| From the Wilmington Journal |
| November 11, 1861 |
| |
| Precaution -- Our Rail Roads |
| It will be seen by our
telegraphic dispatches in another column, that by the traitorous,
felonious and incendiary acts of the tories of East Tennessee, the
Confederacy is deprived of the use of one of the most important of its
three main lines of Railroad communication between the Northern and
Southern portions of its territory. |
| This is evidently the result
of a concerted plan between domestic traitors and Lincolnite spies, simultaneously
with the raid upon South Carolina. |
| We are now thrown upon the two
lines through North Carolina, which, under the circumstances, become
not merely corporate property, or the means of public convenience, but
are in fact the indispensable necessities and conditions of public
safety. Anything that would seriously cripple their power of
transportation would also seriously jeopardize the common cause, and
embarrass the operations of our military authorities and civil
government. |
| No risk must be run. Our
people, as a people, are loyal -- none more so -- but with an enemy
such as we have, placed in circumstances such as those by which we are
surrounded, that general belief will not do to depend upon. A few
desperate and unprincipled men, not one in a thousand, might, for a
time, tie the hands and paralyze the exertions of the nine hundred and
ninety-nine true and loyal men. How many men would it take to burn
down any latticed bridge on any road? Can any merely private watch,
kept up by railroad companies, whose energies are all strained already
to their utmost tension, effectually guard against the efforts of the
desperate, the malignant, the traitorous, the unprincipled, the
bribed? Evidently the answer must be in the negative. |
| We would respectfully suggest
to the civil and military powers "whom it may concern," to
provide such efficient patrols of the militia of the State, in parties
relieving each other from night to night, as shall effectually guard
all the approaches to all the more important railroad bridges in the
State, allowing no one to approach within a certain distance either by
land or water. This will impose some extra duties upon the citizen
soldiery,, but with a proper system it need not press onerously upon
any particular individuals or companies, and the service performed may
be as important in its results as any equal amount of service on the
tented field. |
| We have no doubt but that
Governor Clarke will give the necessary authority for calling upon the
militia for this service, and as little that Generals Gatlin, Anderson
and Hill will use it promptly and discreetly, if in their opinion it
should appear necessary to use it at all. |
| From the considerations we
have offered, we are forced to the conclusion that it is necessary,
and we therefore respectfully, but most earnestly press the matter
upon the attention of the civil and military authorities. |
|