| From the Richmond Dispatch |
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| February 13, 1862 |
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| Railroads -- an Address to the Congress and Legislature |
| The time has come when the Virginia
Legislature and the Government of the Confederate States will show
themselves to be utterly blind to the true interests of the country,
if they do not take immediate steps to complete the railroad between
Keysville and Clarksville {the extension of the Roanoke Valley
RR}. It was a wise policy, doubtless, for the Confederate Government to
pass a law for the extension of the
Richmond
& Danville Railroad to Greensboro' {the
Piedmont RR}, on the North Carolina Central Railroad {North
Carolina RR}. The importance of this link
in our railroad system is undisputed. But it is a bran-new enterprise,
the route itself not surveyed; the distance is fifty miles or more;
the necessary expenditure is upwards of a million, and its completion
within less time than a year a scarcely possible. It may be, and most
probably will be that a year hence the necessity which has given the
enterprise being may have passed away. |
| We want a road --not a year hence. The
disaster at
Roanoke Island
, it is admitted, has put a new phase upon the face of affairs. The
bridge at Weldon is not now inaccessible to a bold foray of the enemy.
Its destruction would be no small calamity to the Southern people. The
direct railroad connects between
Richmond
and
Wilmington
, and all the
South Atlantic
coast will be thereby cut off. There is a remedy — a sure, easy,
cheap remedy.--No. not a remedy: there is a prevention, cheap, easy,
sure, if the State or Confederate Government will do their duty. The
distance from Keysville, on the Danville Railroad, to Clarksville, the terminus of the Roanoke Valley Railroad, is only 21 miles. The
connecting line of railroad is more than half finished. At
Clarksville
the stone piers of the bridge across the
Roanoke
are complete. At that terminus a mile of grading is also finished. At
the Keysville terminus, 10 miles of road-bed is ready for laying
track. Three miles is already laid with the best T rail
— The whole route from Keysville to Clarksville
is cleared of timber, and abundant still are cut and sissored, and
lying all along the line, ready for use. The only hilly and rugged
portion of the route has been graded. On the balance of the route the
excavation now to be done is comparatively light. The depots even have
been in part constructed. The road, in a word, is more than half
complete. Prompt and energetic action would put the road in running
order in three months. The services of a man, known to the writer,
competent to superintend the unfinished work and to push it to the
speediest completion, can be had on the most reasonable terms.
Negroes, slave and tree, can be had on terms more favorable than at
any previous juncture in our history. It is not unlikely, in view of
the occupancy by the enemy of North Carolina territory, that any
number of slaves could be had from the coast counties of that State
for the mere keeping, provided assurances were given that their labor
should be appired to the patriotic important, and necessary purpose of
constructing this road, and thereby of connecting the Atlantic
seaboard of both the Carolinas with our Confederate capital. But, in
any event, the requisite labor can be had on the most favorable terms.
With Confederate or State Treasury notes to the amount of , the
completion of this invaluable work would be secured to the people
within the brief space of three months. Thus a railroad link would be
made, whereby through freight and passengers could be transported from
Charleston, S. C., to Richmond, Va., without break of bulk as to the
former, and with scarcely a transfer of baggage as to the latter. The
statements here made are --they are important truths. They are grates
so plain and of such import in this present national crisis, that we
dare impute to the photic authorities, State and Confederate, after
blindness and weakness not to see them and be controlled by them. When
the enemy already, by their bold assault at Roanoke Island, and by
their still bolder advances up the Tennessee river, have notified us
in the most unmistakable language that they mean, if possible, to
break up and destroy utterly all the railroad connections between the
different sections of the Confederacy when they have taught us by two
and severe disasters that cutting us on main lines of
intercommunication is the policy which they specially cherish, could be
possible that a lesson taught by so dear experience, shall prove of no
utility and of no effect? |
| The interests of North Carolina and
Virginia especially, and yet scarcely less the interests of absolute
Confederate States, cry alend in this present emergency for the
immediate completion of this half finished road. It can be finished in
a short time, at little expense, with an absolute certainty that it
will confer inestimable benefits upon the whole country. This appeal
is made to the good judgment, , patriotism, and prudent forethought of
the Confederate and State authorities, with the hope that they will
delay no time to do this work, so indispensable to us all in the
existing condition of public affairs. At First Point on York River, Feb. 11, 1862. |
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