In the days before the
railway, escape from the wilderness, except for those with long
purses, was very difficult; and for those who remained, if their
means were small, the farm and the store were the only occupations.
But a farmer without capital was little better than a hired hand;
trade was confined to the petty dealings of a country market; and
although thrift and energy, even under such depressing conditions,
might eventually win a competence, the most ardent ambition could
hardly hope for more. Never was an obscure existence more
irretrievably marked out than for these children of the Ohio; and
yet, before either had grown grey, the names of Abraham Lincoln,
President of the United States, and of Stonewall Jackson,
Lieutenant-General in the Confederate Army, were household words in
both America and Europe. Descendants of the pioneers, those hardy
borderers, half soldiers and half farmers, who held and reclaimed,
through long years of Indian warfare, the valleys and prairies of the
West, they inherited the best attributes of a frank and valiant race.
Simple yet wise, strong yet gentle, they were gifted with all the
qualities which make leaders of men. Actuated by the highest
principles, they both ennobled the cause for which they fought; and
while the opposition of such kindred natures adds to the dramatic
interest of the Civil War, the career of the great soldier, although
a theme perhaps less generally attractive, may be followed as
profitably as that of the great statesmen.
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