| Annual Report of the Richmond &
Danville RR |
| as of October 1, 1862, |
| President's Report |
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| Report of the President and the Directors
of the Richmond & Danville R. R. Company |
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| To the
Stockholders of the Richmond & Danville Railroad Company |
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Gentlemen,
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The President and Directors respectfully submit to you the
following report:
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The entire receipts of the road for the year ending 30th
day of September, 1862, reached the sum of $724,430.00. Of this
amount, $341,233.80 constituted the working expenses of the road, and
$383,196.20 the nett earnings, for the last fiscal year. The ration of
working expense being 47.13 per cent. to 52.87 of nett earnings. In
the working expenses are included the cost of the new engine house and
shops near Danville, on the north side of the river, new tools for
shops, relaying tracks and other expenditures, not properly chargeable
to the ordinary working expenses. The various items amount to
$33,125.16, which being deducted, would reduce the ratio to 42.53 for
expenses, and 57.47 for nett earnings.
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The Company will perceive that the gross receipts of the
road for the twelve months ending on the 30th day of September, 1862,
exceeded those of the twelve preceding months by the sum of
$276,970.07. It is gratifying also to see the nett earnings reached
the amount of nineteen and one-half per cent. upon the capital stock
of the road. These receipts, and the consequent per centum upon the
stock, would have been increased if the regular operations of the road
had been uninterrupted and continuous; but early in the month of April
the condition of public affairs, and the movement of our armies,
rendered it a prudent measure to remove from Richmond all the property
of the company exposed to destruction by any unexpected success of the
enemy. Accordingly the removal to Danville of all the machinery in the
extensive workshops of the Company, and all the materials and property
on hand was commenced and gradually carried on. The immense amount of
Government stores required to be removed, about the same time,
occupied all the means of transportation in both directions, and
compelled the constant and continuous running of the engines and cars.
The removal of the machinery and breaking up of repairs in the
Company's shops near Richmond, the erection of temporary means of
repairs and refitting, the transferring of the employees engaged in
superintending and laboring in the shops to the vicinity of Danville,
and providing temporary accommodations for them, when refugees from so
many portions of the State were seeking shelter for their families,
occupied several weeks. At the same time that the pressure of work
upon our limited means of transportation was greatest and most urgent,
we were deprived of the use of our machinery, shops and workmen, in
transferring them to Danville, and consequently engines and cars
needing constant repairs, in rapid succession, were necessarily run
too long. Those which should have been taken into shops and put in
good running order, both for safety and economy, were kept upon the
road from necessity -- hence we have to regret several accidents, not
attributable to any neglect or want of proper precautions, but growing
out of the absolute impossibility of keeping engines and rolling stock
in the best state of repair, and in the best condition for safety. The
use of our shops, during the whole year, would have given us increased
facilities for transportation, and would have increased in a
corresponding ratio the receipts of the Company. These considerations
induced us to construct permanent shops and engine house at
North-side, to increase the facilities for manufacture and repairs,
and to insure against future casualties or interruptions. The shops in
Manchester have been again refitted and put in working order, and we
trust the means of transportation will be gradually increased. Those
at North-side will afford valuable aid in preparing an increased
number of cars, &c., which will be needed for greatly enlarged
trade and travel anticipated on the completion of the Piedmont
Railroad, and may be used for the construction and repairs of
machinery and rolling stock of that road. With an amount of travel and
transportation now sufficient to yield a nett revenue of over
twenty-five per cent. upon the capital stock, even with extremely
limited means for conduction the large business of the road, it is
difficult to estimate the results with a sufficiency of engines and
rolling stock after the connection with the North Carolina Central
Railroad shall have been finished. It may be safely affirmed, that the
most sanguine expectations of its earliest friends will be fully
realized, and the investments of the stockholders insured to be
profitable, as a pecuniary transaction, in addition to the vast
collateral benefits.
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Indebtedness of the Company
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In the last annual report, it was stated that a debt of
$65,400 had been extended through a period, running from May, 1861, to
November, 1863; of that sum $8,900 had been paid, leaving $56,500 then
unpaid and outstanding; since that report. the additional amount of
$12,500, of the extended bonds, has been paid off, ($9,500 of which has
been paid since the close of the fiscal year,) leaving $44,000 now
remaining unpaid. There is, however, the sum of $96,400 invested in six
and eight per cent. bonds of the Confederate Government standing to the
credit of the Company as a sinking fund, and for the purpose of meeting
any unforeseen contingencies. There is a further debt of $200,000
guaranteed by the State, but not falling due nor payable before the year
1875. The interest upon this has been regularly paid, and provisions for
the payment of the principal can be made long before it falls cue.
