The Construction of the Chatham Railroad

The Construction of the Chatham Railroad

During the Revolutionary War, deposits of coal and iron had been found and used along the Deep River, some 40 miles northwest of present Fayetteville, North Carolina. As soon as the war demand ceased, the mine became too expensive to operate because of the lack of cheap transportation. As railroads began to be developed in the state, in the 1840’s, the possible use of that new mode of transportation to provide the cheap transportation was discussed.

The Raleigh & Gaston Railroad was the company with an active interest. This road could never become very profitable because of its low population density, with Raleigh being describes as “a mere village.” If, however, the road could carry iron and coal from Deep River, through Raleigh and on to Norfolk (on the future Seaboard & Roanoke Railroad), higher traffic could be assured. But coal from the Richmond area would be much cheaper and there was little demand for remote iron – so taping the region remained a dream in Raleigh. Wilmington and Fayetteville could provide cheaper transportation, but still without a major market for the products.

As the sectional crisis developed in the late 1850’s, interest increased once more. But, the Raleigh & Gaston Railroad officers now had eyes for a much bigger project – a fast, straight line from Richmond to Mobile, Vicksburg and New Orleans. Their view had the Raleigh & Gaston feeding into a road that headed from Raleigh to Columbia, through (or at least near) the Deep River region. Since the proposed mining area was in the southern end of Chatham County, the railroad was to be the Chatham Railroad. Though sold as a road to develop the iron and coal resources greatly needed by the new Confederacy, the road’s future President, Kemp P. Battle, stated after the war that the intention from the beginning had been to keep going past the mines and connect with a South Carolina railroad (the Cheraw & Coalfields Railroad) to create a fast, main line railroad.

To jump to the end of the story, the railroad was not completed until after the war. It bypassed the mines, and never carried a carload of iron or coal. And it was incorporated into a main line route.

Nevertheless, the players sold their idea as an essential support for the Confederate war machine. The coal was of excellent quality and the iron was of the type and quality for ordnance and boiler iron, as well as for railroad uses. The newspapers were full of supporting articles and the Assembly issued a revised charter for the Chatham Railroad – all in the early spring of 1861.

But agreement was not easily forthcoming and the Convention did not pass the final version of the revised charter and agree to the financial arrangements until early February, 1862. The final speeches for the new charter, and the road, were published in the Raleigh papers and show that the future officers of the road were making their case on the war needs of the country. Subscription books were opened only a week after the Convention’s approval. Within a month, the Raleigh & Gaston Railroad had agreed to buy 2,000 shares and the City of Raleigh had agreed to buy $50,000 of shares.

On April 16^th, the new company held its organizational meeting. Not surprisingly, the President elected was Kemp Battle (Attorney for the City of Raleigh) and of the five Directors, four were associated with the Raleigh & Gaston Railroad (including its past President, George Mordecai, and its present one, Dr. Williams Hawkins). Just like the Richmond & Danville Railroad had used the war to get the long-desired Piedmont Railroad built, so the Raleigh & Gaston had used the war to get the long-desired Chatham Railroad built.

The new President, and his Chief Engineer, Ellwood Morris, issued a call for contractors’ bid on October 8^th, with bids closing on November 1^st. The final charter required the road to meet the North Carolina Railroad some place west of Raleigh, but within twelve miles of the city. The company finally sold the North Carolina Railroad on a plan for the Chatham Railroad to widen the cuts from Raleigh to Cary (eight miles) and the Chatham Railroad would run on its own tracks alongside the North Carolina Railroad tracks, saving four miles of grading. The bids being sought were for the next part of the job, the grading and masonry on the middle division, the twenty-three miles from Cary to Lockville. Mine products could be shipped by boat down the Deep River to Lockville until the third section could be built in the future.

Unfortunately for the road, no satisfactory bids were received and, on November 5^th, a new call for bids was made. By December 17^th, the firm of I. N. Clegg & Co. had secured the contract, with a completion of grading due on January 10, 1864. Their contractors, however, asked to be released from the contract after a short while, as the increasing prices and difficulty procuring labor had made it impossible for them to meet the requirements. They were allowed to leave and the road continued with a man it hired directly to supervise the work.

