Warrenton Pike

This painting is of old Warrenton Pike as it passes through Manassas Battlefield in Prince Wiliam County, Virginia. The highway is also known as US Highway 29 and Lee Highway. The original name, Warrenton Pike, which is no longer used, describes the main road out of Fairfax Virginia to the town of Warrenton, Virginia approximately 31 mile to the west. To any reader or historian of the American Civil War, that name is strongly associated with the battles of First and Second Manassas. It was on Warrenton Pike that the first shots of the war were fired and over which two massive Union retreats took place. The route number for old Warrenton Pike is US Highway 29 which has been dedicated as the 29th Division Memorial Highway. Historically, the 29th Division was formed in 1917 out of regional National Guard units from Virginia, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. During the Second World War, the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division was the first unit to hit Omaha Beach on D-Day. Company A of that regiment, from the small town of Bedford, Virginia, suffered 75% casualties in the assault, the most by any one community during the Second World War. Route 29 traverses over 1,000 mile from the suburbs of Baltimore south to Pensacola, Florida. Lee Highway is also the name given to old Warrenton Pike. Named for Confederate General Robert E Lee, Lee Highway was the designated name given in the twenties to a series of state routes that linked a transcontinental highway from New York City to San Francisco. Most of that route still retains the name Lee Highway.