Hungary Branch

There is much confusion about the fate of the Branch during the war. In the spring of 1862, Secretary of the Navy Mallory tried to take the rails for use as armor for warships. Upon hearing that good rails that connected to his railroad were about to be taken by the Navy, the President of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad (P. V. Daniel, Jr) wrote President Davis to request that the rails be made available to the railroads in Virginia to keep them running (Daniel). 

In the RF&P's Ledger, we have the definite word about what happened to some of the Hungary Branch. During the first quarter of 1862, the RF&P received $5,000 from the Richmond & Petersburg Railroad for "iron and spikes on road of the Richmond & New York Coal Company -- 70 tons." This would be about 1/4 mile of both rails.

On March 7, 1862, the RF&P paid H. L. Brooke, the Confederate Government receiver, $19,500 for "the iron and spikes and 2 frogs on the track of the Richmond & New York rail road company." This would be about a mile of both tracks. An additional purchase of $418 for track fixtures occurred on January 16.

Since the above two transactions had taken place before the letter by President Daniel, and since there are no additional entries in the RF&P ledger about the Branch, I am still unsure what happened to the remaining 3 miles.

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