| From the Richmond Dispatch |
| |
| December 28, 1863 |
| |
| From Northern newspapers |
| Dec. 91, via Beverley, Dec.22. H. W.
Hallock, General-in-Chief: |
| I have the honor to report that I cut the
Virginia & Tennessee railroad at Salem, on the 14th inst. ***. At
Salem, three depots were destroyed, containing 2,000 barrels of four,
10,000 bushels of wheat, 100,000 bushels of shelled corn, 50,000
bushels of oats, 2,000 barrels of meat, several cords of leather,
1,000 sacks of salt, 51 boxes of clothing, 90 bales of cotton, a large
amount of harness, shoes and dies, equipments, tools, and various
other stores, and one hundred wagons. The telegraph was cut bodied and
burned for half a mile. The water station, turn-table and three cars
were burned and the track torn up, and the rails
heated and destroyed, as much as possible in six hours. Five bridges
and several {culverts} were destroyed an
extent of fifteen {miles?}. A large
quantity of bridge timber and repairing materials were also destroyed.
***** |
| W. W. Averill, Brig. Gen |
If the above numbers are accurate
(and there was several reasons for them to be too high), the following
number of cars would have been required to remove the material:
| flour |
25 |
| wheat |
38 |
| corn |
350 |
| oats |
100 |
| meat |
13 |
| salt |
6 |
| cotton |
2 |
| TOTAL |
534 cars / 41 trains of 13 cars
each |
|
|