| From the Southern Confederacy (Atlanta,
Ga.) |
| |
| July 12, 1862 |
| |
| The Collision on the State Road
{Western & Atlantic RR} |
| The Intelligencer of
yesterday contains the following official statement from Maj. Rowland. |
| A Card |
| As soon as I heard of
the collision on the Western & Atlantic Railroad, near
Johnson, I went by the first train to the scene of disaster.
After getting up all the testimony, I am well satisfied the down
train was on its proper time at Johnson. The up train, with
soldiers, had got behind its time before getting to Dalton, on
account of its being ordered to stop by the military. When the
train left Dalton it was fifty-five minutes behind the regular
leaving time. The engineer and conductor were both anxious to
get away, and blew the whistle, but were ordered by the military
not to blow again until they ordered it. After this the delay
was five to ten minutes before they started. |
| Two of our most valuable
engines were destroyed, and ten or fifteen cars stove into
fragments and others more or less injured. The engineer and
fireman, both valuable men, were instantly killed, with seven
soldiers, seven negroes, and fourteen horses. |
|
| J. S. Rowland |
| Superintendent |
| |
| The editors of the Intelligencer
make the following comments: |
| With this card, Major Rowland
has placed before us a number of certificates from reliable parties,
obtained during the investigation, from which we arrive at the
conclusion that but for the interference of the military, the trains
which collided -- and by which so fearful a loss of life and of
property have occurred -- would each, in all probability, have passed
safely on to their respective destinations. One of these certify that,
at Adairsville, some of the soldiers on the cars were very unruly, and
that the cars were detained at Cartersville by them, some fifteen
minutes, and were at other points detained also. Another certifies
that at Dalton the Conductor of the train to Chattanooga was ordered
by the officer in command of the troops not to move his train until
his men got water, and that when he got ready he would sound his bugle
for a start. Here an other detention took place. A third certifies
that when the train for Chattanooga arrived at Dalton, it was thirty
minutes behind time -- that he heard officers of the command on board
tell their men to get off and get water, that they had plenty of time
-- that the Conductor had one car loaded for Knoxville to switch off
at Dalton, and when he moved his engine to switch off this car, the
officers assailed him for moving the engine until their men were on
board -- and that, through such interferences, the train was detained,
leaving Dalton fifty-five minutes behind time. The certifier asked the
Conductor why he was kept behind time? The reply was, he could do not
better; that the officers would not let him move the Engine until they
got ready. It is also certified by the same party, he understood the
officer in command at Ringgold stated, if his men had stayed in their
places, or where he had put them they would not have been killed, but
some were on the tender, and some on the bumpers and platforms, where
they went contrary to orders. |
| We have heard many complaints
of the unwarrantable interference of the military authorities in the
running of the trains, and of insubordination and disturbances on the
part of soldiers on the cars. Let this be a warning to all such. We
feel sure that no men nor class of men have been more patriotic during
this war than railroad officers and stockholders. There is no class of
men in the Confederate States whose property has been so much
called into requisition to serve the country, of whose plans and
interests have been more interfered with. In all these demands they
have yielded a cheerful acquiescence, as far as possible. Occasionally
military officials have made demands upon the roads to comply with
which was either physical impossibility, or would result in the
certain destruction of life and property. On no road in this portion
of the Confederate States have greater demands been made than on the
State Road. A compliance with these demands would often have been most
disastrous; and but for the firmness of its efficient officers, we
would have had many a sad sale to record. |
| We suppose the same is true of
every other road in the Confederate States. |
|