| From the Columbus (Ga.) Times |
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| January 16, 1865 |
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| Rail Roads |
| The occupation of Savannah
renders very desirable some modification of our rail road system in
South Carolina and Georgia. |
| The Rail road line from
Wilmington to Augusta makes a detour at Branchville precisely in the
wrong direction, because towards the coast. From Kingsville, by
Columbus, to August, would be no farther than by Branchville to Augusta,
and would give a much safer line. Cannot the link between Columbia and
Augusta be put in? The distance as measured on the map, is about
seventy-five miles. The rail road as it stands, however, is, from
Augusta to Aiken, almost in a direct line to Columbia; making Aiken a
point of junction, would shorten the distance seventeen miles, or reduce
the whole, say to sixty miles. We should thus have a safe, direct line
from Augusta to Columbia, where a choice of roads leading hitherward
would be had, by Wilmington, or Charlotte and Danville. |
| Still further up is Abbeville,
which is in rail road connection with Columbia; and opposite to it in
Georgia is Athens, which is in connection with the Augusta and Atlanta
rail road. These points are by the map about sixty-five miles apart. If
they, too, were connected, we should have another and a more interior
line between Georgia and the Eastern States. |
| It should be an object to
remove the superstructure of rail roads no longer serviceable, and
employ the materials upon connections adapted to the changed state of
affairs. Large portions of the rail roads leading to Savannah are now
unserviceable, and, indeed, can be of advantage only to the enemy. Other
rail roads are, or may become, in like condition. We should be as
studious to dismantle these as to bring off the baggage train of an
army; nay, more so. Slaves ought to be impressed in sufficient numbers
to complete with dispatch the new connections which become eligible. If
we construct these with judgment and in time, it will not be in the
power of the enemy to cripple our communications. |
| Richmond Sentinel |
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