| Annual Report of the North Carolina RR |
| as of June 1, 1863, |
| President's Report |
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| President's Report |
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| President's Office N. C. Rail Road |
| Company Shops, June 26, 1863 |
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To the Board of Directors:
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Gentlemen:
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I submit to you the following report of the operations of
the Road for the year ending May 31st, 1863:
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| Earnings From All
Sources |
| From Passengers, other than Troops |
$704,011.35 |
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| Government Passengers |
278,051.98 |
$982,063.33 |
| Freight -- private |
$315,204.66 |
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" Government |
194,296.79 |
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" So. Express Co. |
124,921.01 |
$634,422.46 |
| Mails, $26,030.60; Rent, 2,851.48 |
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28,882.08 |
| Shops, 1,882.37; Int. & Prm. 2,685.02 |
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4,567.39 |
| Total Earnings |
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$1,649,935.26 |
| Expenses |
| Transportation |
$132,722.17 |
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| Cars, Machinery and Oil |
125,907.45 |
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| Maintenance of Road |
118,021.92 |
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| Material and Supplies |
46,767.85 |
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| Clothing and Subsistence |
104,713.06 |
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| Loss and Damage |
21,090.53 |
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| Salaries |
33,882.16 |
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| Hand hire |
28,446.90 |
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| Office expenses & Printing |
3,206.45 |
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| Telegraph |
4,241.12 |
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| Station Expenses |
12,192.49 |
$631,192.10 |
| Nett Earnings |
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$1,018,743.16 |
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Which is $227,679.48 more than the gross earnings of the
previous year.
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Compared with last year
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| Gross earnings, May 31, 1863 |
$1,649,935.26 |
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"
" "
" " 1862 |
791,063.68 |
| Excess this year |
$858,871.58 |
| Nett earnings this year |
$1,018,743.16 |
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"
" " last year |
350,643.52 |
| Excess nett earnings |
$668,099.64 |
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The Treasurer's statement sets forth particularly all
disbursements made during the year, including not only the expenses of
working the Road and keeping up repairs, but also extraordinary
payments: For Sinking Fund, $94,290.00; purchase of real estate,
$19,880.00; Purchase of cars, $47,050.00; joint buildings at
Salisbury, $10,765.27; &c. In the very large item of expenses
entitled "Clothing" and "Subsistence," amounting
to $104,713.06, there is about $42,000.00 worth of wool for clothing
of hands during the ensuing winter and year now on hand. Also, about
60,000 lbs. of bacon, and about 500 barrels of corn. The item of
Machinery, Cars and Oil, amount $125,907.45, includes rent of 60
freight and passenger cars, and three locomotives; and we have enough
oil, lard, &c., to suffice for several months.
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Two dividends have been declared: one on the 1st of
August, of 8 per cent., amount, $320,000. The other 1st of Feb., of 10
per cent., amt. 400,000.
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Transportation
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| The number of passengers, other than soldiers,
carried over the road, has been |
210,987 |
| Number of soldiers and government agents |
102,526 |
| Whole number of passengers carried |
313,513 |
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And it is a source of thankfulness to a protecting
Providence that this large number pf persons has been transported
without any accident; and a source of congratulation to the
stockholders that their employees have been prudent and careful.
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Compared with last year,
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| Number of passengers other than soldiers |
117,325 |
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" soldiers
and government agents |
87,057 |
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204,382 |
| Excess this year |
109,131 |
| Earnings from private freight have been -- |
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| Amount carried East |
$87,323.86 |
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"
" West |
227,880.80 |
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$315,204.66 |
| Government freight |
194,296.79 |
| Southern Express Company |
124,921.01 |
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$634,422.46 |
| Total amount freight earnings last year |
$272,398.40 |
| Excess this year |
$362,024.06 |
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Your road and outfit have been worked to their utmost
capacity, and the substantial proofs in the way of very handsome
dividends already paid, and the assurances that other will follow, if
not satisfactory to the stockholders and State, must at least be
gratifying.
