William S. Ashe: The Confederacy's Railroad Man

William Shepperd Ashe had already made himself one of the most important railroad men in North Carolina before the Civil War. He served in Congress and as president of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, one of the longest lines in the world at the time. When war came in eighteen sixty-one, his old friend Jefferson Davis called on him personally to take charge of railroad transportation for the Confederacy, coordinating the rail network between New Orleans and Richmond.

Ashe accepted and threw himself into the task, but the Confederacy's fragmented, privately owned rail system made the job nearly impossible. His tenure ended tragically in eighteen sixty-two when he was returning by handcar after learning his son had been captured, and an unlighted train struck it in the night, and he died days later. His home stood a mile west of this marker.