| Annual Report of the South Carolina RR |
| as of January 1, 1866, |
| President's Report |
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| Report of the President and Directors
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| Office of the South Carolina Railroad
Company |
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Charleston, February 7, 1866
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To the Stockholders of the South Carolina Railroad Company:
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The usual annual report of the president ant directors is
respectfully submitted, together with that of the superintendent, and
the statements of the auditor. It is hardly necessary to mention that
there was no meeting held in February last, as called in Columbia, for
reasons so generally known. The present direction, as provided for in
the charter, continued to administer the affairs of the company to the
present time, restrained in their disposition to call together the
stockholders at an earlier period, by the discouraging prospect of
success, growing out of the difficulties of their transportation.
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The period immediately preceding the date at which the
last meeting should have been held, and extending to the 19th day of
June last, was a blank in the history of the company. The separated
upper ends of our lines were alone in our possession, and these, for
all practical purposes, were valueless to us from various
considerations -- chiefly from the irregular disposition of our means
of transportation, and the lack of paying business in the disorganized
condition of the State.
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On the 17th of February, under an imperative military
order, all the locomotives, cars, and movable property of the company
at the time in Charleston were withdrawn, and after being hauled on
the Northeastern, Cheraw & Darlington and Wilmington railroads,
from point to point, as circumstances demanded, were finally located
on the Camden branch, beyond which they could not be carried because
of the destruction of the Wateree bridge. There this property remained
safely in charge, personally, of the general superintendent, until
about the 20th of April, when an expedition under General Potter, from
the coast, destroyed most of it for present use, though many of the
locomotives may be repaired.
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In like manner and for similar reasons, and at the same
time, all the property of the company which happened to be at
Columbia, on the approach of General Sherman's army, capable of being
moved, was withdrawn to the Charlotte {&
South Carolina} road, and has there remained to this date.
Beyond the natural deterioration resulting from exposure and
occasional depredations, impossible to guard against when property was
strung along a line of over fifty miles, no injury has been sustained
by what was brought out of Columbia. But the damage inflicted upon
what was left at that place, and upon the line above Orangeburg, on
the Columbia branch, and above the Edisto river on the Hamburg
division, was painfully great. At Columbia all the shops, depots, and
buildings of every description, most of the valuable tools, many new
and of the most approved makes, with all the appliances of as complete
a shop, just finished, as, for its design, perhaps the southern
country could exhibit -- all these, together with a very large and
most valuable collection of material, obtained only with great
difficulty and at great expense, were utterly destroyed. On the line
of the road between the points indicated, with rare exceptions, the
entire wooden structures, cross-ties, culverts, station houses, water
tanks, experienced a like fate; and the rails burnt, twisted, and bent
into shapes utterly baffling all efforts at restoration. Thus
generally are presented the disastrous effects of the movements of the
armies across the State, and from which this company, with the other
important interests of the State, has suffered so severely. For
particular information respecting the losses and injuries sustained by
the property, reference is requested to the report of the
superintendent.
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*****
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Respectfully, &c., &c.,
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W. J. Magrath
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President
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