On January 21, 1863, President Battle wrote Governor Vance that the company had received subscriptions of over $250,000 dollars and he was now allowed by the charter to ask the state to exchange bonds with the company. However, he had not done so since he expected major subscriptions from the Seaboard & Roanoke Railroad and the mining companies on Deep River. Unfortunately, part of the Seaboard & Roanoke had been captured by the enemy (the Portsmouth and Suffolk area) so they were no longer able to subscribe. The mines were mostly owned by Northern firms and had thus been seized under the confiscation law – meaning they would not be subscribing either. Therefore, he proposed that the charter be changed to the State purchasing $10,000 of the railroad’s stock each time ten miles had been graded and was ready for the superstructure. He noted that this was the same as had been extended to the Western Railroad and was less than that provided many roads. He also noted that this would put $300,000 fewer of the State’s bonds on the market, thus preserving the State’s borrowing power. The change in the charter to allow this change had already been proposed in a bill in the House of Commons. The proposal was not approved.

March 14^th, the contractor advertised for 300 hands to work on the grading of the road. The work would be done in a healthy country, on a high ridge, with the hands well fed and cared for. Hires would be by the month or the year. Everyone was confident that planters would be happy to move their hands inland for safety and a guaranteed income, but that proved to not be the case and the ads continued through the end of July.

On November 8^,1863, the company re-opened its stock subscription books in an effort to raise capital to allow faster work on the road. The road also put $30,000 of State bonds up for sale, having done so once before for $50,000.

Progress continued slowly, with too little labor and with difficulties in supplying the men and animals. But at least the number of hands went up when, upon the completion of the Piedmont Railroad (April, 1864), contractors John & Edmund Wilkes furnished their force to assist, doubling the hands on the job. The Wilkes furnished an average of ninety hands per day from May 13 through August 23, as well as fifty-five animals. The report containing this data is a bill, showing the very high prices the contractors were spending on feeding their men and animals because the local sources would not sell food and feed for cash.

Railroad construction projects usually had two main problems – labor and iron. Labor had been an issue from the beginning, but only on July 2, 1864 did the railroad request the Government to supply them with twenty-nine miles of U or T-rail for the track. Army Chief Engineer Gilmer answered three weeks later that the requirement would be considered by the Iron Commission, alongside all other requests for rails. On October 5^th, President Battle wrote the Engineer Bureau that he would take enough 23-pound per yard strap iron from the Richmond & Danville Railroad to lay twenty-three miles of track and sidings and he wanted to know the price for the iron. This was probably iron that had been removed and replaced by T-rail in the years’ long upgrading of the lower portion of that railroad.

After the war, President Battle wrote that he had obtained the services of Major E. T. D. Myers, who had built the Piedmont Railroad. It appears that Myers must have been assigned to provide iron and supplies to the Chatham project, since he spent the fall dealing with rail removal from various small railroads to support more important roads.

The next problem was straightforward – the landowners along the route of the road refused to sell their trees for construction. Battle asked the Engineer Bureau to send an officer to impress the trees. The Bureau usually refused to do such, but there is no document answering the request.

A month later, December 17^th, Battle placed ads for 500 hands for grading and track laying and for another 100 carpenters – and also a portable saw mill. The response is unknown. However, on March 6, 1865, Battle wrote Governor Vance that eighteen of the twenty miles from Cary to the Haw River had been graded and ties were available for fifteen of the miles. He requested that twenty-two miles of rail be furnished through the good offices of the state. Battle said that the employees of the Endor Iron Works (which was owned by the Lockville Mining and Manufacturing Company, which was owned by Battle and a few others) could complete the road to the Raleigh side of the Haw River in less than thirty days. The state was not able to supply the rail, but Battle later said some unused side-line’s rail in Virginia was made available (perhaps a poor memory of receiving Richmond & Danville Railroad rail, as mentioned above). It appears that the first eight miles of this rail was used on the Raleigh to Cary portion of the Chatham Railroad, laid next to the North Carolina Railroad, and was still there after the war.

Work continued until Union forces under General Sherman arrived in the vicinity of the work in March. The company tried to save as much of their material as possible, but it was all captured, along with the road itself.

In the late 1860’s, under new President William Hawkins, also President of the Raleigh & Gaston Railroad, the road come to life again. The State provided aid and construction began again. On the sleigh, the route was changed to skip the coalfields and continue to meet the South Carolina road at the state line. The road vanished in December, 1871 when it was sold at auction to the Raleigh & Augusta Air Line Railroad.