Blue Ridge Railroad Bridge

Hauling the last shipment of Confederate gold

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Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

“A few miles from Seneca, S. C. on the Blue Ridge Railroad there was a station called Perryville; now only a few rocks remain on the south side of the track to mark the spot. There was a bar-room, where doubtless many regaled themselves. One man who lived nearby would light his pipe with a one dollar bill. Let us hope he never regretted what had gone up in smoke.

“A family who lived across the road were fine businessmen, and their sons established the Tate Marble works of Elberton, Georgia. They were very successful in their enterprise and one of them built a large home of pink marble which was a show place in that vicinity.

$32.65 gold ingot, Confederate States of America, 1863
$32.65 gold ingot, Confederate States of America, 1863

“A few miles down the Railroad, established many years ago, and recently enlarged, is Shiloh cut where Mr. Calhoun Clemson, only son of Thomas G. Clemson [founder of Clemson University] and his wife, Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson, was killed on the Railroad. He was said to be an unusually handsome man with a promising future.

“The Blue Ridge was called the Old Blunder Buss in those days and the people seemed not to realize the importance and the great future of the railroads [ed.—SC statesman John C. Calhoun did! He was a member of the original surveying team.]

“The Blue Ridge was the bearer of the last shipment of Confederate gold, and the seal of state was said to have been thrown into the Savannah River.

“At Pendleton, during the War Between the States, the people eagerly gathered around the station when the train came to hear the news read, especially the Casualty List in which all were vitally interested.

“The tunnel, only a few miles from Walhalla, was begun in 1851 or ’52 and is about one and one-third miles long. It was cut through Stump House Mountain and was intended as a link in the Blue Ridge Railway from Knoxville, Tenn., to Charleston, S.C., for the purpose of transporting the coal of the Tennessee mountains to the sea.

Stump House Mountain tunnel
Stump House Mountain tunnel

“While the work was in progress [the town, also named “The Tunnel,” had a population of] about 2,000 at this point. When the tunnel was about two-thirds finished, the war came on and the work was never finished. Two or more men lost their lives during its construction.”

Mary Cherry Doyle
“Historic Oconee County, South Carolina” (1935)
Clemson, SC

2 comments

  1. Could you please explain more where the old Perryville station used to be? I would love to go there.

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