In December, 1850, the family moved again, this time to St. Marys, Virginia. They resided there until December 15, 1856, during which time his father was a railroad contractor on the Northwestern Virginia Railroad, then under construction, grading several miles of heavy work.
The young man attended school a short term in St. Marys, then went to his father’s works to act as timekeeper and bookkeeper for the force at work.
Before he was twenty-one he received the appointment of second assistant in a corps of civil engineers, from Chief Engineer Benjamin H. Latrobe, of Baltimore, Maryland, with directions to report for duty to Cornelius Mercer, resident engineer in charge of the First Residency, Second Division of the N. W. V. R. R. He remained on the First Residency until near the completion, acting as first assistant from the first day of joining the corps. This was owing to the fact that the first assistant was unable to take charge of the instruments and keep notes. Thus the second assistant fell heir to the care of the transit and level and other field instruments, and the note-book.
It was a great day to him, when on the second day in the service he was sent to give the contractors, McCune & Gillespie, grade in the heavy summit cut, keeping notes and running the level for nearly a mile from the bench mark. This summit was the highest on the road, and the divide between Middle Island and the Monongahela River. Water which fell on the east side would have to travel nearly seven hundred miles before joining in the Ohio that which fell, a few feet away, on the west side.
At one time the resident engineer, Mr. Mercer, was permitted a short leave of absence, and the junior was left in charge of a tunnel, near completion, where the skill of the engineer is tested—that of bringing opposite lines together with slight variation. This he did satisfactorily. He was promoted and transferred to the Second Residency, Second Division, as first assistant to John Maxwell, resident engineer, and J. C. C. Hoskins, division engineer, assisting in field work in order to make complete his final estimates. Most of the time during his stay at the Second Residency he was on office work.
Young Peddicord was next ordered to report at the office of the Fifth Residency, Second Division, in company with A. C. Hoskins, and remained at the fifth completing the unfinished office work.
Having finished the final estimates and reports he left Schumla, Virginia, on February 7, 1856, for St. Marys, Virginia, where some time was spent in assisting the firm of Logan, Kellar & Co., one of whom was his brother-in-law, in their store, and in making collections of parties in the interior counties.
On December 15, 1856, the family moved to Tennessee, where his father had a number of miles of heavy work on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, under Mr. George McLeod, chief engineer, near Fountain Head, in Sumner County. His sister, Mrs. Logan, accompanied the family.
On March 12, 1857, with Samuel Logan, who was going after his wife and child, young Peddicord left St. Marys for Tennessee. They took the steamer Stephen Bayard for Parkersburg, Virginia, thence by steamer Silver Star to Galliopolis, Ohio, then by steamer J. B. Ford to Cincinnati, Ohio, then on steamer Gazelle to Louisville, Kentucky, and the South America to Smithland at the mouth of the Cumberland River. From there they traveled on the V. K. Stephenson to Nashville, the capital of Tennessee. Here they visited Mrs. James K. Polk’s residence, the Capitol Building, then not completed, and other places of interest. From Nashville they proceeded by stage coach to Gallatin, Sumner County, Tennessee, north of which the family resided on the works.
Soon after reaching home he was taken sick with measles, caught from a passenger in the stage coach.