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There is an annuity due to the State of Virginia for
thirty-four years of $42,000 per annum., being the interest and
sinking fund upon a debt of $600,000. Ten years of the thirty-four
have passed, and the annuity has been regularly paid; twenty-four have
still to run. The transactions of the Company are conducted by cash
payments, and the system of floating debts rendered unnecessary by the
prosperous condition of our treasury.
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Railroad Extensions and Connections
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The Western extension and the Roanoke Valley extensions
continue in a condition of suspended operations. The extreme
difficulty of procuring materials, implements, iron and labor, will,
we fear, postpone active and efficient work upon either of them until
the restoration of peace or the breaking of the blockade. Your Board
can only express their earnest desire to see both completed as
speedily as practicable, and their deep regard that the situation of
public affairs precludes them from giving material aid.
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There is another connection, that of the Richmond &
Danville with the North Carolina Central Railroad, which has at last
been secured. The importance of this connection, as the great
thoroughfare for trade and travel with the Atlantic and Gulf States
south of Virginia, had been long and deeply impressed upon the
stockholders of this Company before our national troubles commenced.
After Virginia had seceded from the old Union, and united her
destinies with the Southern Confederacy, her position, geographical
and political, marked her out as one of the chief sufferers by the
war. Upon her soil large armies must be supplied with all the
munitions of war and all the means of subsistence and transportation,
and thus it became necessary to open additional lines of communication
with the southern portion of the Confederacy. To the great commercial
benefits were superadded the still more important necessities growing
out of military movements. This route presented the shortest line in
distance, the safest in location, and the least liable to any
interruption by hostile occupation.
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These considerations induced the Board, on the 12th day
of June, 1861, to instruct their President to confer with the
authorities of the Confederate States, and to urge its great
importance. On the 19th he addressed a letter to President Davis, in
the following words:
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AR, R&D 6-19-61
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This action was taken early after the city of Richmond
had been selected as the capital of the new Confederacy.
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In the ensuing annual message of the President to
Congress the connection was recommended. On the 11th of December the
stockholders met, and conferred upon the President and Directors full
and ample authority to contract with the Government for the execution
of the work, as soon as necessary legislation had sanctioned its
construction.
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On the 10th day of February, 1862, Congress appropriated
one million of dollars in bonds to secure the execution of the work;
and on the 8th of the month the Convention of North Carolina passed an
ordinance incorporating the Piedmont Railroad Company with full powers
to complete the connection, when sanctioned by the Legislature of
Virginia. The charter of the Convention granted to the Confederate
States the right to subscribe for the whole, or any portion of the
stock, and conferred upon any incorporated company of North Carolina
or of Virginia the same powers. On the 13th this charter was
communicated by the Governor of Virginia to the Legislature, and on
the 27th of March the Legislature of Virginia passed an act giving its
sanction to the ordinance, and consummating the incorporation of the
Piedmont Railroad Company.
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The Directors of this Company did not await the action of
the Legislature upon so important a subject; but on the 12th day of
February, four days after the passage of the ordinance by the
Convention of North Carolina, appointed a committee with authority to
confer with the President of the Confederate States, and to propose to
construct the work and complete the road as rapidly as it could be
done, with all the means at their command. A copy of the proceedings
and the proposition is submitted, marked (A).
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The proposition was not accepted, and no alternative
offer was made, nor was any plan suggested by the authorities of the
Confederate States by which the corporate powers or resources of the
Company could be employed to expedite the work. Labor at that time was
comparatively abundant and cheap -- implements and materials might
have been collected, and supplies for subsistence accumulated.
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Nearly three months elapsed. The commissioners named in
the charter had opened books of subscription to the capital stock of
the Piedmont Railroad Company; but on the 5th day of May not a share
had been subscribed by the Confederate States, incorporated companies,
or by private individuals. The time had expired when the books of
subscription, under the provisions of the charter, might be closed by
the commissioners, with no subscription to the stock, and no progress
on the work, or preparation for it, except in its survey and location.