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Our locomotives are generally in very
excellent order, and all of them will be thoroughly repaired as soon
as possible. And I have no hesitation in saying that they will compare
favorably with those of any other Company in the Confederacy.
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Our cars have been run day after day; so great has been
the demand for transportation of persons and things that neither the
coaches nor freight cars have been allowed to lie over, unless it
became unsafe to run them. We have purchased eleven coaches, first and
second class; and bult three new ones; these have not yet been placed
on the road, but will be ready for use by the day of your annual
meeting. We have also purchased thirty-two freight cars. None have
been built during the year.
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We bought from the Government four locomotives. Three of
these have been hard at work on the road; the other needs very
considerable repairs. We also purchased large supplies of very
valuable material, which could not be obtained from any other source.
Neither the engines nor the supplies have yet been paid for, as we
were unable to get the bills.
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Road
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The road is now in admirable condition, with the
exception of bad rails; which unfortunately we cannot remedy. It is
now impossible to procure new ones. We have endeavored to buy, but
there are many who would purchase -- none who will sell. The only
rolling mills in the Confederacy capable of turning out rail road iron
have been controlled by the government, and part of the time have been
actually engaged in rolling new rail road iron into plates for
gunboats, while there was not a road in the Confederacy but would
gladly have exchanged its worn out iron and paid a handsome sum
besides; and thus furnished the government with materials in every way
as good for its purposes. The superstructure is now sound; 92,224
sills have been put in. Ditches have been opened and embankments
enlarged, so that the road from Hillsboro' west has never been in a
more secure and thorough condition. The bridges have been inspected --
some of them repaired, and all will be thoroughly overhauled. At
present they are perfectly safe.
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Shops
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As heretofore, the value of this part of your property
cannot be too highly estimated; the quantity and quality of work
turned out here is equal to that of any other corporation; yet there
are some improvements imperatively demanded. We need a round house for
the protection of our engines. The present shed is for the purpose
intended a miserable abortion. So great is the difficulty of getting
an engine into it and out of it, that it is scarcely ever used, and
the consequence is that unless your engines can find a space in the
end of the car shed, they remain exposed to the weather. And in case
of fire it would be impossible to save more than one or two. Again,
the unnecessary expense of the present concern is very great. The
hands employed at work on the engines are so scattered that they
cannot be worked to advantage, and receive the proper oversight. An
engine going out in the morning must be fired up the night before, to
enable it to get on the road in time to take its train; thus consuming
an eighth of a cord of wood to no practical purpose.
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We propose, by consent of the stockholders, to build a
Round House, south-west from the carpenter shops, and adjoining the
same; use the present engine shed as a car and paint shop; transfer a
part of the machinery now in the repair shop to the present wood shop,
thus adding greatly to our facilities for repairs, and the security of
your property.
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Buildings at Shops
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The number of houses needed for residences of your
employees is far too few. The greatly increased transportation on the
road requires a much greater number of operatives in all departments.
These should all live near their work; but at present, for want of
accommodations, they are necessarily compelled to seek shelter at
Graham, and in the surrounding country. This accommodation is very
limited, and we are compelled, for want of men, to keep engines and
cars in the shops when we might have them on the road.
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Again, your employees who have residences here are very
much dissatisfied. They have no schools for the education of their
children; and no churches in which to worship God. Living in the midst
of christian men, they are debarred from christian privileges; and
your best men will leave you for other places where these great
advantages may be enjoyed. The question then arises, will you build
these additional residences, these school houses and these churches?
or will you permit others to build them? All will admit their
necessity; and they ought to be built. It is for the stockholders to
decide.
