| From the Railway World |
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| October 7, 1899 |
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| Notes of the Week |
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There have been various stories written about the
stealing of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad engines at Martinsburg, W. Va., during the rebellion, and their
transfer across the country for service on Southern railroads by Col
Thomas Sharp, who is still living in Ohio. Recently an official of
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad made some inquiries of old
employees who were at Martinsburg at the time the incident happened
and they say that on June 19, 1861, 200 men of
General Stonewall Jackson's command were detailed to destroy the
Baltimore & Ohio's equipment at Martinsburg. They piled wood and
coal over 41 engines and nearly 400 cars, and then set fire to
them. Only ten or twelve of the engines, however, were seriously
damaged, and those not by the fire, but because the water was first
let out of the boilers. Col. Sharp arrived in Martinsburg on August 18, 1861
{Agent Sharp first arrived in Martinsburg on
July 1, 1861}, and remained there until the following March
{He was in charge of the operation until May
25, but was frequently in other locations -- Richmond, Manassas,
etc}, engaged in removing engines, machinery, etc. He took
eight engines across the country over the turnpike, either to
Staunton, Winchester or Strasburg (and there are some historians who
disagree on this point), 32 horses being required
to haul each engine. He also removed all the duplicate parts of
engines and cars, and all the rough iron at the station, and took
away all the machinery and tools which were afterward used
in Southern arsenals. The country around Martinsburg is extremely
hilly, and the work of getting the engines over the country roads
required considerable engineering ability. It has been reported in
late years that one of the locomotives was the Winans camel-back,
No. 99, which at that time was numbered 77, but Col. Sharp did not
care for this class of engine and took only ten-wheel and passenger
engines. There was only one eight-wheel locomotive taken, and that
was No.34. Some years after the war Col. Sharp was employed on the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad as master of transportation. |
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{also found in The Marietta (Ohio) Daily
Leader of October 1, 1899 and the Petersburg (Ohio) Journal
of October 27, 1899} |
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