Richmond & Danville Railroad

Richmond and Danville Railroad. Reconstruction Period. , When Confederate President Jefferson Davis was informed April 2, 1865, that Petersburg had fallen and Federal armies were approaching, he used the Richmond and Danville Railroad to evacuate his government to Danville., Ten days later, after Davis’ refugee government continued south, the rail bridge crossing the Dan River barely escaped demolition orders issued by Confederate Gen. Lunsford L. Lomax., Danville Mayor J.M. Walker protested the order as a useless and unjustified sacrifice of public property and asked that the order be suspended., On April 27, 1865, the Union Sixth Corps arrived in Danville. An entire division of 8,000 soldiers was moved from Danville to Burkeville May 2-5., Eighteen thousand men made the trip to Manchester on the Richmond and Danville, May 10-22. By June more than 800 soldiers a day, some Union moving north, some paroled prisoners moving south, used the road. Total soldier traffic reached 15,600., In 1894, the Richmond and Danville and dozens of its associated lines were absorbed by the new Southern Railway Company, becoming part of a rail empire expanding to more than 8,000 miles. Even though automobiles, buses and airplanes have swallowed the declining passenger lines, and the signs at the stations on the old Richmond and Danville now read: “Freight Service Only,” the railroad of Whitmell P. Tunstall still performs a vital role in the system that serves the South.,

”It requires courage and patriotism to achieve a great enterprise. Ignorance and vulgarity may abuse it. The prize is before you; to win it, you have only to will it. – Despise it; there are others eager to clutch it.” – Whitmell P. Tunstall, 1850