|
Richmond
|
| Sept 5th 1864 |
| |
| General J. F. Gilmer |
| Chief Engineer &c. |
| |
| General, |
| Application having been made to the
Seaboard & Roanoke RRd Company by Col. Chas. F. M. Garnett
Commissioner for the remaining iron upon their road, I wish to submit
to you the following reasons, sufficient as their Board of Directors
conceive, to show that it will be to the positive disadvantage of the
Government to remove it for use elsewhere. |
| The rails lying between Weldon and the
Blackwater have been in use nearly sixteen years, and are much worn;
under the light engines of the Seaboard Company they will probably
support traffic for some time, but if compelled to bear the heavy
business of a main line it is scarcely possible that they would last
six months. This statement is confirmed by those rails from the Seabd
road of similar quality used, upon the Piedmont road. The Board learn
that many of them have been worn out already, and have necessarily
been removed. |
| The business of the Seaboard road is large
as you will observe by the subjoined statement of the amount of
transportation over it for the past year, and is increasing. By it you
will perceive that the amount of freight passed over the road for the
Government above was Thirteen Million four hundred and eighty
one thousand pounds, and that more than twenty eight thousand troops
were carried. I will call your attention in connection with this to
the trade recently established on the Blackwater for the exchange of
cotton with the enemy for bacon, a trade that appears to be increasing
rapidly. In the statement given no estimate is made of the cotton
carried to the Blackwater or of the bacon returned. |
| There has always been a large body of
troops stationed on the Blackwater, although at present there are but
few in consequence of military operations elsewhere, whose sole means
of communication with Weldon is by the Seaboard road, & they
coupled with the facility of concentrating troops by rail on the
Blackwater when needed in sure protection not only to the productive
country on either side of the road, but most effectually to the rail
road bridges over the Roanoke river when preservation is admitted to
be of the first importance to military operations. Should the Seaboard
road be destroyed, it would be the virtual abandonment of all the rich
& loyal country on both sides of the Chowan, and must necessarily
imperil the extensive bridges over the Roanoke. |
| The Seaboard road is the only means of
communication between the interior of North & South Carolina and
the Virginia Seaboard. The Company have contracted in England for a
supply of rail to be delivered immediately on a return of peach,
sufficient to repair the extensive damage already created by the
removal of a portion of their rails, with a view to opening their
important line in the shortest time. If more rails are removed the
affairs of the Company will be so seriously embarrassed that they
cannot do this, and the injury to themselves and the people of
Carolina will be very great. It should be born in mind that the
Company's affairs are so prosperous as to enable them to meet
punctually their interest and to pay large dividends to their
stockholders, and in making just compensation for the heavy loss
proposed to be entailed upon them it is presumed that these
considerations involving heavy expenditure by the Government could not
with propriety be overlooked. |
| From the quiet manner in which the
Seaboard company have conducted their affairs, never appealing to the
Government or others for aid, it may have been supposed that their
operations has ceased, but it is far otherwise; all necessary
materials have been imported, their road and equipment have been
maintained in a condition little different from that before the war,
& their finances exhibit a prosperity equal to the most prosperous
rail roads of the Country. |
| The Directors of the Company are satisfied
in view of all these considerations it would be to the disadvantage of
the public interest to remove even new rails from so important
a road as theirs, but when the long use to which their rails have been
subjected is considered, it appears to them that irreparable injury
would be inflicted upon their interest, that of the Government and of
the people of sections dependent on the road without advancing the
purpose for which the injury was caused. |
| Respectfully submitting to you these
considerations in behalf of the Directors of the Seaboard Company. |
| I am General |
| Your obt Servt |
| Jno. M. Robinson |
| Director &c. |
| |
| Statement of
Transportation |
| For Government |
Private Freight |
| Bacon |
2,117,409 |
lbs |
2,808,461 lbs |
| Corn |
1,220,520 |
" |
|
| Flour |
1,869,948 |
" |
Passengers |
| Salt |
189,121 |
" |
About 16,000 |
| Potatoes |
125,410 |
" |
|
| Lumber |
448,000 |
" |
|
| Miscellaneous |
7,523,129 |
" |
|
| Total |
13,481,535 |
" |
|
|
|
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| No of Troops |
28,517 |
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