| From the Memphis Appeal |
| |
| January 12, 1861 |
| |
| Opening of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad |
| On Thursday evening a number
of the aldermen of this city, accompanied by influential citizens,
left the Charleston railroad depot for Corinth, Miss., there to offer
to the visitors from Mobile -- on an excursion from that city in honor
of the completion of the Mobile & Ohio railroad to that place -- a
tender of the hospitalities of the city of Memphis. The train was
under the care of Superintendent T. H. Bunch, and of conductor Thos.
B. Dunn. The morning was sunny and beautiful. The company were soon
engaged in warm discussions on secession, co-operation, Union,
submission. As it began to wax warmer than a convivial society
allowed, Superintendent Bunch effected a diversion by explaining that
certain demijohns and baskets in the baggage room contained various
chemical compounds not beneath the dignity of aldermen to examine and
test. With admirable devotion to science the company complied with
great advantage to the development of their kindlier emotions. Finding
that an occasional attention to chemical analysis an agreeable
relaxation from politics, the investigations were from time to time
renewed with a devotion that doubtless added to their knowledge if not
to their wisdom. At Grand Junction the party were joined by Mayor
Baugh and other gentlemen, and the entire delegation dined at the
Adams house. |
| Toward evening the train
reached the neighborhood of Corinth, where the mayor of that city,
James E. Montgomery, Esq., with other gentlemen and aldermen of the
city, came on board and paid their respects to the delegation from
Memphis. Thy were politely introduced into the baggage car, and there
entered with considerable zest into the chemical experiments there
going on; after which Mayor Stewart tendered to the mayor and board of
aldermen of Memphis, at some future period, the hospitalities of the
mayor and city council of Corinth, and with the Corinth gentlemen took
his leave. The night was spent at the railroad hotel under auspices
not generally favorable to sleep. Between three and four in the
morning all were awakened to attend the arrival of the train from
Mobile. The military of the place were assembled to do honor to the
occasion, and as soon as the Mobile train came into view, the
thunderings of cannon and the sharp rattle of musketry proclaimed the
arrival of the first train from Mobile to the city of Corinth. The
visitors were also saluted with the music of the military drum and
fife. At this point of the junction of the two roads R. D. Baugh,
Esq., mayor of Memphis, extended a genial and well worded welcome to
the delegation from Mobile, and an invitation to the gentlemen
composing it to accept the hospitalities of the Bluff City. |
| Gentlemen, Delegates from the City of
Mobile: |
| I, together with the
board of aldermen of the city of Memphis, am deputed to tender you an
invitation to our city to partake of our hospitalities, as a
celebration of the union of the two great commercial points of the
South. We are proud to be united with you, and we meet you here to
congratulate you upon the completion of your road; looking upon it as
an indispensable link in the great chain of railroads whose
construction is now so desirable, and indeed essential to the future
prosperity and safety of the South, we know that your design in the
construction of this road was the extension and development of the
commerce of your now prosperous city, and for the accommodation and
comfort of the citizens of that State of which every southerner is
justly proud. With sorrow and reluctance, I must admit that the signs
of the times indicate that it may soon be used for a very different,
yet higher and nobler purpose, the defense of that which is dearer to
us than life itself, "Southern rights and Southern honor." |
| Gentlemen, while Tennessee may
differ with her more southern sister States in the mode and manner of
redressing her wrongs and vindicating her rights, you must not think
her the less patriotic or devoted to our common interests. She moves
slowly but surely in the right course, and when the time arrives, will
be foremost in the defense of our common cause. When a hostile blow is
struck, whether it be against Alabama or any other Southern State, and
whether that State be in or out of the Union, you will find fifty
thousand of the gallant sons of Tennessee up in arms and ready to rush
to the scene of action. Need I here recount their heroic deeds, or
indorse their valor, or their chivalry? Read the history of the
battles of Talladega, of the Horse Shoe and New Orleans, and you will
find recorded living evidences of Tennessee bravery. |
| Gentlemen, I again tender you
the invitation -- welcome, welcome, thrice welcome to the
hospitalities of the city of Memphis. |
| |
| On the invitation of Sam.
