The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1882-04-01
Wrocldng . Railway.

FJ6m daylight Of Wednesday, Decenl-
Ter It'll, We marched, through rain and
stiG mud, steadily Inward the South,
CRUISING the NOttaway river on pom
toons 1t p. M, and halting 1t mid
night for such reet - We could find on
the cold, damp soil Of . c0rn-field. Next
day, on again we went, straight toward
the South, through Sussex COurt-hOuse
at 10 q. M, halting ut dusk near the
Weldon and Petersburg Railway, about
five miles from the North Carolina line.
We soon learned that this was to be y
winter raid Oh the enemy's commune
cations, to destroy the Weldon road and
80 render It useless to them.
Never was railway 80 completely de.
stroyed! The morning after We had
reached the scene of operations, In the
drixxling rain and falling sleet. the
whole command was set to work.
A. far ~ the eye could zee
down the road were men In Glue,
Invested of weapons and accOutrements,
prying and wrenching, and tearing
away ut iron rails and wooden ties. 1t
was well-built rOad and hard to tear
up. The rails were what are known ~
1T" rails, and each being security fas-
tened to its neighbor ut either end by u
stout bar of iron or steel which had been
forced in the groove Of the 7, the track
was virtually two long, unbrOken rails
Tor its whole length.
mo use tryin' to tear up them rails
from the tier, Major" said an old rail-
reader, with touch of his cap. 1.-THE
plagued things are all spliced together
ut the i'ints, and the only way IL get
them Of is to Dry up the whole thing,
rails, ties and all, and then split the
ties Off from the rails when you've got
her upside down."
So. with fence-rails for levers, the
men fell to work, prying and heave-I'
ho-ing, until one side Of the road, ties,
track, and all, pulled and wrenched by
thousands Of strong arms. began to l0Gs'
en- and move. and was raised gradually
higher and higher. Forced ut last to y
perpendicular, 1t was pushed over and
laid upside down with . mighty
cheer.
Once the thing was started, it was
easy enough to roll miles and miles of Il
over without . break. And 90 brigade
after brigade did roll it, splitting off the
ties, and wrenching away the rails.
1t was not enough, however, merely
to destroy the track-the rails must be
made forever useless as rails. Accord
ingly, the ties were piled in heaps, Of
built up 40 children build corn cob hOu
ses, and then the heaps were fired. Thu
rails were laid across the burning pile
where they soon became rcd-hOt in
the middle, and bent themselves
double by tho weight Of their ends
which hung out beyond the reach Of thu
fire. In some cases, however, q grim
and humorous conceit led to . more ar
tistic use of the heated rails, for many o
them were taken and carried to tre'
hard by, and twisted two or three times
around the trunk, while not . few Of til.
men hit upon the happy device Of bend
ing the rails, some into the shape Of
u, and others into the shape Of an s
and setting them up by pairs against tn
fences along the line, in order that, II
this oft-repeated iron u. g., 1t might b.
seen that Uncle Sam had been looking
around in those perts.-Harry ~ kic1
fer in "RceoIIcctions Of q Dr"mnsc
B0y"; 81. Nicholas for April.