UG, B&F 12/1/1861

Savh 1st December 61
 
Gov Jos E Brown
 
Sir,
   I deem it a duty done the soldiers at large as well as humanity to call your attention to the Brunswick {& Florida} Road at present a number of troops are being transported over it at the imminent risk of their lives & one accident will kill & maim more than a Pitched Battle with the Lincolnites. In the first place the ties are very Rotten In the next It has no attention. The Powers that be are very remiss in their duty or else have not the material either of which is no excuse as there are hundreds of negroes who have been compelled to leave the coast that are out of employment & can be hired very cheap The bridges Heaven save the marks are so rotten & the new ones so incomplete that they are scarcely safe for foot Passengers much less and Engine & Train. There is no Turnouts for trains to pass though there is Eight hundred tons of Iron laying Idle Ten miles an hour is an extravagant speed & nothing but the Justice of our cause has enlisted Heaven in our protection so far. I cannot think for a moment that you are aware of these fact or you would try to remidy these evils. I am told by one of the engineers from Savh who has transported all the troops so far that In case we are ordered to the city It will take twice as long to transport us from the fact of one grade being 106 feet to the mile up which he can pull only half as many cars as he brings down & yet this grade is only half a mile long & thirty men in thirty days could reduce it to the maximum of the others. Now sir if negroes are scarce soldiers are plenty & camped within a mile of two of these eye sores first the Sattilla Bridge which is rotten to the core & next the grade on the opposite side of the camp. they have only one Engine which is a disgrace to the State when they are so many lying idle. though it were better you should keep them than place them in the hands of men who will burn them as they did the Lookout My private opinion is there is no competent man connected with the Road. Proof they never run a schedule though they have one printed. It is nothing strange to stay an hour at a station. the Engineer is more supt than any one else & it would take great discrimination to tell him from a negro. These things require attention already the soldiers say they will never ride over those Bridges the second time. If you could place a tariff on whiskey in that part of the country maybe things would git a little better. Please inform us why there is Yankees at the head of all public affairs It looks rather fishy.
Respt
Soldier

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