Tate, Esq., L. J. Fleming, Esq., the active and able engineer and
general superintendent of the Mobile & Ohio railroad, broke off
the neck of a bottle of foaming champagne by striking it on the rails
of the road; Mr. Tate did the same with a second, and Mayor Baugh with
a third. From these glasses were filled, and various toasts offered by
Mr. Fleming, Mayor Baugh, Col. Tate and others, and were drank with
warm enthusiasm. Among the toasts were the following: From Mr. Fleming
-- "Cities of Mobile and Memphis: Once strangers, but made, by
the completion of this road, friends and neighbors." From Mayor
Baugh -- "The Ladies of Mobile: The railroad is a far stretching
hand of friendship, but their bosoms are the homes of deep-seated
affection." From Col. Tate -- "The Union of the Mobile &
Ohio, and the Memphis & Charleston railroads: May it be perpetual,
and may its relations be as harmonious as its connections are
firm." The same gentleman also gave -- "The Press of Mobile
and Memphis: May they ever be alert, and keep the people well
posted." Other toasts were drunk, many of them containing
allusions witty, graceful or patriotic to the peculiar and disturbed
condition of our national affairs. |
| It was stated that owing to
events then progressing in Mobile, (events doubtless connected with
the march of volunteers to that place at the call of the governor,)
the mayor and corporation of that city had been unable to carry out
their original intention of visiting Memphis. One of the board of
council alone, J. M. Mulden, Esq., had found it possible to attend,
the stern call of duty at a crisis of no ordinary character had
detained them. At the conclusion of these interesting ceremonies, the
mayor of Memphis was presented with a bouquet of camellias and other
flowers, whose rich colors and graceful forms were strangers to us.
The flowers had been plucked and the beautiful bouquet wreathed by a
lady in Mobile the day before. It was brought in a vessel of water and
not a petal or a leaf had withered. |
| These ceremonies at the
meeting of the rails -- ceremonies that in future years will be
regarded with intense interest, not only from their own proper
interest, but from the remarkable time at which they occurred, a time
when each day witnessed the fall of a star from the flag of the once
United States -- these ceremonies, we remark, had something peculiar
in their transaction, from the fact that the veil of night yet
lingered upon the earth; the heavens above were covered by dark and
heavy clouds; the bottles were opened, the glasses clinked, the brief
words of welcome received and accepted, by the "lantern dimly
burning." It was a sight that had a strong infusion of the poetic
element in it to see the representatives of Alabama and Tennessee
standing on Mississippi soil -- soil that had only the previous day
been torn by the will of its owners from the American Union -- and
commemorating with hospitable rites the consummation of a great work,
a triumph of modern skill and energy, by the struggling light that
brought each face out in strong relief, stamping with deep lines the
expression of deep earnestness and genial feeling which made heart
pulsate to heart. |
| At the conclusion of these
ceremonies the Mobile and the Tennessee gentlemen entered the cars,
which were soon dashing along on the return to Memphis. Introductions
were made among the company thus come together. Glad feelings were
expressed, and the expressions reciprocated -- acquaintance was
formed, and sentiments compared, and especially the grand chemical
investigations were carried on with new ardor, an ardor the visitors
of the gulf were not slow to share -- what explosions, ebullitions,
escape of confined gases, effervescences and other chemical effects
were produced with untiring industry, surpasses our small stock of
science to tell. At length the city was reached and the gusts were
safely landed at the depot. Here J. M. Crews, Esq., who held the
position of acting mayor during the absence of Col. Baugh, again
welcomed the visitors. In a very neat speech he extended to the ladies
and gentlemen present from Mobile a warm and earnest welcome to the
city of Memphis. He congratulated them upon the completion of their
splendid line of railroad to the city of Corinth. The citizens of
Memphis, by means of the facilities this great enterprise offer, would
soon become acquainted with the faces and smiles of those with whom
distance had hitherto made them strangers; the people of the two
cities would now be frequent guests at each other's firesides. With an
expression of regret that circumstances should have arisen to sever
national ties so long maintained with patriotic pride and unswerving
devotion, the speaker concluded. |
| He was replied to by Col.
