| From the Richmond Examiner |
| |
| December 10, 1861 |
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| A Railroad for Carrying Troops |
| To the Editor of the Examiner: |
| I observed your remarks a few
days since on the extension of the Danville railroad to Greensboro'
{the Piedmont RR}. I fully concurred
in all that was said. Allow me to call your attention, and, through you,
the attention of Congress and the government, to a railroad line which
can be much more speedily constructed than the Danville and Greensboro'
road. I allude to the Keysville and Clarksville road, extending to the
Raleigh road, and connecting there with the Central North Carolina road
and all the Southern country thereby. The length of the line from
Keysville to Clarksville is thirty miles and a small fraction. Ten miles
at the Keysville end are already graded, and three and a half laid with
iron. At the Clarksville end the piers for a bridge over Roanoke river
are complete, built of solid masonry, in the best style. The
superstructure could be put on in few weeks. The only heavy
grading on the line of this road is the Roanoke bottom, and this is
almost completed likewise. The whole track is cleared out already for
the plows and scrapers. Every engineer who has passed along the line of
the road says it may be easily graded; the cuts are few and shallow; the
embankments the same. The Roanoke bridge and a small one over the upper
waters of Meherrin constitutes the only bridges on their route. |
| To complete this road then,
there only remains nineteen miles of light grading, one small bridge and
the superstructure over Roanoke bridge to build, and but twenty-six
miles of track to lay. The iron for half the road is, or was, at the
Danville depots in Richmond and at Keysville. The government could build
this road in as many weeks as it would take months to build the
Greensboro' route, and a glance at the map will demonstrate that it will
answer any purpose of the other. The distance to Columbia by this route
would not exceed the other more than thirty miles, I think, if that.
General Lee, as late as last winter, approved and recommended its
construction. Indeed, but for the financial and political convulsions of
the last twelve months the road would now have been in operation. I hope
Mr. Bucock will take the subject in hand and bring it before Congress. I
hope Mr. Pryor's jealous regard for the local interest of Petersburg
will not prevent him from supporting it. For information about the road,
I refer to Colonel B. M. Jones, Danville, late its engineer, Henry Wood
Esq., President Clarksville, or General Joseph R. Anderson, a director
formerly, and a jealous friend of the enterprise. |
| W. S. E. |
|