| From the Charleston Mercury |
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| November 30, 1863 |
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| Baltimore & Ohio Railroad |
| The following, from the late
report of the President of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company,
will show the attentions paid to the great thoroughfare of supply and
communication of the enemy, by our military in that quarter: |
| The large and costly machine
shops and engine houses at Martinsburg were greatly damaged, fourteen
locomotives and tenders, and a large number of cars, much machinery
from the shops, and portions of nine additional engines, were taken
from the road and transported by animal power over turnpikes to
Southern railways, and thus entirely lost to the company. Forty-two
locomotives and tenders, three hundred and eight-six cars, chiefly
coal, twenty-three bridges (including three between Cumberland and
Wheeling, three on the Northwestern Virginia Railroad, and the great
bridge at Harper Ferry), embracing one hundred and twenty-seven spans,
and a total length of four thousand seven hundred and thirty feet,
were also destroyed or damaged to a great extent by fire, and numerous
engines and cars were thrown into the Potomac, the Opequon and other
streams. Thirty-six and a half miles of track were torn up, and the
iron and track fixtures removed for use on Southern roads. The lines
of telegraph for one hundred and two miles, two water stations, and
much other valuable property, were also destroyed. |
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