2006-06
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/31/2006
A group of nine war dated manuscript letters pertaining to the operations of the Southern Telegraph Company from September of 1861 to May of 1863. Taken together, these letters, written to and from the Company President, Illustrate the growing problems faced by the company as the war progressed. The grouping begins with a letter dated Sept. 5, 1861 from the director from the Southern Express Company, formed from the Southern operations of Adams Express, writing to M.R. Ethridge of the Telegraph Company, asking to purchase stock. In a letter written on September 11, 1861, Ethridge politely refuses him on the grounds that:”I have seen these parties, & find them unwilling to part with their stock on any terms. They say it is the best paying stock in the Confederacy”. Of course, this sort of optimism could not last forever. In a letter to the Company President from the General Superintendent dated January 9 of 1862 the Superintendent produces figures showing that the Company had greatly increased sales from 1860 to 1861. Already, however, there were those operators that were beginning to ask for increased pay. In a letter dated October of 1862, the Superintendent writes the President once again, discussing the need to reorganize the company and the problems caused by Genl. Bragg taking temporary control of a portion of the line as a military expedient. As time went on, the financial hardships faced by telegraph operators in the field led many of them to resign, and some of them to offer their services to the army. In a letter dated august of 1862, it is stated that General Bragg had not only taken over the telegraph lines in his area of authority, but was withholding the income generated by the part of the telegraph company lying within his influence. Finally, in a letter to the president dated May 20, 1863, the superintendent writes:”…From every office that I visited, and I visited all of the principle ones, the cry came up:” I cannot live upon my salary!” With what they were paid, the telegraph operators simply could not make ends meet, and the Army was paying far better than the company.” Needless to say, as time went on it would become increasingly difficult to operate a telegraph service of any form in the South. Telegraph lines had become a prime military target, and their destruction by the enemy was of the highest priority, in that doing so severely disrupted enemy communications. Increasingly the government would have to intervene in the operations of the telegraph companies, as their military importance left them little choice. A number of the letters have clean fold splits, some of which have been reinforced with archival tape, otherwise the lot is in very good condition
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