Martinsburg, W. Va. Off the Rails

beneath your feet begins to rumble and the whistle of another passing freight train pierces the silence of this sleepy town, it’s easy to understand how the antebellum city of Martinsburg, Va. (now West Virginia), prospered as a major transportation center due to its location along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Martinsburg was the Shenandoah Valley’s second-largest town, with a population of more than 3,360. Its fortune before the war, however, would be its downfall during it. Strategically located as a gateway between the North and South, the Union and Confederacy contested for it frequently and it changed