visiting Fairfax Station Railroad Museum.