| From the Savannah Morning News |
| |
| March 25, 1863 |
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| Southern Railroads |
| The condition of the Southern
railroads is such as to occasion serious apprehension. The long
continuance of the blockade, shutting out our railroads corporations
from foreign supplies of rail, and the headlong rush with which,
necessarily, everything is now carried on, tearing to pieces the roads
as built, are having a most deleterious effect upon the tracks and are
producing results which may soon involve us in difficulty. The roads are
fast wearing out, and there is nothing with which to supply the defects
caused by decay and wear and tear. So far as we know, there is not now
in the Confederacy, a manufactory for the making of good T iron for the
railroads. |
| Should the war continue any
considerable length of time, and these roads be employed as they have
been in the last two years, we may justly tremble for our means of rapid
transportation. By accident, almost, the Southern roads were well
supplied with rails when the war broke out. But even this supply cannot
last always, and where the next is to come from just now interests not a
few. |
| Besides this, we know of no
manufactory of rolling stock that can be relied upon to furnish the
adequate amount. From defective roads (made so partly by the heavy
trains of freight that have thundered over them for the past two years),
daily accidents are occurring, more or less injuring the rolling stock
of the roads. On some of them, accidents have become of such frequent
occurrence that they are lined with broken cars and wrecks of
locomotives. |
| The time may come when the
rapid concentration of armies may be of as much importance as food for
the soldiers. If these roads are not soon repaired, they will be
inadequate to the performance of such a feat. The results will be a most
serious damage to our cause. |
|
With the aid of the women of the Confederacy, the soldiers
may be clothed without foreign aid. There is enough food in the country
to feed our armies until the next crop is gathered. Why cannot the
vessels, now every day running the blockade, be employed to bring in
supplies for our railroads? The rolling stock, if preparations are
immediately made, might be furnished at home; but the rails must be
brought from abroad, and it is time that attention was called to this
subject. |
| Jackson Crisis |
|