ing them in their original position with their first mortgage lien upon the road.

The Company has a large claim against the United States Government for railroad iron and other materials taken by the United States forces during the war, properly receipted for by the Government officers on taking possession of the same. This amount will no doubt be accepted by the Government in part payment of the sum of seventy-two thousand one hundred and seventy-three dollars, due by the Company to the Government, for rolling stock bought at New Orleans and Nashville since the close of the war.

Thus it will be seen that the monetary condition of the Company is most encouraging, and that, with continued watchfulness over its affairs, and economy in the expenditure of its constantly increasing receipts, the obligations of the Company towards its bondholders and other creditors will certainly be met at maturity; and that, before many years, the road will become a source of profit to the States of Louisiana and Mississippi, the city of New Orleans, and the other stockholders.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

MEMPHIS AND CHARLESTON RAILROAD.

THE through route between Memphis and Charleston, in South Carolina, which is seven hundred and fiftysix miles long, is composed of the following railroads :

Memphis and Charleston Railroad, from Mem. Miles. phis to Stephenson, in Alabama

The southern part of the Nashville.and Chattanooga Railroad, from Stephenson to Chattanooga. The Western and Atlantic Railroad, from Chattanooga to Atlanta, in Georgia

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The Memphis and Charleston Railroad was designed, at first, to furnish an air line route between those two cities, and in order to accomplish this, a route was selected and surveyed between Decatur, in Alabama, on the Tennessee River, and Atlanta. But this road, as thus surveyed, has never been built. The route in use at present, although reasonably direct, is not an air line. The road from Memphis to Stephenson, two hundred and seventy-two miles, was built about the year 1850, and was in full operation in 1851. From

that time till 1861, its operations were conducted with great success, and to the entire satisfaction of the stockholders. The want of such a road had long been felt, and its completion, together with the subsequent completion of its extensions to Charleston, as above, gave the planters along its route the means of rapidly transporting their crops, at reasonable rates, to Charleston, whence they were shipped to New York and Liverpool by steamers. The completion of the road, and the facilities that it thus afforded, acted as a powerful stimulus to production. All the plantations, for miles on each side of the route, were worked to their fullest extent, and thousands of acres were added to the cultivated lands, each succeeding year. The productions of the southern part of Tennessee, and of the northern part of Mississippi and Alabama, rapidly increased each year: and the prosperity of the road itself, owing to its increased business, became so much enhanced by the year 1860, that the project of commencing to build the air line connection, between Decatur and Atlanta, was seriously entertained. This project, perhaps, would have been carried out at that time, had it not been for the breaking out of the war. That event, however, disarranged all plans of this kind.

The road, however, was operated as usual until the eleventh of April, 1862, and proved to be of great use to the south, in the transportation of troops and military supplies during the first year of the war. On the 9th of January, 1862, the directors were able to declare a dividend of 33 per cent. on the profits of the road.

On the eleventh of April, 1862, the United States

military forces, under Gen. Mitchell, occupied Huntsville, Alabama, and took possession of the road from Stephenson to Tuscumbia, together with eighteen locomotives, one hundred freight cars, a large number of passenger cars and some baggage cars, the shop at Huntsville with its tools and material, and a large amount of wood, cross-ties, and other valuable property on the line of the road between Decatur and StephenFive days before this capture, the bloody battle of Shiloh had been fought near the line of the road, north of Corinth. The Confederate troops were falling back to their intrenchments at Corinth, and the Federal army was pressing up the line of the road near Big Bear Creek.

son.

Immediately after the capture of Huntsville, the Confederate commander at Corinth gave orders for the remainder of the rolling stock west of Huntsville to be concentrated at and west of Corinth with the least possible delay. The Federal army was then moving rapidly in order to frustate this movement, and, under the excitement and haste attending the surrounding scenes, it was made in great confusion, and much loss of property necessarily took place. The pressing necessity for railroad aid, and the exciting scenes in and around Corinth from the eleventh of April, to the 30th of May, incident to a heavy and determined siege, and the concentration of two immense and hostile armies, taxed the road, its rolling stock, and the energies of its officers and men to their utmost capacity, day and night.

On the 29th of May, 1862, the Confederate forces at Corinth, and on the line of the railroad, retired south

ward, and by the order of the military authorities of the Confederacy, all the machinery and rolling stock were carried to points further south, by way of the Mobile and Ohio, and Ohio and Mississippi Central Railroads.

Before the last trains leaving Corinth could reach Cypress Creek, thirteen miles west of Corinth, the bridge across that stream was burned, preventing the further progress of trains, which, by military order, were abandoned and partially destroyed. The road lost four locomotives, one passenger car, and thirty-two freight cars.

A subsequent order located the machinery and rolling stock at Marion Station, on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, five miles north of Meridian, in Mississippi, at which place the Company erected a temporary shop. The repairs of engines and cars were commenced here, and continued till June, 1863, during which time military requisitions were made, and the stock taken and distributed on the Selma and Meridian, and southern railroads. In July and August, 1863, nineteen locomotives and eighty-three passenger and freight cars were removed to Montgomery, in Alabama, by order of General Pemberton, incurring water transportation of twenty miles. After the arrival of the rolling stock, &c., at Montgomery, the Quartermaster-General of the Confederate States army distributed it all, except six passenger cars, on various southern roads, where it remained till the close of the war. The rolling stock, tools, and materials remaining at Montgomery, in Alabama, were all destroyed by General Wilson's United States forces. A large amount of the rolling stock on