| Head Quarters Dist of the Gulf |
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Engineer Office Mobile Ala |
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March 31st 1863 |
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John T. Milner Sup |
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Civil Engineer |
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Montgomery Ala |
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Dear Sir, |
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I have received your letter of the 18th inst with
enclosures all relating to the damage sustained by the Ala & Fla R. R.
Co of Florida, in the removal or in consequence of the removal of the
iron from a part of their road by the Military Authorities. This damage
being estimated as that sustained by the Company, over and above the
actual value of the iron removed. |
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You say that the mount presented in this behalf by Mr Avery
and amounting to $94,670 is made up upon this principle as a basis for
his estimates that the Government ought to pay his company the probable
cost of putting the Road in as good condition to receive the iron to
day, as it was twelve months ago when the iron was taken up. This amount
covers washings of banks and road beds, rotting of ties, destruction of
bridges &c &c and is predicated upon the present prices of labor and
materials in that section of country. Whereas your instructions [mine]
appear to contemplate only + + + the cost of placing the road bed in as
good a condition for receiving the iron the day after, as it was the day
before it was taken up. |
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I believe that the iron was undisturbed on the road below
Pollard as far as it was safe or desirable to ????? on account of
proximity of the enemy. I assume that trains would not have been run on
that portion of the track necessarily, even though it had been untouched
by the Military Authorities, and it is difficult to understand how the
removal of the rails should have essentially increased the exposure of
the road bed to damages by washing and abrasion. If the local force be
not kept up for the preservation of the integrity of the road bed,
damage which naturally occurs, whether the iron be on or off, would not
this damage have been the same in either case? |
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I was not assume that cross ties were replaced where
unserviceable by the extraction of a spike on rotted fixtures with the
iron off than on but I am not well versed in the minutia of R. R.
Engineering. |
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The destruction of the bridge at Pine Barren Creek, I know
nothing about. However there can be no objection to the ??? of the two
estimates in the same paper. The one estimate based on Mr Avery' claim,
the other on the instructions already received from this office. Please
make your report in that way and oblige. |
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Sir, your obt Sevt |
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D. Leadbetter |
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Brig Genl & Engineer |