| From the Richmond Examiner |
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| September 20, 1861 |
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| The Richmond & York River Railroad --
Communications with the Peninsula |
| The following correspondence,
which we have been requested to publish, explains itself: |
| To Alex. R. Holladay, President of the
Board of Public Works: |
| The deep interest ever
manifested by you, in whatever pertains to the public good, to the
comfort and benefit of the Confederate army, to the success of our
internal improvements, and of consequence to the stockholders, other
than the Commonwealth, would justify me in calling the attention of the
public, through your name, to any abuse which the public could justly
complain; but to you, as President of the Board of Public Works, and to
that Board through you, I, as a tax-payer and constituent, as a soldier
and stockholder, sympathizing with the one and suffering with the other,
call your attention and appeal for that relief to the soldier and
justice to the stockholders which the Board of Directors of the Richmond
& York River Railroad Company declined to render and fail to secure. To
those familiar with the history of this road, it is known that the
States owns 300,000 of the 500,000 dollars of capital stock, under the
original act of incorporation; that, finding this amount insufficient,
some three hundred thousand dollars worth (full value) of bonds were
sold at a heavy depreciation, and bearing a high rate of interest. This
being still inadequate for the construction and completion of the road,
the General Assembly, after the most anxious consideration and laborious
efforts, upon the part of the friends of the improvement, appropriated
$200,000 more. |
| At the last session of the
General Assembly, the friends of this road represented that if an
additional appropriation was not made from the public treasury, the work
must be sold out to satisfy mortgages held by its creditors. To this
condition was it reduced; unable from its receipts to build necessary
depots, to purchase additional rolling stock, and even to pay monthly
its agents, employees, officials, and current expenses. But, fortunately
for the interests of the company, the military operations in the
peninsula and upon York river, made this road a military necessity, and
from this source it has been the recipient of daily accruing revenue
from transportation of troops and quartermaster and commissary stores,
and would, at this very time, be the recipient of increased and
increasing resources, were it made to connect, by steamboat, with the
military posts on York river. This company, you will recollect,
notwithstanding the crippled condition of its finances, purchased a
steamer to run in connection with the cars, which purchase they asked
the General Assembly to legalize, and the General Assembly did legalize
the purchase, upon the ground that it was necessary to have a steamboat
to run in connection with the cars upon the road; otherwise the road
would be utterly unproductive, and prove a failure. The steamer West
Point, purchased for the sum of $40,000, was sent once too often to
Norfolk, after the breaking out of hostilities, and has been prevented
ever since from returning, by the Yankee blockade. Utterly without the
means of speedy and easy communication with any point beyond its Eastern
terminus, the Confederate Government, at no little risk and hazard,
procured the services of another steamer, for purposes of defence on
York river. Now, to have absolute control, for purposes of military
defence, of a medium required for the transportation of troops, as well
as quartermaster's supplies and subsistence stores for forces, the
Confederate Government purchased this small, slow, and indifferent
steamer, because it was the only one possibly to be purchased, for which
it paid (for purchase and repairs,) upwards of thirty thousand dollars
to put its defences in easy, direct and immediate connection with
Richmond, through the Richmond & York River Railroad, from whence its
troops, for the defence of the country, were to be obtained, as
necessity required, as also the stores and subsistence, equally as
necessary as the troops themselves. Under the circumstances, should
there not be a daily communication, by railroad and steamboat, from
Richmond to Yorktown and back? Is there? No, sir; and why not? The
steamer was purchased by the Government as a transport, not as a
financial operation, to be used and run for gain. If lost, its place
cannot be supplied, and the highest authorities in the Confederate
Government, whose knowledge of its necessity and importance to the
Government none can question, and whose fidelity to the best interests
of our country all acknowledge -- such as Gen. Lee, Gen. Magruder and
Colonel Myers, Quartermaster-General -- say that it shall not remain at
Yorktown during the night. This high authority, having the entire
confidence of the public, is sufficient to satisfy all that the boat
ought not to remain at Yorktown during the night, (save and except the
directors of the Richmond & York River Railroad Company). Now, Mr.