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Negroes
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I again urge upon you the necessity of the road owning
its own hands. Think for a moment, when peace comes -- and come it
must, what great demand there will be for labor to cultivate the wheat
farms of Virginia; the corn lands of North Carolina; the rice fields
of South Carolina and Georgia, the cotton and sugar plantations of the
south. So many negroes have been stolen by our treacherous foes that
the demand for them will be far greater than aver before, and the
difficulties heretofore in obtaining a force to keep up your road will
b e increased to a ten fold extent. And I have no hesitation in
recommending you to purchase even at present prices, which are
moderate when compared with every thing else, and which I do not
believe will be half as much as negroes will be worth at the close of
the war.
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Wood and Water
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On the Western Division of the Road we have a fair supply
of both. On the Eastern but little wood, yet we hope a sufficiency of
water. The exigencies of the war, by taking the labor out of the
country has borne very heavily upon us. The most of the owners of
lands along the line of the road own but few slaves; and so great is
the demand for labor for farming purposes that scarcely any one can be
found who is willing to get cross ties and wood. Many persons are
unwilling to cut down their timber, and unless some inducement other
than money is offered to them it cannot be procured. We have bought
five tracts of land, and hope in some degree at least to be
independent. We have dug new wells at Raleigh and Durham's, and have
an unfailing supply at Hillsboro', brought directly into the tank
through pipes.
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Loss and Damage
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When it is considered what a vast amount of freight has
been carried during the past year; and how much the value of all
freight has been increased; and the dilapidated and insecure condition
of the cars, it is not to be wondered at that your Loss and Damage
account is a large one. The chief causes of loss have been fire,
running off the track, and thefts. Six cars loaded with cotton, one
with manufactured tobacco, and one baggage car on the passenger train,
have been burned by sparks from the locomotives. Considerable damage
has been sustained by cars running off the track, caused frequently by
bad axles; the cars were broken and the freight destroyed and
stolen. Not only have the cars been broken into, but also your
ware-houses. Liquor, bacon, salt, sugar, tobacco, corn, &c.,
&c., have disappeared. The value of one barrel of the former now,
would have paid your whole loss and damage account two years ago. Many
claims are yet unadjusted, and it would be safe to say that the
account is not more than half as large as it really should be.
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General Remarks
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I think the State and Stockholders may be congratulated
that the success of their road is now beyond what the most sanguine of
its friends ever anticipated; and its prospects for the future are
very bright. Not only have they realized handsome dividends, but their
road is in good order; much better than at the commencement of the
war; their stock of supplies for the future is very good; their motive
power nearly as good as new, and the most of their rolling stock in
fair order; while their debt is but a triffle, with a sinking fund
fully equal to discharge it, the day it falls due. To the Confederacy
its advantages are incalculable; it has answer every demand made by
the government upon it; for a while it was the only mode of
communication between the army and its supplies; and its employees
have contributed in no slight degree to the successful efforts of
their brethren in the field.
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One of the chief Quartermasters writes me
June 19th: "Your road has been doing nobly." Our efforts
being thus appreciated by the government, we can safely adopt the
language of the Superintendent of the Montgomery & West Point Rail
Road:
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"The time has passed when Rail Roads can be
considered as the property of soulless corporation, worked alone for
the benefit of the stockholders; the exigencies of war have made them
a part of the great military system of the country. In the
inauguration of the government, the Rail Road interest of the
Confederacy voluntarily tendered for its support the sue of five
thousand miles of railway, and the influence of one hundred and
eight millions of capital, and since that time setting aside the
demands of private interests -- regardless of the depreciation of
their property -- overcoming difficulties heretofore deemed
insurmountable -- to the full extent of their capacity, and indeed
developing a capacity never before supposed to exist -- have they
answered every demand made by the government upon them."
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I again take pleasure in bearing record to the faithful
performance of the varied and different duties of all the officers and
employees of the Company. The accomplishment of a business of such
unusual magnitude, surrounded with difficulties, is of itself a
sufficient testimonial of their faithfulness.
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Respectfully submitted,
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Thomas Webb
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Pres't.
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