NP, VW 2/18A/1863

From the Vicksburg Whig
 
February 18, 1863
  
{Proceeding of the Confederate House of Representatives}
   Mr. Foote -- of Tennessee, offered the following Resolution:
   Resolved; That a Special Committee of Five be instructed to inquire particularly into the existing conditions of the Transportation service on the Line of rail Road extending from Vicksburg, Mississippi, to Mobile, Alabama {the Southern (of Mississippi) RR and the Mobile & Ohio RR}, and report to the House the facts of the case, in order that the proper remedy herein may be promptly applied; And also to inquire into the same subject in reference to the Line of the Mobile & Ohio Rail Road from Meridian, to Okolona, in the state of Mississippi, and the line of Rail roads from Richmond, Virginia, to Charleston, South Carolina.
   Mr. Foote introduced, as a portion of his remarks, the following extracts from a letter from Rev. C. K. Marshall, of Mississippi, to a Confederate Quarter-Master:
Colonel Brent
Esteemed Sir,
   You will probably see Colonel Myers, our active and successful Quarter-Master-General, and if you do, and have any regard for the economy or honor of our local interest in this particular latitude, just give him a few items on the improvidence and waste, neglect, and mismanagement daily observable all about these parts. The City (Richmond), with all its Hospitals, is destitute for wood. Corn in the shuck, and peas by the Thousands of Bushels, and meal, more precious than gold, are permitted to lie out doors in several successive rain storms, while all the intervals of good weather are employed by the Government drays and teams in hauling sugar and Molasses. Goods are allowed to waste and spoil all about the country; And yet God only knows how we are to get along for want of supplies. How is it accounted for that there is no energy displayed except for connection with sugar and molasses, said to belong to the Government. The fact is, if the Yankees ever take the City of Richmond, it will owe its fall to the mismanagement of Government Officers.
C. K. Marshall
   Mr. Foote said he had learned that, on the Line of Rail Road from Vicksburg to Mobile, there were private parties who were allowed Six, Seven or Eight Cars, for the transportation of their commodities, while the Stores of the Government were allowed to be exposed to the pelting of the elements. He had been informed that the wretches engaged in this speculative use of the Rail Roads boasted that a single One of those expeditions had realized Thirty Thousand Dollars profit.
   Mr. Miles -- of South Carolina, took occasion to remark upon the shortcomings and irregularity of the Transportation from Richmond to Charleston. The Transportation was so little to be relied upon for the public service that he could name instances where guns, shipped from here for the defense of Charleston, had not reached their destination within Two weeks from the time they were put on the Cars in Richmond.
The Resolution was adopted.

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