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{From the minutes of the
Directors' Meeting of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac RR,
July 29, 1862} |
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| At a meeting of the Board of Directors held at the
office of the Company in the City of Richmond 29th July 1862 |
| The President presented the following
report to the Board in reference to the removal of the books and
valuable papers and the rolling stock of the Company, and also his
action in the matter of reconstructing the bridges of the Company and
otherwise providing for the resumption of its business and the future
protection of its roadway and asked that it be spired upon the minutes
of the Company, which was unanimously agreed to |
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| To the Board of Directors of the Rich Fredg & Pot
RRdCo |
| In accordance with the resolutions adopted
by the Board of Directors on the 23d day of April 1862 and by the
meeting of Stockholders of the Company on the 30th day April 1862, and
of the sense of that meeting elicited in the discussion of those
resolutions, the President of this Company, after conferring with Genl
Lee and the Secretary of War in relation to the subject of those
resolutions, by the emphatic advice of the latter officer, immediately
prepared for the removal to a place of greater safety the public
securities and other valuable papers and books of the Company and so
much of its machinery and cars as could be spared from the then
immediate use of the Government on this road. Accordingly on the 4th
day of May 1862 those valuable securities and papers and a portion of
the books of the Company were carried by the Treasurer and
Superintendents Clerk and deposited for safe keeping in the vault of
the Bank of North Carolina at Charlotte N. C. On the 15th of the same
month, in accordance with an understanding previously had in a
personal interview with the President and with correspondence with the
Superintendent of the North Carolina Rail Road, the Engine
"Thomas Sharp" and six passenger coaches and baggage cars
were sent loaded with Federal prisoners to Charlotte to be there kept
by the NC RR Co, and, if used or rented by them, with the agreement,
not to send them East or South of Goldsborough. On the same day another
portion of the Company's books and papers were sent in charge of the
Auditor of the Company to Lynchburg in the same car with the Public
Archives of the State and have been since kept with them guarded in
the Court House of that City. The obstruction of the rail road south
of Richmond about this time and for sometime after it, by the stores
and machinery including engines and cars belonging to the Confederate
Government having precluded the probable removal southward of any more
of the machinery and cars of the Company, arrangements were made by
its President, through correspondence and conferences with the
officers of the James River & Kanawha Canal Co., and of the
Virginia & Tennessee and Orange & Alexandria rail road
Companies and through this Company's Auditor then with its books and
papers in Lynchburg, for the removal to that City, when necessary for
its security of the residue of the machinery and cars of this company
and for the construction in connection with the roads of this rail
road Companies there of side track in Lynchburg on which to keep these
cars & machinery. Some ten days later the President of this
Company himself passed through Lynchburg, with the intention of
returning there in a few days, to hasten & complete these
arrangements, but was prevented from doing so first by illness and
shortly afterward by the destruction by the enemy of this Company's
bridge over the South Anna, which cut off all access for its cars or
machinery to Lynchburg. |
| On the 28th May 1862 a requisition was
made by the Government for all the engines & cars which could be
spared from this road for transporting troops over the road south of
Richmond, and the Engines "Genl Johnson" and "G. P. R.
