April 8, 1864 (Tuesday): Pickett's Charge

General George Edward Pickett

WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A.,
Richmond, Va., April 8, 1864
Major General GEORGE E. PICKETT,
Commanding, Petersburg, Va.:
    GENERAL: It has become a matter of strict military necessity that six miles of iron should be at once taken and removed from the Charlotte and Statesville Railroad in North Carolina, for the completion of the Piedmont Railroad, which will be ready for its track as soon as the iron can arrive. I have sent from here a detachment of engineer troops to remove the iron, and have ordered the officer in charge to report by letter to you. I must ask you to sustain this the ground of positive necessity, and it might be well for you to send a discreet officer to the point to direct operations and meet any contingency of possible opposition. I rely upon your prompt attention to this.
     Respectfully,


    JAMES A. SEDDON.
    Secretary of War.

Official Records, Series I., Vol. 33, Part 1, Page 1268.

It was a good indication of the problems facing the Confederate administration that Pickett would be charged with taking up six miles of railroad iron from a road in North Carolina to take the road between Greensboro and Danville.