War Department
| January
31, 1865 |
| |
| His
Excellency Z. B. Vance, Governor of North Carolina |
| |
| Sir, |
| I ask the liberty of again pressing on your
attention the importance of having the gauge of the Piedmont road
enlarged to five feet, and I would request your intervention to
obtain from the legislature the privilege to the railroad company of
making the requisite enlargement. To the inconveniences and
impediments resulting from the narrow gauge to which, by its
charter, the Piedmont Railroad Company is restricted, are to be
ascribed most of the delays and obstructions that have so retarded
transportation on that road and periled both military operations and
the due supply of the Army of Northern Virginia. There is at present
the necessity of two stoppages and transfers of passengers and
freight--one at Greensborough and the other at Danville, and the
latter at a point which, from the grades and other circumstances, is
peculiarly slow and inconvenient. Besides the rolling stock and
machinery of the {Richmond &} Danville road are now wholly unavailable for the
Piedmont road, and at this time it is almost impossible to provide
adequately for a new road. The two roads, if of the same gauge,
might be managed far more economically and satisfactorily together,
and results in accommodation both to the public and the army
attained, which, under the present disconnection and with the
necessity of separate rolling stock and separate arrangements,
cannot be anticipated. On this single route is now thrown almost the
whole travel and freight from the south, and the safety, both of
this and your own State, to say nothing of the general interests of
the public, demand that all practicable facilities and aid should be
given for the due discharge of its important functions. I venture to
hope your legislature will not be insensible to the momentous
considerations that recommend the withdrawal at this time of a
restriction which seriously hampers the operations of the road and
materially diminishes its usefulness.
|
| Very respectfully, yours, |
| James A. Seddon |
| Secretary of War |
|