| From the Greensboro (N. C.) Patriot |
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| April 10, 1862 |
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| Danville Connection |
| ????? company which said ordinance was
passed &c., be and the same is hereby sanctioned and a right to
construct the said road within the limits of this state according to
the provisions of the aforesaid charter hereby conferred on the
Company, to be incorporated under the said Charter. |
| Resolved that if the Corporators to be
organized under said ordinance accept the provisions of this act, it
shall be upon the condition that the said Piedmont Railroad Company
shall not have power to discriminate in either freight or travel,
against the Richmond & Danville Railroad, or any other railroad in
Virginia connected therewith. And upon the further condition that the
connection of said Piedmont Railroad with the Richmond & Danville
hereby authorized, shall be made at some point south of Dan River at
or near the town of Danville, unless in the opinion of the President
of the Confederate States, the military interests of the country
require such connection to be made elsewhere, in which event, such
connection may be made at such point as the President of the
Confederate States shall approve. |
| We publish the above as containing the ??ees
of the Va. Legislation on the subject of the Piedmont Railroad; a
subject which our people feel a deep interest in. |
| To locate the road on any other route than
from Danville direct to Greensboro, would disappoint in reality both
the friends and the enemies of the measure; because the friends of
this great measure, when they discovered that the enemies of the road
had secured their own near relative to take the surveys, they were
well nigh giving up their superior route. The enemies of the road
would be surprised that their attempts to mislead the authorities had
succeeded so well. None interested in the direct route from Danville
to Greensboro could ever be satisfied of the fairness of the survey
now in progress. We now feel satisfied that no route farther east than
a line from Greensboro to Danville will ever be selected by the
President on the score of a national military necessity. |
| We are advised and do believe that
President Davis is an honest man; that will locate the road purely from
national military necessity, and when he locates, he will take that
route farthest from the eastern roads, now in danger of falling into
the hands of our enemies, and the one closest to the immense
coalfields and iron mines on Dan River, in the counties of Rockingham
and Stokes, in N. C. and Pittsylvania, Henry and Patrick, in Va. |
| The road from Barksdale's to Haw
River, or from Danville to the Company Shops would make no progress
towards these immense fields of mineral wealth, whereas a direct road
from Danville to Greensboro runs within a very few miles of these rich
coal and other mineral deposits, so necessary to the independence of
the Southern Confederacy. |
| There never was a better timbered country,
or one upon which a railroad could be built cheaper than the route
from Danville to Greensboro, if fairly and properly surveyed. Another
consideration why the connection should be made at Greensboro is that
in the immediate neighborhood, have been discovered the richest copper
mines ever opened in the Confederacy; the operations of which have
only been suspended by the war and as soon as the means of smelting
can be procured, will be supplying copper on the road -- to be sent by
the government direct to Richmond, where it is so greatly needed. |
| How ridiculous it would be for the troops
and munitions of war from Pittsylvania, Henry, Patrick, Franklin,
Grayson, and Bedford, that circle of rich and populous counties in
Virginia, intended for the south, first to have to go north on the
Danville road to Barksdale, and then turn south -- or when at Danville
to be forced to take any other direction than south. |
| Greensboro World |
| |
| We concur in the foregoing remarks of our
neighbor. There is no doubt but an accurate survey would find a
road-bed for a railroad from Danville to Greensboro' equal to any in
this Southern country. All impartial men, who will look on any map
ever made including Virginia and North Carolina will say the
connection should be from Danville to Greensboro'. |
| The Piedmont charter provides for an arm
to the Dan River Coalfields and iron beds. Of what avail will this
wise and patriotic provision be, if any route east of the line shall
be selected? Can any one doubt, taking all things into consideration,
that on our route the connection would be made sooner than on any
other? It would thus fall into the hands of men who are the real
friends of the improvements, and who will work in real earnest for its
speedy completion, and who have the energy and means to secure this
speedily. Any route east of this true line, would throw the work in
the hands and under the control of men, who have, by their votes and
conduct heretofore, shown the most bitter hostility to this road, and
who, we regret to believe are using the pretence of location to
strangle the whole project. |
| At Danville there is no bridge to build
over Dan River. This has already been built by the Richmond &
Danville Road. If the gentlemen having charge of the survey, had
consulted the old settlers on the real route, who are familiar with
all the streams, hills, valleys, roads, hog and cow-paths, they would
have pointed this engineer to a route that would have been measurably
free from all costly bridge building. There is such a route.
This is well known to all the old inhabitants between Greensboro' and
Danville. No surveyors at all familiar with the face of the
intermediate country would ever stretch a chain on the line run or
rode over by the present surveyors. |
| We concur in the opinion that the
President is an hones man and if he will discard advices coming from
those who have so long fought this improvement, and order the road to
be constructed at once from Danville to Greensboro', he will have that
command obeyed, and time will soon prove the wisdom of the command.
Could we see the President, we would suggest to him to ask the friends
of other routes, How have you heretofore stood towards this
improvement, for it or against it? |
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