Headquarters Provisional Forces
| Dept. of Middle and East Florida |
| Tallahassee, December 7, 1861 |
| |
| General R. E. Lee |
| Charleston, S. C. |
| |
| General, |
| I have the honor to forward herewith a
communication from the president of the Pensacola & Georgia
Railroad Company, and also one from the chief engineer of the same,
both in reference to what I deem a very important matter, and one to
which I take the liberty of soliciting and urging your early and
earnest attention. I fully concur in and indorse the views expressed
by Mr. Latrobe, the chief engineer. If the necessary pecuniary aid,
some $80,000, can be obtained from the Government, this, the only
missing link in the chain of railroads between this point and
Richmond, can be supplied by the 1st of March proximo. The iron is
already in the country.
|
| I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant |
| J. H. Trapier |
| Brigadier-General, Commanding |
| |
| [First indorsement] |
| Headquarters |
| Coosawhatchie, December 19, 1861 |
| |
| Respectfully forwarded and recommended to the
favorable consideration of the Honorable Secretary of War.
|
| If aid can be extended so as to complete the
connection between the railroads in question, it will be of the
greatest advantage in a military point of view at the present time.
|
| R. E. Lee |
| General, Commanding |
| |
| [Second indorsement] |
| December 26, 1861 |
| Respectfully submitted to Secretary of War |
| S. Cooper |
| Adjutant and Inspector General |
| |
| [Inclosure] |
| Office Pensacola & Georgia Railroad Company |
| Tallahassee, December 6, 1861 |
| |
| General Trapier |
| |
| Sir: In compliance with your verbal request I
inclose to you a communication from Mr. Latrobe, the chief engineer
of this company, showing the condition of the work on the branch road
connecting the Pensacola & Georgia Railroad with the Atlantic & Gulf Railroad of Georgia. In September last, in an interview
with Mr. H. Roberts, the acting president of the Georgia road, I was
informed that his company had progressed far enough with their
grading to commence track laying, and that his company had iron
enough to lay the portion of the connecting line in the State of
Georgia and would co-operate with this company if we could procure
the iron.
|
| Yours, very respectfully |
| E. Houstoun |
| President |
| |
| [Sub-inclosure] |
| Engineer's Office, Pensacola & Georgia R. R. |
| Tallahassee, December 6, 1861 |
| |
| Col. E. Houstoun |
| President Pensacola & Georgia Railroad Company |
| |
| Sir: In accordance with your desire to know
the present condition of the Florida portion of the Georgia
connection, twenty-two miles in length, in order that you may lay
the same before the military authorities of the Confederate States,
petitioning for aid in obtaining iron to complete a work so
necessary to the successful defense of our Gulf coast, I submit the
following: The grading is complete, excepting one mile, which the
contractors now at work will finish by January 1, 1861 [1862]. The
necessary culverts are all in with some few exceptions--four, I
think, which could not delay the progress of the track laying. The
cross-ties for eight miles north of the point of divergence from the
Pensacola and Georgia Railroad are delivered along the line of road,
making the track complete to the south bank of the Suwannee River.
From the north bank of the Suwannee River to the Georgia State line,
a distance of fourteen miles, six miles of cross-ties are ready for
the road, leaving eight miles still to be furnished. These are
contracted for and will be forthcoming at an early date. The work
still to be done consists, therefore, of one mile of grading, eight
miles of cross-ties, and the building of the Suwannee bridge, a
simple structure of one span (160 feet), for which the drawings and
patterns are all prepared, and which, according to our recent
consultation and decision, will be framed in the shops of the
company at Tallahassee, transported to the Suwannee River, and put
up without delay. In relation to the time of completion I would
further say that, cut off as we are by the blockade from the
possibility of getting iron from Savannah to Fernandina by water,
that portion of the connection in the State of Georgia would have to
be laid first, thus giving us an abundance of time to prepare our
portion of the work and even to bed the cross-ties. The amount of
iron required to lay our portion of the road would be about 1,500 to
1,600 tons at seventy tons per mile. This could be laid, if
required, in one month. The preparation of the road bed for the iron
will about exhaust the now crippled resources of the company, cut
off as they are by the blockade from their usual revenue from the
transportation of cotton to the coast. Upon the military necessity
of the work there can be no difference of opinion. Its point of
divergence from our system of roads is nearly midway between the
Apalachicola and Fernandina, on the Atlantic Coast, making both east
and west equally accessible by rail, and giving us a direct
communication with Savannah and all the Northern routes from which
Florida has heretofore been cut off. In point of economy I believe
it will also be advantageous to the Confederacy. As things are now,
a line of wagons will have to be established by Government between
the nearest point on the Savannah, Albany and Gulf Railroad and
Monticello, in this State, a distance of about twenty miles, and
although the first outlay will not be so great, still in the end the
balance will undoubtedly be in favor of ironing the Georgia
connection. In conveying troops to a threatened point on the coast
the railroad might save millions, while the delay in marching twenty
miles across the border would be disastrous. I therefore think in
petitioning Government for aid in this matter you are only doing the
Confederate cause justice in the State of Florida in forwarding the
railroad interests of which State you have already done so much.
With the hope that the petition may be successful I respectfully
submit the above.
|
| C. H. Latrobe |
| Chief Engineer |
|