Influence of the Civil War

Before any great railroad development had taken place the peaceful life of our country was interrupted by the Civil War. It is questionable if that struggle, with its frightful loss of life and treasure, would ever have taken place had railroads been constructed linking the North and the South. In 1860 there were only some 30,000 miles of railroad in America, nearly all of which ran east and west, by reason of the fact that our great rivers flow from the north to the south, and our railroads could not then compete with river transportation. In 1860 no railroad was built farther west than the Mississippi River. West of that stream the country was almost entirely given over to the great herds of buffalo and roving Indians. With the close of the Civil War the impetus given industry by the necessity of making war materials, the development of steel, and a growing appreciation of the value of rail transportation caused a marked advance in our economic life. Tho acquaintance of masses of men from every section of tho country and the close ties formed by their association through the war added its force to the awakening of a new era.