This series consists of two bound volumes of the copies of outgoing correspondence of the Chief Engineer. The correspondence reveals the: details of mail schedules and compensation, setting of some freight rates, convention and exposition rates, competitive strength of water transportation, frailty of the Southern rail system in general, and frailty of the W & A in particular. The two volumes cover the terms of James L. Williams (Jan., 1841-Feb., 1842), Charles F.M. Garnett (Jan., 1842-Dec., 1847) and William L. Mitchell (Jan., 1848-Feb., 1852) as Chief Engineer. Besides being the Chief Executive Officer of the railroad during its period of construction and acquisition of equipment, the Chief Engineer had three other major functions: political, financial and administrative. The letters in these volumes demonstrate his liaison with the General Assembly's Joint Committee on Internal Improvements, reporting to the Governor and "diplomacy" with other railroads. He was also responsible for: acquiring the major purchases of rail, cars and locomotives, arranging their financing, directing their transshipment to Atlanta, and purchasing supplies and procuring equipment to help build the railroad. Included in Vol. 1, page 201, is an article entitled "The Tunnel", an excerpt from the Federal Union, November 1, 1849, as an attachment and "Opening of New Tunnel on Western and Atlantic Railroad of Tunnel Hill, Georgia", by C.H. Johnson in the North Carolina and St. Louis Railroad News, Vol. XI, No. 1, January 18, 1929.