President, the directors say (I mean by their acts) that they will not
run on any schedule, connecting daily from and to Yorktown, unless the
steamer remains the night at Yorktown, notwithstanding the railroad
loses daily by the operation not less than from $100 to $150. |
| I readily acknowledge the road
might make as much if the steamer would remain over night at Yorktown
and make the daily connection to and from Richmond, but ought it to
remain there -- can it in safety d so? Why, sir, had we not the
authority above cited -- reasons are many as blackberries why it should
not, and I will not, therefore, relate them all. But thee is no safe
anchorage at Yorktown in a storm unless coming some distance above, if
then, for a steamboat; there is no wharfage there in weather. If a
hostile vessel were to ascend the river, the steamer would be the first
object of an attack and destruction, and she would be helpless unless
she always kept up a head of steam for escape. The road has no depot at
West Point, and but a small wharf and by keeping the steamboat there at
night it is used by the Government not only as a transport, but as a
storehouse -- the thousands of barrels of hard bread, flour, sugar and
other stores badly, often horribly coopered, exposed on a naked and
small wharf during the night to the inclemency of the weather would be
injured, if not entirely ruined; whereas, by the steamer remaining at
West Point, they are immediately transferred from the cars and delivered
on board the steamer, likewise saving an additional handling. Whenever
unexpectedly -- because it cannot be obviated -- for the defense of the
country, regiments of troops have to be sent to the Peninsula, the boat
will always be at West Point ready to transport them, never being absent
from the latter lace, except during the time for making the trip, and
when at the Point, convenient to Richmond, for any repairs to her
machinery, constantly required. |
| Now, Mr. President, what
prevents the railroad from changing its present schedule of running?
They say that if they have o leave West Point at 4 P. M., they will have
to run their cars at night. The Eastern end of the road, they say, is
not safe to run over at night; that they have but three locomotives and
are afraid to lose them; that the way travel will not get to the city
during bank hours, to take up their notes and will have to stay in the
city two nights, instead of one, as now, and consequently lose their
travel; and that their locomotives, hardly enough, would not be in
Richmond, except at night, when they could not have the repairs made
which they are ever liable to need. These are their objections,
insuperable to them. Can they be even objections to you, when they have
two first-class locomotives in capacity, condition and order; one other
ordinarily good, and another being repaired, and will be finished and in
running order next week? With these they now leave Richmond daily,
except Sunday, at 5 A. M., with the freight train, and arrive at West
Point at 8 A. M.; with the mail train leave Richmond at 8 A. M. and
arrive at 10 A. M.; the mail train, returning, leaves West Point at 12
M. and arrives at Richmond at 2 P. M.; the freight train leaves West
Point at 12 !/4 P. M. and arrives at Richmond about 3 1/2 P. M. It
requires an hour or more to shift the passenger trains, and from two to
three hours to shift the freight trains, according to the freight to be
delivered and received. What time does this give for the repairs to be
made? Recollect they have no shops and have to send to others up town to
have their work done, and in order for which they must be in Richmond
during part of the day. Why, sir, only tow hours for the mail train --
after the middle of November -- and not minute for the freight
train before the setting of the sun. |
| Now, Mr. President, I
appreciate this last reason as a substantial one, and propose a schedule
which will connect daily with the steamer from Richmond, to and from
Yorktown, and which will secure the travel of from fifty to one hundred
passengers, now going daily by the James river boats, and to the company
from $100 to $150 daily, and which will thereby have, in Richmond,
daily, one of the locomotives, from 11 A. M. to 4 P. M. Let the mail
train leave Richmond daily at 6 A. M., arrive at West Point at 8 A. M.,
and connect with the boat at Yorktown. The boat will return from
Yorktown under all -- even the most unfavorable -- circumstances in
seven hours, and connect with the cars to Richmond. The cars will then
leave West Point at 4 P. M., pass over the Eastern part of the road --
"the unsafe part" -- before sunset, and reach Richmond by 6 P. M. The
freight train will leave Richmond at 4 P. M., arrive at West Point at 6
1/2 P. M., leave West Point next morning after unloading and
transferring its freight immediately upon the steamer, at 8 A.M., or
sooner, arrive at Richmond at 11 A. M. Can't the way-travel get to
Richmond by this schedule to attend to their banking business and return
the next morning without having to spend two nights in Richmond? |
| All of the so-called
objections I believe are here answered. Mr. President, you are aware
that the stockholders have virtually lost the amount subscribed; that
many of them could not afford this loss; that a large amount of the
bonds sold were taken by the stockholders with a promise of 8 per cent.
per annum, to be paid semi-annually; that they should at least receive
the interest upon their bonds. You must know of the impracticability, if
not impossibility, of a meeting of the stockholders, from the fact of so
large a number of them having enlisted in the service of the country for
this war. Your know, sir, the great advantage and facility to the
soldiers, with a furlough of four days, not to lose one of that four for
want of connection at West Point, or to take the James river boats at an
additional cost, and they receiving but $11 per month. The cost to the
soldier, with this connection would be but $1 to or from Richmond to
Yorktown; whereas, it costs them at least that sum to get to the Grove
Wharf, and then an addition of $-- to Richmond. Sir, the State, which
owns some 5/7ths of the road, ought to have her interests looked to,
cared for, and protected. In the Board, the State has about this
proportion of directors -- they are appointed by your Board. It is
respectfully inquired of you, under these circumstances, whose duty is
it to apply the remedy. By a taxpayer, a soldier, a constituent and a |
| Stockholder |
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