Executive Department of North Carolina
| Raleigh, November 21, 1862 |
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| Hon. S. R. Mallory |
| Secretary of the Navy |
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Dear Sir,
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| Upon consultation with the directors
of the Atlantic & North Carolina Railroad Company, I have
concluded to let you have the iron for the gunboat building on the
Neuse River if you will get it from the torn-up portion of the road
nearest the enemy. In consideration of the alarming condition of our
main roads (the iron giving way, etc.), it is deemed advisable that
the iron taken from the Atlantic road, which is nearly new, be
exchanged with the other roads for their damaged rails, which I am
told will answer for rolling as well as the others. The bolt iron of
the destroyed bridges across the Neuse you can also have.
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| In regard to the other boat in the Tar or
Roanoke, I think you ought to furnish with iron from the Seaboard
and Roanoke Road, which is close on hand and is principally the
property, as I am informed, of an alien enemy.
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| Please let me know if these propositions meet
your approval. The railroad company, of course, expects to accept
your proposition for providing for a return of the iron. |
| Very respectfully, your obedient servant |
| Z. B. Vance |
| {Governor} |
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