James" with 12 passenger cars and 2 baggage cars of this Company
and four belonging to the Virginia Central Rl Rd Copy were sent to
those roads. At this time our troops had retreated along the line of
this Rail Road from the summit to Ashland burning all its bridges on
their way and had been defeated between Hanover Court House and
Ashland and retired first to the latter place & on the 28th to
Kilbys Mill. From this place a messenger had been sent from the
Commanding General to this office, saying that the enemy was in
possession of Ashland (which it was afterward ascertained had not then
occurred) and was in strong force, advancing on Kilbys Mill with the
request and warning to this Company not to send any other train from
Richmond in that direction. Some days previous to this, the Banks of
this City had removed their funds, books, papers and other effects to
Danville. |
| Under these circumstances, the President
of this Company after having made with the officers of the Company
remaining in the city every requisite arrangement for any business of
the Company, which might possibly arise during his absence (even
though it should be accidentally prolonged beyond his intrusion) both
as to the little transportation which it was possible then to perform,
the custody of the machinery and the finances and liabilities of the
Company; seeing very little that he could do here and desiring to
visit his family then sick near Charlottesville left this city on the
29th of May for Charlottesville via Lynchburg, intending to return to
the latter place in a few days and to complete the arrangements for
transferring there (if the enemy should be driven from this rail road)
the machinery and cars of the Company and then returning to Richmond. |
| The severe and continued illness of
himself & family unavoidably detained him in and near
Charlottesville between five & six weeks, until the 7th July. It
did not however prevent him from keeping up an almost daily
communication with the Company's officers in Richmond, in relation to
any current business or action of the Company. Neither did it nor his
absence in Charlottesville, prevent his engaging immediately after the
destruction of the South Anna Bridge by the enemy, in prompt, and
active correspondence with the Confederate Government for its
reconstruction and for the protection of those engaged in that work.
On the contrary the presence at the same time in Charlottesville of
the President of the Virginia Central rail road Company enabled him there
to connect with that officer, as he could not have done in Richmond,
measures for the cooperation of the two Companies in this work, so
important to both Companies and to the Government. After a full
understanding with that officer the President of this Company on the 9th
June 1862 addressed to the Secretary of War a very earnest letter
urging the protection and aid of the Government to the rebuilding by
the two Companies of this bridge and enclosed this letter to the
Superintendent of this Company in a long one of instructions as to its
delivery and as to the means and plan of reconstruction and as to the
running of trains. |
| To this letter the Secretary sent a reply
dated the 12th June and addressed to the President of this
Company but which he never saw until after his return to Richmond on
the 7th of July. |
| Two Directors of this Company thereupon
acting under the authority of the Board carried on, the President
being then sick in Charlottesville but anxiously expecting without the
knowledge of the Board a reply to this letter, a correspondence on the
same subject with Genl Lee and with the Quarter Master General.
Meanwhile the President of this Company having received himself no
reply from the Secretary of War on or about the 17th of June, united
with the President of the Virga Central rail road Compy in another
communication to the President of the Confederate States earnestly
urging the protection of the Structure over the South Anna then
commenced by the two Companies of the men engaged on it and of the
road between Richmond and Hanover Junction. This President Davis
replied (as Genl Lee did to the letter of the Directors of this
Company of the 20th June) that he could not give any assurance of
protecting the road from being intercepted and destroyed at any
point by the enemy. And on the 23rd of June the enemy did for the third
time enter Ashland and approach very near South Anna River where
the men were then at work on the bridge. On this occasion and on a
previous one this Company's trains as to the running of which when
prudent definite instructions had been given to the Superintendent by
the President before his leaving Richmond and afterward by letter, but
which was run under the resolution of the Board of Directors of the
4th day of June 1862 narrowly escaped capture by the enemy as the
President has been informed by the officers of the Company. |
| Before the destruction of any of this
Company's bridges the President in ??? oral & written interviews
and communications with Generals Holmes, Smith, Lee, Field and
Anderson had earnestly and frequently urged the preservation and
protection of these structures as of the utmost importance no less to
the Government than to the Company and the almost irreparable mischief
resulting from their premature destruction. Since their destruction he
has been equally instant and unremitting in his interviews and
communications with the Governor of the State, the Secretary of War,
the President of the Confederate States, Quarter Master &
Commanding General, and the Chief of the Engineer Bureau for aid and
protection in their construction. |
| From all these officers he has received
assurances of their appreciation of the importance of the work and of
such protection and assistance however limited as it would be in their
power to afford. Every effort has also been made by advertisements and
otherwise to procure men and material, for this work from private
sources, though with very small success, the Country having been
exhausted of its resources for such purposes by the invasion of the
enemy and the arrangements of our armies. From ten to fifteen men have
been for ten days past engaged in cutting and hewing timber for these
bridges, and surveys and calculations have been made for the plan and
materials for erecting them. |
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