| From the Richmond Dispatch |
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| June 28, 1861 |
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| Serious Destruction of Railroad Property |
| The Southern army under General Johnston,
lately occupying Harper's Ferry, is reported as being posted, 20,000
strong, in the vicinity of Martinsburg and
Winchester. Martinsburg itself has been
occupied for several days past by Brigadier General Jackson, with a
force of about five thousand men, a goodly proportion of whom are
cavalry. On Friday and Saturday last a general destruction of the
locomotives and cars belonging to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at
and near Martinsburg, was made. |
| Our reports state that over forty
locomotives, of the largest and best description, with several old and
less important ones, were almost entirely demolished, by heavy fires
of wood and coal being built under them. Some three hundred cars in
all, including several passenger cars, and about one hundred wooded
box and platform cars, (which might have been adapted for the carriage
of troops,) were burned up completely, while the round iron coal cars
— some two hundred in number — were emptied of their contents, and
a portion of them run down the neighboring embankments, or into the
bed of the streams whose bridges were previously destroyed. |
| Our informants state that the immediate
reason of this wholesale destruction was a hand-bill, (since
discovered to be a forgery, having been entirely without their
authority or knowledge, yet purporting to be issued by the Baltimore
& Ohio Railroad Company, and said to have been posted at Harper's
Ferry and other places in Virginia,) to the effect that the company
wanted two thousand men at once, at two dollars a day, in order to
restore the bridges and put the road in order for the use of the
Federal Government. This movement is believed to have been a ruse by
interests hostile to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company to
deceive the Southern authorities, so as to lead to the destruction of
its property. |
| General Johnston, Commander-in-Chief,
believing that such a repair and use would seriously operate against
his cause, is said to have given the order to General Jackson for this
additional damage to the road, thus putting it on the ground of a
military necessity. --There are many rumors in circulation with regard
to this affair, but we believe the foregoing to be its true phase. Our
information satisfies us that it is the intention of the Southern
authorities to spare no effort to prevent the road from being worked
for the use of the Government in any part of the State where they can
maintain sufficient force to defeat it. It is stated that the passage
of the Potomac river by General Cadwallarer and his command,
subsequently followed by his retreat across the same, were among the
causes which induced this action by the Confederate army. It is
further stated that the vacillation of the movements of the Federal
forces for so long a period after the evacuation of Harper's Ferry by
the Confederates, led to their return to its vicinity, and also to the
re-occupation of Martinsburg.--Baltimore
Sun, 25th. |
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