Burke's Station: Wood Choppers and Teamsters (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

Burke's Station
Wood Choppers and Teamsters

During the Civil War, African American laborers chopped wood and conveyed it to Burke’s Station, a major Federal timber transportation station located here on the Orange & Alexandria Railroad. To supply the Union army and engineers with timber for railroad ties, bridge trusses, stockades, and firewood, wood choppers cut down thousands of acres of woodland along the railroad in Fairfax County. The wood was then transported by rail to Alexandria.

In 1863, the U.S. Military Construction Corps built an additional siding here to facilitate the loading of wood onto railroad cars.

Wood choppers moved up to 1,000 cords of lumber a month in the Burke area alone. Army teamsters hauled the wood here in mule-drawn wagons. There were as many as 100 wagons in the wagon master’s brigade at Burke’s Station. Many of the wood choppers and teamsters were escaped slaves called “contrabands” who had fled to Alexandria. Because they risked capture and reenslavement by working here outside Union lines, Federal cavalry and infantry camped nearby to protect both the contrabands and the wood stockpiles.

On October 28, 1863, Confederate guerillas captured about 25 mules, a wagon master, and several contrabands at work near here. When the Confederates ordered the wagon master to lead them to the station guard, one of the contrabands escaped to warn the garrison. They fired a volley when the Confederates approached and drove them off. The wagon master, contrabands, and mules were all rescued.

Erected by Virginia Civil War Trails.

Regarding Burke's Station. The marker displays four photos captioned African American Teamster hauling wood in Virginia Courtesy Library of Congress, Aerial photo, 1937, showing original location of railroad through Burke (red line); tracks were moved north ca. 1901Courtesy U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wood chopper huts on Orange & Alexandria Railroad Courtesy National Archives & Records Administration and Railroad track, including the track at Burke's Station, was periodically destroyed and African Americans were employed to repair the track- Library of Congress. The marker also displays a map of the area indicating the location of the marker with a red You Are Here star.