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434 BETWEEN THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES
they were most needed to be tight and snug on the locomotives.
him a long personal letter, assuring him, in substance, that he
This failing particularly affected the set-screws of the was not one of the number in the management that did not
eccentrics, so that an engine would rarely travel over one or approve of his discipline.
two miles before being incapacitated. Almost every locomotive
Ex-Superintendent McCallum devoted himself to his private
with which the Company attempted to run trains, for a
long time, the strikers managed to disable in some such way,
in spite of the watchfulness of those who were put in charge
business until 1862, when, February rst of that year, he
was appointed by Secretary Stanton military director and
superintendent of the military railroads of the United States,
of the Company's interest, until "able-bodied" engines with authority to take possession of all railroads and rolling
were the exception. The cost to the Erie in this damage to stock that might be required for the transportation of troops,
property was enormous.
After a time, the Company persisting in its strike, although
its railroad was nearly paralyzed at a critical time otherwise
arms, military supplies, etc. He ranked as a colonel. He
found only one railroad in possession of the Government—
the one running from Washington to Alexandria. He speedily
in the Company's affairs, many of the old and best engineers
changed the state of affairs. His work in establishing
went to other railroads throughout the country, where they
gave the Erie a name that cost it thousands of dollars in loss
the network of railroads that forwarded so materially the
efforts of McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, Meade, and Grant,
of patronage. One of the prime movers in the strike was respectively, in the Peninsular campaign, at Fredericksburg,
Horatio G. Brooks. He went to the Ohio and Mississippi Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and other fields, belongs to the
Railroatl as master mechanic, and when Charles Minot returned
history of the Civil War, where it is amply recorded. During
to the Erie as superintendent in 1859, Brooks came
back also, and became later superintendent of the Western
Division, and subsequently master mechanic of the entire
his memorable work of hurrying troops forward to the
rescue of Grant when he was cornered at Chancellorsville,
he placed Gen. Carl Schurz under arrest for officious meddling
road. Most of the other oltl engineers returned when Minot
with his plans. McCallum saved Grant at Chancellors­
was reappointed. It may be said that the strike never was ville, antl was made a Brigadier-General by Stanton as a reward
settled, but after six months of almost constant disturbance
for his services on that occasion. General McCallum
and interruption to traffic, Superintendent McCallum resigned.
built 2,105 miles of new railroad and twenty-six bridges, and
The loss to the Company in actual outlay because rebuilt 640 miles of old railroad, to meet the necessities of
of this strike was nearly half a million dollars. The damage the Union army during the war, besides confiscating and
to the Company by loss in traffic was incalculable, and was
one of the main causes of its bankruptcy in 1859, it never
opening to the service of the Northern generals the great network
of old railroads without which our armies would have
having recovered from the direct and collateral consequences been powerless against the enemy. He expended $42,000,-
of the unfortunate conflict.
000 of the Government money in his work, and accounted
for every cent of it.
After the war, in 1865, he retired to private life, making
his home at Glen Mary, at Owego, a place made famous by
Nathaniel P. Willis, who lived there at one time, and where
he built an elegant residence.
General McCallum was a poet of no mean order, one of
his poems being "The Water Mill," known everywhere as a
perennially popular one, the rendering of the refrain of which,
" The mill will never grind again with the water that is past,"
Daniel Craig McCallum was born at Renfrewshire, Scotland,
in 1814. His father, Peter McCallum, who was a tailor,
emigrated to this country in 1822, antl settled in Rochester,
N. Y. JSfot liking his father's trade, he left home with
his entire wardrobe tied up in a handkerchief. He walked
his way to Lundy's Lane, where he apprenticed himself to
learn the trade of carpenter. He became a skilful architect,
designing St. Joseph's Church, Odd Fellows Hall, the Mansion
House Block, the Waverly Hotel, the House of Refuge,
and other prominent buildings in Rochester. He developed
a strong taste for mechanical engineering, and made rapid
strides in his profession. He invented an inflexible arch
truss for bridges, the use of which on various railroads brought
him later an income of $75,000 a year.
He entered the employ of the New York and Erie Railroad
Company in 1848, anil was appointed superintendent
of the Susquehanna Division in October, 1S52. As stated
above, he was made general superintendent in May, 1854.
February 25, 1S57, he tendered his resignation, because "a
respectable number " of the Directors differed with him in ragard
to " the discipline that had been pursued in the superintendence
of the operations of the road." The resignation was
accepted, but the Boartl of Directors gave him a letter of regret
-at parting with him, and President Ramsdell addressed
has brought fame and dollars to many an elocutionist. When
the Atlantic and Great W'estern Railroad was building he
became consulting engineer. He subsequently removed to
Brooklyn, where he died, December 27, 1878. The introduction
of iron bridges had relegated his wooden truss bridge
to practical uselessness in railroad construction, and his income
from that source had been reduced to a small amount
during the later years of his life, and he left but a modest
fortune to his family, which consisted of four sons and two
daughters.
1857.
Tuesday, December 1, 1857, by order of President Charles
Moran, a reduction of wages and salaries of employees went
into effect, owing to the hard times and the critical condition
of the Company's affairs.