SC, C&S 1-30-63

SC, C&S 1/30/1863

SPECIAL ORDER for 11 1/2 o'clock, A. M., Jan 30 {1863}

REPORT

Of the committee on railroads, on so much of message No. 1, of his Excellency the governor, as relates to the communication from the president of the Charleston and Savannah Railroad Company, in relation to the Ashley River Bridge.

The Committee on Railroads, to whom was referred so much of Message No. 1 of his Excellency the Governor, as relates to the communication of the President of the Charleston and Savannah Railroad Company,

REPORT:

That, having given to the matter their serious consideration, they find the following to be the facts upon which they have based their determination: About the 16^th of August, 1862, the attention of the Governor and Council was called to the advantage which would accrue from uniting the Charleston & Savannah Railroad with the South Carolina and Northeastern Railroad, and more particularly the completion of a bridge, allowing rolling stock of the Charleston & Savannah Railroad to cross the Ashley River. Generals Lee, Pemberton, and Ripley, expressed their greatest interest in the work, and pronounced it a military necessity. The rolling stock of the Charleston & Savannah Railroad, estimated to be worth, at that time, about a half million of dollars, rendered it important that the proposed connection should be made. The safety and preservation of the rolling stock required that some provision should be made to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy, in the event of even a temporary possession of the road by the enemy. Under these circumstances, the Governor and Council adopted a resolution, authorizing the Chief of the Department of Justice and Police to have the said connection completed: Provided it could be effected for anything within the sum of thirty-five thousand dollars. Upon the report of competent engineers, the work was undertaken, and has progressed very nearly to completion. By a letter from Bentley D. Hazel, under date December 12^th, 1862, addressed to Hon. I. W. Hayne, it appears that the Charleston & Savannah Railroad Company, under the resolution of the Governor and Council, have advanced for the State, and expended, up to the 1^st of December last, for the completion of this work, the sum of ($30,085.75) thirty thousand and eighty-five dollars, seventy-five cents. At this latter date the bridge across the river was finished, with the exception of the draw and the approaches to the bridge; and, according to an approximate estimate made, the whole, when completed, would amount to about thirty-four thousand dollars ($34,000). The President of the Charleston & Savannah Railroad, in a letter to his Excellency the Governor, of the 10^th of January, 1863, states that the cost of the Ashley River Bridge will fully equal the amount authorized to be expended by the Governor and Council, namely, thirty-five thousand dollars ($35,000), and he requests that, inasmuch as the company had already advanced nearly the whole amount of the appropriation, thirty-five thousand dollars ($35,000), the last-mentioned sum be placed at the disposal of the company, with the condition, that if the amount expended should be less than the amount authorized, the balance to be returned by the company to the State. It is needless for your Committee to enlarge upon the importance of this work. Its advantages are manifest, serving, as it must, not only as a means of preserving the large amount of rolling stock of the Charleston & Savannah Railroad (in which the State, to a considerable amount, is interested), but affording a ready means of military communication with the island adjacent, in the event of an invasion or advance of the enemy. The Railroad Company are justly entitled to be refunded what they have already expended, and your Committee deem it expedient and proper that the whole amount of the appropriation be placed at their disposal, in order that the work may be entirely completed. They therefore recommend the adoption of the following resolutions:

Resolved, That the sum of thirty-five thousand dollars ($35,000) be appropriated, and that his Excellency the Governor be authorized and requested to draw the said amount from the Treasury, and pay the same to the President of the Charleston & Savannah Railroad Company, for advances made by the said Railroad Company for the construction of a railroad bridge across the Ashley River, and for its completion.

Resolved, That the sum hereby appropriated is intended and made as an advance to the Confederate Government, in view of the military necessity for the work, and that James Tupper, Esq., State Auditor, be instructed to make a claim for the same upon the Confederate Government.

M. P. O’CONNOR, for the Committee.