| Annual Report of the Richmond, Fredericksburg &
Potomac RR |
| as of April 1, 1863 |
| President's Report |
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| Thirtieth Annual Report |
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RFP R. R. Co. |
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President’s Office, |
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Richmond, May 27, 1863. |
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| The Board of Directors herewith submit to the
Stockholders the customary tabular statements of the business of the
company for the year ending March 31st, 1863. |
| From these it will be seen that the income
of the company during the year was $531,209 62, while the ordinary
current expenses of earning that income, amounted to $140,018 08.
In addition to these last, there has been expended the sum of
$23,200 92 in reconstructing about a mile of track near Fredericksburg
torn up and partially destroyed by our army last May, and in
rebuilding with heavy tressle-work the bridges between Fredericksburg
and Richmond also destroyed by our army as a measure of public
defense, except the bridge over the South Ana river, which was
destroyed by the enemy. |
| The excess of this income over these
expenditures, amounting to $367,990 62, has been in part applied to
the discharge of all the floating debt of the company, which it was
practicable to call in, including dividend bonds due to the
Commonwealth since 1857, amounting, principal and interest, to
$27,845.69, and to the payment of two semi-annual dividends made on
the 1st days of November and May, one of two dollars and a
half, and the other of eight dollars per share on the capital stock of
the company. |
| After the destruction of the bridges
between Richmond and Fredericksburg during the last five days of May,
1862, no transportation could be done on this road, except between
Richmond and the South Ana river, until the month of October, when all
these bridges were rebuilt, except that over the South Ana, which was
not completed until the 24th of November, 1862. |
| During much of this time a large portion
of the road was in the actual occupation of the enemy, or exposed to
their constant visitation. From these causes the gross income of the
company for the six months ending the 1st of October, 1862,
amounted to only $96,809.09. The current expenses, however, for the
same period, exclusive of some hires of Negroes and some other
accounts unsettled and of no large amount, were only $38,354.06, or
about 35 ˝ per cent. Of the gross income, which was due partly to the
impossibility of doing the usual work of repairs to a large portion of
the road, and partly to a prompt and careful reduction of every
unnecessary force and expense, including reductions of salaries of
most of the employees of the company made by the directory and
executive officers, upon the interruption to its customary business. |
| The extraordinary and unprecedented amount
of transportation required of this road by the government and army
during the last six months of the fiscal year, while it yielded an
increase of income somewhat proportionate to the increase of business,
inevitably increased the current expenses of conducting that business
very greatly, though apparently not in the same proportion; the gross
income for that period being $434,195.53 and the current expenses
being $101,664.02. This increase of expenses was caused partly by the
exorbitant and wholly unprecedented advance in the cost of all
railroad materials and supplies, of many of which an unusual quantity
was needed to conduct the unusual amount of transportation, and partly
by the necessity, for the same reason, of employing additional agents
and operatives. As the uncertain duration of this increased business
did not justify and increase in the number of these agents and
employees, as a more permanent business would require, the labors of
every officer and agent of the company were very greatly increased. An
equally unprecedented advance in the cost of all food, clothing and
other necessaries of life, made a liberal increase of salaries –
most of them previously reduced – and of the wages of labor, just
and necessary. It is therefore gratifying to find, that the actual
current expenditure during these six months did not exceed
$101,664.02. |
| At the same time, it is most important to
remember, that this amount of expenditure is very considerably lessened
by the necessary omission and postponement of important and expensive
repairs to the machinery, equipment and roadway of the Company, for
which it has been impossible to procure either the materials for
repairs, or the opportunity of using them, and of the purchase of the
stock of supplies and materials usually and properly kept on hand, but
which it has been as yet impossible to procure. When these items of
usual, but now unavoidably omitted expense, shall
be added to the current expenses of the last half year, the apparent nett profit will be considerably diminished. |
| For this reason, the Directory of the
Company, while they recognize the propriety of making, in the existing
condition of our currency and prevalence of exorbitant prices for the
necessaries of life, as large a dividend out of the nett profits of
the Company, as its present and prospective expenses and liabilities
will justify, have deemed it to be only a measure of prudence and
sound policy, to reserve a liberal contingent fund to defray the
expenditures, for which the necessity is being daily created, but
which the existing war and blockade admits of no opportunity of
making, as well as to meet the future liabilities and funded debt of
the Company. |
| The continuous interruption and virtual
suspension of judicial proceedings in this State resulting from the
war and from legislation relating to it, have prevented the expected
recovery of this Company’s share of the compensation paid for the
seizure of the Potomac Steamboat Company’s boats, and have still
further delayed the recovery of the amount reported under the decree
of the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, as due to this Company
from the Virginia Central and Orange & Alexandria Railroad
Companies. These resources, though now postponed, will doubtless be
available as early as opportunity will be afforded of applying them to
purposes important to the future prosperity of the Company. |
| On the 2d of October, 1862, C. W. Macmurdo,
Esq., for many years the amiable and accomplished Treasurer of
this Company died, after a brief and severe illness, leaving a large
family and extensive circle of friends to lament his loss, which could
not fail to excite the sympathies of the Stockholders of this Company,
to whom he was so well known. |
| In the appointment of his successor, Mr.
James B. Winston, formerly Assistant Treasurer and General Ticket
Agent, a well deserved tribute was paid to long tried and efficient
services of a subordinate officer, and the interests of the Company
were promoted. |
| The Board feels that it is no less just
than gratifying, to testify to the laborious zeal, fidelity, and
efficiency, with which the officers and agents of the Company,
especially in Richmond and in Fredericksburg and Hamilton’s
Crossing, have performed the duties devolved upon them, requiring
labor and fatigue, sleepless vigilance and skill to a degree never
before experienced by them, and rarely, if ever, exceeded in any other
employments. Their conduct has been no less creditable to them than
profitable to the Company; while it has given the most important aid
to the government and armies of the country. They also seem it just
and proper, earnestly to recommend to the stockholders an increase of
the salary of the worthy and efficient Treasurer of the Company, the
regulation of which the by-laws of the Company vest only in the
general meeting of the Stockholders.
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| Respectfully submitted by the Board, |
| P. V. Daniels, Jr. |
| President |
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