| From the Greensboro (N. C.) Patriot |
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| August 13, 1863 |
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| How Matters are Managed |
| A principal difficulty under which we
labor in conducting the great war in which we are engaged is the
inadequacy and difficulty of transportation. We compare worse in this
respect with the enemy than in any other. Their country abounds in
railroads, and they keep them fully equipped and in thorough order. They
have also an almost endless amount of shipping, and the command of the
sea and the principal water courses. In horses, mules and wagons they
outnumber us, as everything else. But have we done all we could? Let us
see. |
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One of the earliest acts of the Provisional Congress,
after meeting in this city, was to appropriate a million of dollars
for the construction of a railroad, connecting the Richmond &
Danville with the North Carolina railroad at Greensboro'. The
appropriation was made at the instance of the President, who
represented the work to be a military necessity. It constitutes one
of the few positive recommendations ever submitted to Congress by
him. The advantage of the proposed connexion was that it would give
us a third line of communication with the South and West, and would
be much less exposed to interruption by raid than either of the
others. At the time the appropriation was made labor was cheap and
abundant. The owners of slaves in exposed localities were anxious to
obtain employment for them in the interior on almost any terms. Six
months would have been ample time for the completion of the work.
Two years or more have elapsed, and if the first rail has been laid
we have not heard of it. Two years more will probably pass by before
it is finished, and then at a cost ten times as great as if it had
been at once let to contract and pushed forward with proper energy.
We have heard that the then Secretary of War, Gen. Randolph,
proposed to pursue this course, but some question was raised by the
President that forbade his proceeding. What we have lost and
suffered for want of this road, it would be hard to estimate. |
| It is no secret that we are greatly in want of
locomotives, cars, &c. The city of Jackson, Mississippi, was a point at
which several railroads converged, and when the siege of Vicksburg
commenced, a large amount of rolling stock was concentrated there. The
bridge across Pearl river had been burnt, and this rolling stock could
not be removed from Jackson without the construction of a temporary
bridge, which might have been put up in a week or less time with ease.
The siege lasted six weeks, Vicksburg surrendered, Johnston fell back on
Jackson, remained there some days and then withdrew. The enemy came on,
occupied the city and took possession of the rolling stock, including,
according to the Memphis Appeal, over forty locomotives. Nobody
was to blame. |
| We are not more in want of rolling stock than of
railroad iron. Our roads are getting alarmingly out of repair, and the
rails with which to relay them are not to be had in the Confederacy.
When the Yankees evacuated Stafford county, they left what was
considered about equivalent to a double track from Fredericksburg to
Acquia Creek. It was new rail of the best description. The distance
between the points named is, we believe, fifteen miles. Here then was
something like thirty miles of the first class rail left us, as a free
gift, by the enemy. It was only necessary to run a few trains to the
other end of the road rip up the rail and bring it back to the river,
boat it over and it was safe. Of course no time was lost in doing this.
The enemy, as we have said disappeared about the middle of June. The
middle of July, not a rail had been raised nor a hand set to work.
Monday, the 19th July, a few hands were put to the job, but in the
meantime, the enemy had reappeared in the vicinity, and our officer in
command in the neighborhood of Fredericksburg burns the bridge across
the Potomac creek, which cost us at a blow one half the Yankee gift. It
is now thought possible the other half may be saved. Perhaps so. We
would not like to wager on it. How not to do is a science we have
learned to perfection. |
| We hope the people duly appreciate their
good fortune in having such excellent agents to manage their affairs. |
| {Richmond} Whig |
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