| Savh 1st December 61 |
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| Gov Jos E Brown |
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| Sir, |
| I deem it a duty done the
soldiers at large as well as humanity to call your attention to the
Brunswick {& Florida} Road at present
a number of troops are being transported over it at the imminent risk
of their lives & one accident will kill & maim more than a
Pitched Battle with the Lincolnites. In the first place the ties are
very Rotten In the next It has no attention. The Powers that be are
very remiss in their duty or else have not the material either of
which is no excuse as there are hundreds of negroes who have been
compelled to leave the coast that are out of employment & can be
hired very cheap The bridges Heaven save the marks are so rotten &
the new ones so incomplete that they are scarcely safe for foot
Passengers much less and Engine & Train. There is no Turnouts for
trains to pass though there is Eight hundred tons of Iron laying Idle
Ten miles an hour is an extravagant speed & nothing but the
Justice of our cause has enlisted Heaven in our protection so far. I
cannot think for a moment that you are aware of these fact or you
would try to remidy these evils. I am told by one of the engineers
from Savh who has transported all the troops so far that In case we
are ordered to the city It will take twice as long to transport us
from the fact of one grade being 106 feet to the mile up which he can
pull only half as many cars as he brings down & yet this grade is
only half a mile long & thirty men in thirty days could reduce it
to the maximum of the others. Now sir if negroes are scarce soldiers
are plenty & camped within a mile of two of these eye sores first
the Sattilla Bridge which is rotten to the core & next the grade
on the opposite side of the camp. they have only one Engine which is a
disgrace to the State when they are so many lying idle. though it were
better you should keep them than place them in the hands of men who
will burn them as they did the Lookout My private opinion is there is
no competent man connected with the Road. Proof they never run a
schedule though they have one printed. It is nothing strange to stay
an hour at a station. the Engineer is more supt than any one else
& it would take great discrimination to tell him from a negro.
These things require attention already the soldiers say they will
never ride over those Bridges the second time. If you could place a
tariff on whiskey in that part of the country maybe things would git a
little better. Please inform us why there is Yankees at the head of
all public affairs It looks rather fishy. |
| Respt |
| Soldier |
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