| Head Quarters Dept Cape Fear |
| Wilmington N. C. March 29th 1864 |
| |
| Col. F. W. Sims |
| Chief of R. R. Bureau |
| Richmond |
| |
| Colonel, |
| I have your note about the W. & W. R. R.
{Wilmington & Weldon RR} I appreciate the
necessity of assisting them. The drafts on my command are very heavy. I
am engaged in looking up all available assistance in my power to render.
In the meantime I send you a list of men employed at Roberts foundry
here. I will procure information as to similar establishments. I suggest
that as the greater part of these men are employed on Navy work which in
no sense is of a tithe of the importance to the defence or the war as
are the railroads and which on the contrary, by the time, labor,
material, cost and a least in this department utter failure in results
has been & is rather detrimental than otherwise that until the R. R. can
be put in some order these workmen be transferred to the shops. |
| I will send you further lists showing a
great preponderance of mechanics working on these iron gunboats, labor
in my opinion almost entirely thrown away. I can with the greatest
difficulty on this account keep the arsenal & the work absolutely
necessary for the armament of the forts going, and yet the latter is of
importance. At this time & especially this period of the war,
considering both the vital importance or transportation and the
deteriorated condition of the R. R. I think it would be far better to
suspend all work throughout the country on ironclads which from the
experience of the past promise little for the future and turn both the
labor & material upon the R. R. |
| Very Respectfully |
| W. H. C. Whiting |
| Maj Genl |
|