Baker, of Mobile, who cordially thanked the speaker and the people of
Memphis for their hearty welcome, a kindness the citizens of Mobile
would be proud of. Memphis was a place the people of Mobile had heard
much of, and had long desired to see, but its great distance in the
interior forbade the hope to the far greater proportion of them, until
the completion of the event they were celebrating. Now, form the
extreme of southern Alabama, form Mobile, friends in Memphis could be
greeted in twenty-four hours. Alabama had engaged in this enterprise
fifteen years ago, and it was one of the most extensive and wide
reaching of the kind in America -- in the world. But fifteen miles
more of iron required laying down and the whole vast design of the
Mobile & Ohio road was complete. His aged friend, now present,
Col. Gaines, had at the start of the enterprise, personally engaged in
canvassing for subscriptions to the stock. When he expressed, as he
habitually did, his belief that the whole vast work would be
completed, and that in spite of his white locks, he should live to see
it, he was listened to with the completest incredulity, yet the mighty
enterprise is complete, and here stands Col. Gaines, conveyed by it to
the banks of the Mississippi this day. The political position of the
country at the present moment was one of extreme difficulty; the road
just finished, added a bond to perfect the union of the South and
supplied valuable physical aid that fast coming events might make of
great value. He was not an extremist, but late events had taught him
that the Union to confide in was the Union of Alabama, Mississippi,
Tennessee and Kentucky -- four States into all of which the Mobile
& Ohio road extended. These States were now united by the iron
bond -- would they ever become severed in their political and social
relations? He trusted not. They were bonded together, and if
necessary, all would strike the mighty blow that would set them free.
He thanked the acting mayor and the citizens for their cordial
greeting. He and his fellow travelers were rejoiced to find themselves
in so beautiful a city, and he hoped the acquaintance this day begun
would prove strong and lasting. A brilliant air burst from a band of
music in attendance as soon as these ceremonies were concluded, and
the gusts were conveyed to their quarters at the Gayoso. |
| The railway was finished to
Corinth on Wednesday last. The space that yet remains to be ironed
(fifteen miles) lies beyond that city; the track-laying was carried on
from Columbus, Kentucky, in the direction of Corinth, and the two
division have not yet met. This is the longest main trunk line that
exists in America or the world; its entire length is four hundred and
seventy-four miles, reaching from Mobile, on the Gulf of Mexico, to
Columbus, on the Mississippi, twenty miles below the confluence of the
Ohio. It runs through four different States, as explained by Col.
Baker, and the flag which floated from the mast of the locomotive
which made the first complete trip from Mobile to Corinth, bore upon
its silken surface the insignia and emblazonments of Alabama,
Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. |
| The completion of this road is
largely due to the untiring energy of L. J. Fleming, Esq., who for the
last four years has had the entire charge of its construction, and to
the efforts of Hon. Milton Brown, its able president and financier,
who took charge of it in its darkest hour of trouble, and who has
successfully carried it through the serious financial embarrassments
that have devastated the commerce of the country during his
administration. To these untiring gentlemen, the directors, the stock
holders, and the country at large are indebted to their zeal and
self-devotion. The city of Mobile has a right to be proud to have
conceived, and to have conducted to successful operation so vast an
undertaking, which will prove to be her life's blood -- the great
artery of her commerce. It will bring into her lap the rich trade of
the interior of the heart of the Mississippi valley, and place her
within forty-eight hours connection of the principal points in the
Union, the benefits and advantages of which will be incalculable. The
great object in view in starting this project, was that it should be a
benefit to the entire country; as things have turned out, it will
prove a most important accessory to the growth, and advancement, and
success of the new confederation. This first train brought along a
hogshead of fine fresh fish from the gulf, consisting of the pompause,
sheepshead, redfish, and various other kinds; also, some barrels of
the celebrated Mobile oysters, the most delicious that are found on
the coast of America. A great and profitable trade will doubtless
spring up in these and various tropical productions between the two
cities. |
| Among the visitors present we
note the names of ex-Governor Whitfield, of Mississippi; Col. Gaines,
his lady, and his niece, Miss Mary B. Bullock -- the former the
brother and the latter the grand-daughter of the celebrated Gen.
Gaines, of New Orleans; W. X. Walten, a mayor of Aberdeen; Col. R. A.
Baker, R. C. Clarke, Esq., both of Mobile; J. M. Mulden, Esq., of
Mobile; Col. Joseph Austill, of Mobile, the sole survivor of the
celebrated battle of Canoe, fought on the Alabama river, with the
Indians; John J. Dew, Esq., editor of the Huntsville (Ala.) Independent,
and H. C. Ferris, Esq., editor of the Macon (Miss.) Beacon. |
| At night an agreeable
ball was got up at the Gayoso, with such hospitalities as it became
the citizens of Memphis to offer and those of Mobile to receive. At a
late hour the company were still enjoying, with great zest, the
festivities of the occasion. |
|