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almost beyond the powers of man.^ In the first months of 
the war Lee met with similar difficulties in trying to cam- 
paign without railroad facilities in the mountains of western 
Virginia, and at a later period when he twice tried to invade 
the North he had to face the difficult problem of transporting 
supplies and munitions largely by wagon roads. Probably 
General George B. Crittenden® had to face this problem in a 
more serious form than the generals involved in either of the 
above cases, when, in January, 1862, he was forced to attack 
Thomas at Mill Spring. Crittenden’s army was starving; 
the Federals commanded the Cumberland River at Columbia; 
there were no railroads in this section of country; and, as it 
was impossible for him to carry supplies over the poor roads 
from Knoxville 130 miles away, there was nothing left for 
him to do but to attack.® Rosecrans also was placed in al- 
most as embarrassing a position at Chattanooga, as will be 
shown in another connection. 
Railroad construction began in the United States at a 
time when the internal improvement mania was at its height 
and consequently got its share of attention. The West was 
rapidly filling up with settlers both from the East and from 
Europe; promoters and speculators pushed the sale of canal 
and railroad stock with vigor; and states and cities vied 
with private corporations in securing transportation facilities 
in order to bring settlers and business to their particular lo- 
calities." So in spite of panics like that of 1837 there was an 
overdevelopment of railroads especially in the North by 1860. 
In the race of railroad building the North easily outstripped 
the South, very largely due to the type of industry and labor 
system of the latter. Railroad construction requires a large 
outlay of capital, but the southern planter used most of his 
surplus capital in the purchase of additional slaves or invested 
it in more tobacco or cotton land. Furthermore, farmers are 
as a class conservative and individualistic, and neither of these 
characteristics tend to promote the development of large busi- 
ness enterprises where cooperation is absolutely necessary. 
Then, too, the seasonable nature of business in the South to- 
^ Autobiograqyhy of Oliver O. Houmrd (2 vols., New York, 1907), I, 216; (George B.) 
McClellan’s Own SUrry (New York, 1887), 254. 
® Brother of the Union general, Thomas S. Crittenden ; Henry W. Elson, History 
of the United States of America (New York, 1904, 1914), 678. 
“Edward A. Pollard, The Lost Cause (New York, 1867), 200. 
"Emory R, Johnson, American Raihvay Transqwrtation (New York, 1903), 25. 
