| From the Wilmington Journal |
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| May 4, 1861 |
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| But a small portion of the
Railroad between the mineral region on Deep River and Fayetteville {the
Western RR} remains to be finished -- some two or three miles.
This ought to be finished immediately, even if the State has to take
it in hand. Iron is a great necessity alike of peace and of war. We
have on the upper and lower Cape Fear, taking Deep River, an affluent
of the Cape Fear, as a part of the upper course of that River, not
only the iron ore but the coal with which to melt it and the shell
marl affording a sufficiently pure material to be used as a flux. |
| At Fayetteville we have a good
deal of the machinery necessary for the manufacture and alteration of
small arms, and there and at Wilmington we have foundries for the
casting of cannon, shot, shell and other kinds of ordnance. This
matter of an access to the coal and iron region of our State and the
means for the development of its resources becomes a matter not simply
of State but Confederate importance, and we trust that our Legislature
will not fail to bestow upon it the attention it deserves. |
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