| Quartermaster General's Department |
| July 4th 1864 |
| |
| {no addressee noted in the QM copy
book} |
| |
| Sir, |
| As soon as the Petersburg R. R. is
repaired sufficiently to pass trains over it, you are instructed to
move freight from Weldon to Petersburg with the utmost dispatch; &
for that purpose if you think that more trains than belong to the
Petersburg Company can be used advantageously you are authorized to
require them of the Raleigh, Gaston, Seaboard & Roanoke R. Roads. |
| So long as the Petersburg R. R. can be
used it is of the utmost consequence to forward over it to Petersburg
the greatest amount of Government freight. If for any cause
transportation should be again closed on the Petersburg R. R. you will
arrange that it should continue from Wilmington via Goldsboro to
Danville, taking care however to preserve an accumulation at Weldon
sufficient to employ the capacity of the Petersburg road should
opportunities occur of wending it available. To enable you to carry
out these instructions you are instructed to confer with the
Superintendents of the road between Richmond & Wilmington via
Danville & you are authorized to exercise such control of the
movements of trains as may appear to you after consultation with them
& careful reflection on your part what will best forward the
interests of the Government. Especially after the Danville road is ???
every interest must give way to that of the speediest transportation
of Government freight & passenger trains must be stopped if the
movement of freight is aided by so doing. You are also instructed to
require of the Raleigh & Gaston R. R. Company such trains as may
be used advantageously on the N. Carolina & Piedmont R. R. |
| A. R. Lawton, Q. M. G. |
|