| From the Wilmington Journal |
| October 7, 1862 |
| |
| Wilmington & Weldon Railroad Co. |
| Office Engineer & Superintendent |
| Wilmington, Oct. 6, 1862 |
| |
| Messrs. Editors of the Journal: |
| It is due to the Postmaster
General to state that the irregularity of the mails recently along the
Sea Board line has been caused by the yellow fever in this city. |
| It was found absolutely
necessary to discontinue the schedule that required trains to pass
through Wilmington in the night -- hence the delay of a few
hours both ways. The employees must be protected to some
extent. All we could do. It was a question of humanity. It
may have saved many valuable lives -- not only of employees but of
passengers. |
| The Postmaster General readily
consented to the arrangement, when the facts were made known to him.
We trust the country will not censure him for this act of feeling and
humanity. |
| Respectfully, |
| S. L. Fremont |
| Eng. & Supt. |
| |
| We may add in this connection, that a new
schedule, to leave Richmond at 2, A. M., with mail, and 2, P. M., with
passengers, &c., is proposed by Roads, composing in the aggregate
nearly 700 miles of the 816 miles between Richmond and Montgomery, and
the only real obstacle in the way of this double daily
schedule that would insure the almost certain regularity
of the mails, is the newspapers published in Richmond. They
cannot be got out so early as 2, A. M. We hope they will yet make an
effort to publish them earlier, and consent to this arrangement, as it
is well known to the Railroads that the plan proposed is of vital
importance to the regularity of the mails and to army transportation. |
| The first train leaving
Richmond would carry mails and passengers. The second leaving 12
afterwards would be an accommodation train. These trains would pass
through Wilmington at 8 p. m. and at 8 a. m. The trains going North
would pass through this place at 7 a. m., and at 7 p. m. We learn that
the only difficulty is with the road between Petersburg and Richmond {the
Richmond & Petersburg RR} and with the South Carolina Road,
but that this last is not insuperable. The real difficulty as already
stated, seems to be with the Richmond papers. We trust that some
agreement will soon be made whereby we can again send off and receive
our mails with something like promptness and regularity. |
|