| From the Augusta Constitutionalist |
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| July 25, 1862 |
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| A Plea for the Soldier |
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The following communication, which we find in the
Southern Guardian, of a recent date, contains such an important and
proper suggestion, that, although the hint has been taken by the
Railroad company to which it directly refers, we republish it in our
columns, for the benefit of other railroad companies, to whom it may
still apply. The evil
referred to is a very great one, and should, by all means, be speedily
remedied. If not, then the
Government should take charge of the delinquent roads, and see that
the sick and wounded soldiers receive proper treatment in the cars.
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| The following is the
communication referred to above: |
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| A Plea for the Soldiers |
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To the President and Directors of the South Carolina
Railroad:
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| Gentlemen, |
| Impelled both by duty and feeling, I address this
communication to you, trusting to have the evil to which I intend to
refer remedied immediately. Our
soldiers have for some time past been constantly arriving in
Columbia
in a sick and suffering condition.
They are crowded into an unnecessarily small number of cars,
and in order to avoid the small trouble of putting an additional car
or two on the track, the poor fellows who have the misfortune to get
in last (the seats being already over crowded) are compelled to sit
and lie on the floor of the cars, many of them burning with fever and
faint with feebleness, and this too in mid-summer, when railroad cars
are like ovens at the best. Now,
add to this, that they only get water to drink on the road as far as Kingsville, and that from thence the cry for “water, water,” is unnoticed,
unanswered, until the sick, fainting, suffering fellows arrive in Columbia. As soldiers are not
allowed to leave the cars at all, they are unable at the stopping
places to procure it for themselves.
One poor fellow gave a negro boy fifty cents to get a glass of
water for him; the boy went, but, the cars starting immediately after,
his money was gone and his thirst unslaked.
The conductor promised to have a bucket of water brought in,
but never fulfilled his promise. Gentlemen,
is water so expensive, and are you yourselves so poor, that you are
unable to obey the christian maxim of giving “a cup of cold water”
to our sick men? Are you
aware that you are out-Yankeying the Yankees, for even they refuse not
the cup of cold water to sick and thirsty travellers, but have always
at hand in each car a large cooler of ice water, so that no passenger
is kept waiting for this necessary of life a moment?
Are you unable to do this, or unwilling?
If so, I speak for my sisters of South Carolina, request, nay, demand, that our men be taken proper care of on your
railroad cars. They are
our soldiers, and shall not suffer if we can help it.
From the commencement of the war we have worked, prayed, and
wept, and made sacrifices of every sort and kind for them, but there
are some things a woman cannot do.
She cannot go on the cars to take care of them, and there is
little doubt the consequence has been the loss of many lives of
soldiers valuable to the Confederacy.
It is as much your duty, as President and Directors of the
road, to have you passengers taken care of and their comfort attended
to, as it is that of a steamboat captain on board his boat to see
after his passengers. Conductors
should be expected not merely to receive their passengers’ money,
but to care for their comfort, and at least supply water to drink. |
| I earnestly hope and trust this communication will be
attended to; if not, one more method will be resorted to.
You are paid by government — to government will we apply.
A petition shall be drawn up and sent to every part of the
State, to get the signature of every lady in the land to this purport:
1st, That a heavy penalty be paid for every car
found to contain more than a certain number of soldiers.
2d, That a heavy penalty be attached to every car found without
a sufficient supply of water night and day, always on hand. |
| The war has so absorbed the attention of all women,
that the name even of the President of the railroad is unknown to me,
as well as that of the Directors; I write, therefore, the more
fearlessly and impartially, and trust that not a word more will be
necessary from |
| A Woman, |
| “For God and our country.” |
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| The Southern Guardian of the day following says,
editorially: |
| The South Carolina Railroad |
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We published yesterday morning a communication, signed
“A Woman,” relative to the suffering and inconvenience which our
soldiers are subjected to between
Kingsville
and
Columbia
. |
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We are authorised by the President of the road to say,
that prompt measures have been taken to remedy the defect complained
of. The superintendent of
the road has been notified to supply each car with a cask of water,
and to limit the number of passengers in each car. We are gratified to
announce these facts authoritatively. |
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We hope that the example of the President of the South
Carolina Railroad will be speedily followed by all the other Southern
roads. |
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