| To The Honorable the Secretary of War of the
Confederate States |
| Your petitioners, citizens of Selma and
of Green and Perry Counties, consisting of Directors, of
Stockholders, of the North Western Rail Road Company of Alabama and
of individuals whose business interests have intimately connected
them with said Road would respectfully present this their petition
in behalf of the same |
| Your petitioners have learned that a
proposition has been or will be submitted to your Honorable
Department to take the iron off from the said road under the plea of
Government necessity for the purpose of continuing or building some
other road. Your petitioners hope by a plain and truthful statement
of some of the facts demonstrating the great Government utility and
advantage of this Road to satisfy your Honorable Department that it
would be highly impolite and injurious to the interest of the
Government to discontinue the same and they hereby respectfully urge
that the said Road shall not be disturbed. |
| The North Western Rail Road is a Branch
of the Alabama & Mississippi Rivers Rail Road 11 miles in length
leading from Uniontown in Perry County to New Bern in Green County.
Its whole line lies through, and its terminus (at New Bern) is
surrounded for many miles by one of the most highly productive
regions in the State or in the Confederacy being the best Canebrake
prairie and slough lands. |
| But while the section is so highly
fertile such is the character of its soil, becoming so extremely
miry and boggy when wet, that during the winter and spring months,
it is next to impossible to haul produce from New Bern in any
direction in wagons. Nor can the bad condition of our roads be much
improved by any amount of labor expended. From New Bern to the
nearest point on the Bigbee River is about 13 miles and it is about
the same distance to Uniontown the nearest point on the Ala &
Miss Rivers Rail Road. |
| These are the most accessible points and
during the winter and spring the only time when planters can spare
their teams from the field for hauling transportation to those
points over the common roads is almost impracticable. It was in view
of this very great inconvenience in our section that the North
Western Rail Road was constructed. But we know that no personal
inconvenience to muscles shall stand in the way of the stern wants
of the Government and it is entirely upon the necessity of this Road
to the Government that we rely for a favorable consideration of our
petition. |
| The Confederate Government now owns
several thousand bales of cotton in and around New Bern which it
will be almost impossible to forward without the Rail Road. Nor are
our planters under obligation to deliver said cotton at any other
point than New Bern as in every contract of sale it was stipulated
to be delivered at that depot. In addition to this the Confederate
tax in kind to be collected in the vicinity of New Bern will be
enormously large which will require the daily transportation upon
Rail Road for many months in order to be promptly forwarded. It will
be impossible for planters to haul their large amount of tax produce
either to the Bigbee river or to the Ala Miss Rivers Road
without so exhausting their teams and encroaching upon their
necessary farming operations as to prevent their ensuing years crop.
That your Department may appreciate the great labors of this hauling
we would here state that there are numbers of planters in the
vicinity of New Bern whose corn tax will be from 2000 to 5000
bushels each. |
| It would certainly be extremely
difficult to transport such amounts of produce by hauling over roads
that are frequently impassible to an empty wagon. But in addition to
this large tax for which transportation is to be provided we would
respectfully represent that out of the abundance which is produced
in that Egypt the Government by means of the aforesaid rail road
might supply to a considerable extent any deficiency of its wants in
breadstuff for our army. During the past and present years New Bern
Depot has been a vast granary constantly filled with supplies for
the Government and for many destitute portions of the state. It has
been for some time impossible to procure sufficient cars to remove
the deposits collected there so abundant and rapid has been the
accumulation and a great deal of corn has badly damaged by being
exposed along the Rail Road line. This year the accumulation must be
much greater as planters have produced almost exclusively bread
stuffs and the crops are extraordinarily good. But owing to so much
of our country being near overrun every bushel of corn raised in
Ala. will be in demand if not for the Government, for the thousands
of refugees who have left an abundance at home to rely upon the
abundance of strangers. |
| We would respectfully represent that
owing to the contracted area of our production there must be an
active demand for all the breadstuffs made and that every line of
transportation should be kept up that leads in the direction of an
abundant supply. Aug. 1 1863 |
| {Signed by about 150 names} |