Piedmont Railroad

The Piedmont Railroad, chartered in 1862, linked Danville, Virginia, with Greensboro, North Carolina. Work began that autumn in Danville, but wartime labor and supply shortages slowed progress on the 48-mile line, which did not reach Reidsville until late 1863. Passenger service between Danville and Reidsville began on December 21, and the railroad was completed to Greensboro in May 1864. For the rest of the war, it was a vital supply line from North Carolina to Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. In 1865, the community at Reidsville consisted of a few houses and a store with a post office established in 1829 by future governor David S. Reid. By the 1850s, Joseph Holderby and his son-in-law William Lindsey owned much of the property there. Holderby laid out a town named Reidsville after learning of the planned railroad, and although he sold a few lots, the town did not prosper. Reidsville did, however, become the county collection point for Confederate taxes, and Holderby served as collector for tax district 35. On the morning of April 11, 1865, the train carrying Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet traveled this route from Danville to Greensboro after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, two days earlier. After the war, Reidsville grew quickly and was incorporated in 1873. The present Norfolk Southern Railway follows the historic route of the Piedmont Railroad.

Reidsville, North Carolina · United States