NP, NOTP 2/26/1861

From the New Orleans Times Picayune
 
February 26, 1861
 
The Mail Route North
   The following letter, which speaks for itself, has been handed us for publication by the Postmaster of this city:
 
Knoxville, Feb. 21, 1861
Dr. J. L. Riddell, Postmaster, New Orleans
Dear Sir,
   I arrived at this place at 8 1/2 A. M., just in time to be tool late, yet in time to see the train leave the depot. Two minutes delay would have taken all the mails and about ninety passengers. As the weather is fine, and the railroad in good order, there is no good reason why we should not have connected; as it is, all have to lie over twenty-four hours.
   There is a bad feeling existing between the two routes, for which the community must be the sufferers, and that a local matter, in the great chain of routes from New York to New Orleans. The East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad is running a schedule by Washington city time, and the East Tennessee & Georgia Railroad by mean time. There is about forty minutes difference.
   I will recommend to the Postmaster General that the New Orleans mails going North be sent from Chattanooga via Atlanta and Augusta, Ga., until there is an understanding they will go through. Your will please inform the traveling community that if they take this route they will be delayed at this place twenty-four hours, which has been the case since the 1st inst.
   Respectfully, your obedient servant,
George Whitman
Special Agent Post Office Dept.

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