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Captain Edmund T. D. Myers, Confederate States army, had
been ordered to survey the various routes, and to locate the road
under the provisions of the charter. This duty was discharged with
energy and zeal. In the progress of the survey, the Directors
determined on the 5th of May, (after abandoning all expectation of any
contract from the 12th day of February,) to submit another proposition
to the Secretary of War for the construction of the road. That
proposition was, in substance, to subscribe one million four hundred
and ninety thousand dollars, all except ten thousand dollars of the
capital stock of the Company, and to proceed, as "rapidly as may
be," with the construction of the road, upon the terms set forth
-- that proposition was accepted on the 5th day of May, and modified
on the 8th, to make it conform, in substance, with the contemplated
agreement on the 5th. The agreement and subsequent modification are
submitted, marked (B). Accordingly, the whole capital stock of the
Piedmont Railroad was subscribed on the 5th day of May -- 14,900
shares by the Richmond & Danville Railroad Company, and 100 shares
by individuals, in order to constitute the requisite number of persons
qualified as Directors. The charger required nine Directors, and that
each should own five shares.
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The Directors of this Company proceeded immediately,
viz.: on the 7th of May, to make provisional arrangements for hire of
hands, of obtaining grants of land for depot lots, right of way, for
purchasing of iron, timber, implements and materials, and for
procuring whatever might be required for the speedy commencement and
prosecution of the work, conditional on the same being adopted by the
Directors of the Piedmont Railroad Company, when duly elected and
organized.
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By the charter, the commissioners were required to give
at least thirty days public notice, after closing the books of
subscription, for a general meeting of the Stockholders to be held in
the town of Greensboro', in the State of North Carolina. The full
amount having been subscribed on the 5th day of May, the fact was
notified to the Chairman of the General Commissioners, Wm. T.
Sutherlin, of Danville, who had been duly authorized by a meeting of
the commissioners to call a general meeting of the stockholders upon
the subscription of the requisite number of shares.
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The stockholders were required to meet on the 11th day of
June in Greensboro', and pursuant to notice met, organized and elected
their Directors. By this action all the formalities required by the
charter were fully complied with, and not until that time did the
Piedmont Railroad Company, by its constituted and chartered
authorities, possess any right to commence or proceed with the
construction of the work on the road. On the day after the
organization of the Company, all provisional and preliminary
arrangements made by the Richmond & Danville Railroad Company,
were sanctioned and adopted as their own acts.
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In the meantime, from the subscription to the
organization of the Company, Captain E. T. D. Myers had progressed
with so much energy as to make a definite selection of route, so far
as regarded the termini in Danville and in Greensboro'. His location,
made under the instructions of the Confederate Government, in
accordance with the provisions of the charter, was approved and
adopted; and it became the duty of the Piedmont Railroad Company to
acquiesce in a selection of routes made by an engineer of high
professional attainments, selected by the Government, without
reference to personal, political or incorporated interests. The
Government was conceded to be impartial and neutral, and by this
disinterested arbiter, and engineer of admitted ability and character
was selected, and to him was confided the location.
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The confidence of the Government, and the accurate
knowledge and general information of Captain Myers, pointed him out as
the proper person to occupy the position of Chief Engineer, and chief
of construction in the service of the Company. He was elected, and the
Secretary of War was requested to detail him for that special service.
The request was granted, and he became by election of the Directors,
and order of the Secretary of War, the Chief engineer and chief of
construction.
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On the 13th of June the President and Chief Engineer were
authorized to employ three superintendents of divisions, fifteen
hundred laborers, and the requisite number of overseers, and to
purchase the supplies, materials, implements, teams, carts, wagons,
&c., corresponding with the number of laborers. This order of the
Piedmont Board was followed promptly and energetically by the
appointment of agents to hire and purchase in various portions of
Virginia and North and South Carolina. The most zealous and
persevering efforts by agents, advertisements, and correspondence, did
not meet their just expectations.
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Whilst these exertions were made to organize a force
under the immediate management and control of the Chief Engineer,
extensive advertisements were resorted to, inviting proposals to
construct any portion of the work. Failing to receive bids, the Chief
Engineer made a special trip to Georgia to confer with certain
railroad contractors, reported to have command of large means, and a
large number of laborers. On the 28th of June he reported verbally to
the Board that he had held an interview with them, and that they would
examine the line of the road and the character of the work upon the
offer or assurance of twenty-five cents for excavation, and
twenty-five cents per cubic yard for embankment, equivalent to near
fifty cents per cubic yard for the work. this was about three times
the cost of similar work upon the Richmond & Danville Railroad,
and was a condition precedent to any examination whatever. A
proposition, so uncertain and informal, and so extravagant in its
terms, requiring the assurance of about fifty cents per cubic yard,
before examining the work, did not receive the favorable consideration
of the Board, although it was recommended by the Chief engineer at
that time.
