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The Influence Of USS Vanderbilt's Life During The Civil War

177 Words1 Pages
During the Civil War, Vanderbilt donated his largest and fastest steamboat to the Union Navy. The USS Vanderbilt was used to chase down Confederate raiders. By the end of the war, Vanderbilt was the richest man in America. The Civil War cost him his favorite son, his heir, and Vanderbilt sank into depression and began drinking. Tragically, in 1868, his wife passed away. Vanderbilt didn’t stay alone very long, for in 1869, he married another cousin. When they wed Vanderbilt was seventy-five years old and she was only thirty. At this point he put his son William in charge of the Hudson Railroad and Vanderbilt gave him orders to close Albany Bridge in New York, which blockaded the freight of other railroad companies. The owners of the other railroads
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