| From the Raleigh Confederate |
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| February 7, 1865 |
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| Rail Roads |
| There is a universal condemnation because
of the reckless bad management of these corporations. If bad
Quartermasters, Commissaries, Enrolling officers and the scattered
subordinates throughout the land, have brought, in many cases,
reproach onto the government, and by evil conduct put in peril the
success of the cause; if deserters have abandoned the ranks to become
a prey upon their home people, they are not the only or the worst foes
to the revolution, that the Confederacy has produced. Railroad
corporation, which ought to have been the especial friend of
the government, those fostered and favored corporations which have
been allowed extraordinary immunity, in keeping their friends and
favorites out of the service. Yet this is far from being the case;
most of them have out "Heroded Herod" in their sordid
grasping and extortionate greed for money making. It has been common
for them to hold at the disposal of speculators their running stock,
not unfrequently to the delay of government freight, and in some
instances, to the detention of troops, passing from one point to the
defence of another point of the country. This accommodation has
been carried to such an extent, that the public eye has been offended,
by the open preference given to speculators, not for the transmission
of luxuries only; but when they were engaged in buying up the
necessaries of life, in localities where they were scarce, to be
transmitted to other places for exorbitant gain. The officers of
railroad corporations, who connive at these abominable practices, are
no better friends to the Confederacy than Sherman or Grant, and if we
fail, the downfall of our people may be laid, in no small degree, to
their charge. |
| Besides this criminal misconduct, the
gross neglect, mismanagement and carelessness and the utter disregard
of the comfort of travelers is matter of universal complaint. |
| If any one wishes to pass through, just
that amount of torture that is in supportable, let him take a trip on
the North Carolina Railroad, towards Greensboro', and, thence, over
the Piedmont to Danville. Great allowance is to be made for the times,
and the difficulties of keeping up the condition of roads. But neither
the times no the condition of roads excuse a total abandonment of
order, method, ??? regularity and comfort. When an Engine comes from
Goldsboro' towards Raleigh, broken down, and thence starts for
Greensboro, there is neither reason or sense in the endeavor to force
it through at the hazard of life to all aboard; certainly to the
prolongation of their travel, when Engines are standing, in better
plight at Company Shops, and there are telegraph stations along the
route. A few nights ago, we had occasion to witness such an operation.
The train was long and full; many soldiers returning to their
commands. The Engine on leaving Raleigh was completely broken down, so
that the speed attained averaged about two miles per hour. It was easy
to telegraph from Raleigh so as to have a good Engine to meet the
train at Durham's. Yet this simple act of justice, to a heavily taxed
traveling public, was wholly ignored, and we were compelled to fret
and worry along through the cold bitter night, consuming twenty four
hours in reaching Greensboro, the better engine only reaching us near
Haw river? As for cleanliness or comfort, they are gone out of date --
out of recollection -- and if any unfortunate passenger should desire
to obtain information, and applied to the conductor, he might as well
attack a bull dog. But if this is the condition of things on the North
Carolina Road, when we come to speak of the Piedmont, a h our pen
refuses the task. There they run by telegraph, and the result is,
that, between Greensboro and Danville, one is engaged from ten to
fifteen hours in "waiting for orders." If he is
fortunate enough to get orders to move on he may if he can keep the
track, succeed in getting through in a week or ten days. |
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