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Finding that the difficulty in procuring laborers, in
sufficient force, at $12 per month, was greater than anticipated, the
Board on the 10th of July increased the price to $15 per month, with
rations and medical attendance, which was five dollars more than was
paid by the Confederate Government for impressed slaves in Virginia.
The also empowered the President of the Company to purchase four
hundred slaves to put upon the work, and appropriated four hundred
thousand dollars for that purpose. The Georgia contractors were also
invited to visit Virginia, and to confer with the Board, upon the
assurance of liberal terms for the construction of the work. This they
declined to do.
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The President promptly executed the order of the Board in
proceeding to purchase slaves, but was compelled to exceed the price
authorized by the Board, to the extent of $141.00 each. He reported to
the Board on the 14th of August the purchase of seventy-one in number,
at an average of $1,141 each. The advance over the price authorized
was sanctioned, and authority given to continue that policy. It is
proper in this connection to state, that near one-third of the slaves
purchased have since run away, several have been shot and severely
wounded in efforts to recapture them, and seventeen are still at
large. Under these circumstances, every motive of humanity and every
incentive of policy, forbid the further prosecution of the work by
purchased slaves from the exposed frontier.
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At the same meeting Edmund Wilkes & Brother submitted
a proposal to construct the whole of the road except two section
already undertaken by J. Q. A. Leach, and such portions of the work as
could be completed by the Company with a force of one hundred and
fifty negroes, purchased and hired by them. Three alternative
propositions were made, viz: to complete the work by the first day of
October, 1863, at 35 cents per cubic yard; or on the first day of
August, 1863, at 36 cents per cubic yard; or on the first day of May,
1863, at 37 cents per cubic yard.
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The President and Chief Engineer recommended the
acceptance of the proposal, as soon as testimonials of ability to
comply with the undertaking could be furnished, and the Board
instructed them to close the agreement for the earliest day; i. e.,
the first day of May, at the highest price, viz: 37 cents per cubic
yard. In this connection we desire to say, no proposal has been
rejected, but every one has been accepted for expediting the work,
except the informal and extravagant proposition of the Georgia
contractors.
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The contractors employed have been diligently engaged in
obtaining labor, collecting materials, and in construction. The
laborers actually employed upon the work had reached the number of
eight hundred on the third day of December. This number was not
regarded by the Chief Engineer as sufficient to complete the work by
the date specified, and a requisition has accordingly been made upon
the contractors to supply the additional labor according to contract.
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From time to time, to increase the force employed by the
Company, the price per month has been advanced until it reached $22
per month for men, and $15 for boys, by an order of the Board at its
October meeting.
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In making these detailed statements of the proceedings of
the Piedmont Railroad Directors, we feel justified by the fact, that
nearly the entire stock is held by the Richmond & Danville
Railroad Company and its Directors. But we feel a still deeper
interest and anxiety to set forth by dates, figures, acts and
proceedings, the exercise not only of due diligence in
prosecuting the work since the organization of the Company, but of the
employment of all means within the power of the Company after the
contract with the Confederate Government to expedite the work. The
price offered for slaves has always been much higher than that fixed
for impressed slaves, either by the Confederate Government or the
Legislature of Virginia at the respective periods.
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The sum of $150,000 has been appropriated for the
importation of materials needed in the construction and working of the
road. Responsible parties have contracted to deliver the articles, but
it is not deemed proper to give their names, nor to enter into fuller
specifications.
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This report has been so far extended by interesting and
necessary details, in connection with the Piedmont Railroad, that we
feel justified in referring you to the report of the Superintendent of
transportation for information in regard to the condition of the road,
buildings and rolling stock.
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We cannot close this report without recording a just
tribute to the Superintendent of transportation for eminent services
in his department -- displaying in untiring energy and zeal in behalf
of the interests of the Company -- in constant and intelligent
supervision -- in valuable suggestions and plans for enlarging the
means of transportation, repairs and equipment -- and especially for
his cordial and hearty co-operation with the administration of this
Company in the employment of every means to aid the Government in the
great struggle now demanding all the patriotism of the whole country.
It is due also to the officers and agents of the Company generally to
say they have discharged their duties to the Company and to the
country with commendable zeal and fidelity.
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Lewis E. Harvie
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President
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(A) AR, R&D 2-12-62
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(B) AR, R&D 5-5-62
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