| Annual Report of the Wilmington & Weldon RR |
| as of June 1, 1865, |
| Superintendent's Report |
| |
| Report of the Chief Engineer and
Superintendent |
| Wilmington & Weldon Rail Road |
| Wilmington, N. C., July 26th, 1865 |
| |
| To S. D. Wallace, Esq., President |
| |
| Sir, |
|
I have the honor to submit the following statement of the affairs of
the Wilmington & Weldon Railway Company to the present date: |
|
There is nothing of especial interest to report from the
beginning of the fiscal year to the evacuation of Wilmington. |
|
As you are aware, the largest portion of our stationary
was, by order of the directory, removed to Magnolia, where temporary
shops had been erected. |
|
To this point I repaired during the night of the 20th of
February, and placed everything in as good working order as it was
possible to do. From this point we continued to operate the line after
the fall of Wilmington (Feb. 22d) to the final capture of the road
south of Goldsboro. |
|
The division of the Road South of Goldsboro' was
surrendered to the U. S. forces under Gen. Terry on the 19th day of
March, in compliance with the enclosed order. |
|
The division North of Goldsboro' was not surrendered to
the troops of the United States -- they unexpectedly failing to move
in that direction. |
|
I had detached (Mr. Smith) my Assistant, with some tools
and a portion of the rolling stock, early in March, to proceed and
operate this division of the Road -- foreseeing that our line would be
cut at Goldsboro'. I had previously selected Enfield as the best point
to fix his temporary repair shops. He repaired to this place and
continued to operate that end of the Road, whilst myself, with some
broken machinery, two broken engines and a few cars, continued to send
off such supplies as the Confederate authorities could collect on the
Southern division. |
|
Mr. Smith reports to me that he continued to work the
North end of the Road until orders were sent him by Gen. Johnston to
remove all his machinery West beyond Raleigh. He attempted to
do so, but was cut off at Raleigh by Sherman's advance. He then fell
back to Weldon with all the stock and tools that had been saved from
destruction by the Confederate troops under Gen. Baker. |
|
From the moment the troops fell back from Kinston and
uncovered the approaches to this Road, I looked upon the Northern
division in quite as much danger of capture as the division South of
Goldsboro', especially as a large portion of the Confederate supplies
were known to be drawn from the country about Tarboro'. In this I was
mistaken -- though not alone mistaken, as I should judge by the
wholesale destruction of Rail Road property made there by the
Confederate forces. |
|
Destroyed |
|
By the Confederate forces about seven miles of track
between Goldsboro' and Wilson. The wanton destruction of the fine
bridges over Tar River, near the end of the Tarboro' Branch, (for no
earthly military reason.) |
|
The bridges over the Fishing and Quanky Creeks, near
Enfield and Halifax, on the main stem. |
|
The burning of about fifty cars, including seven
passenger cars and four locomotive engines at Enfield and
Weldon. The engines and a portion of the cars were burned on the
Roanoke bridge. |
|
***** |
|
Respectfully submitted, |
|
S. L. Fremont |
|
Engineer and Superintendent |