[Tax-chick]

Cool. I could get on a train here in Charlotte, and, after much doodling around east, north, and west, end up in Hannibal, MO, and then hike to my grandparents’ house, or pick up a ride on a farm wagon.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

I see a few lines that will become strategic factors in the coming unrest. Most notably (from my recent reading) the east-west line that runs through extreme northern MS, AL, GA, and southern TN.

[BroJoeK]

"...end up in Hannibal, MO, and then hike to my grandparents’ house..."

About 25 miles north & across the river from Tom Sawyer is Quincy, Ill. where some of my ancestors would soon arrive, just off the boat from their Old Country.
The family left to dodge the draft of their two young sons into one of Europe's endless wars.
Surely in America, they thought, they could settle down to farming and not have to worry about military service.
After all, who were Americans going to fight, Canada?

By the way, even as we speak the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad is planning to build a new bridge over the Mississippi at Quincy to connect into the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad (H&StJ) in Missouri.
And they're going to hire the best railroad lawyer in the country to make certain steamboats don't delay them in courts.
You may have heard of him, but now I can't quite remember his name... was it Lingcoon? Linkstein? Linfellow?
Help me out here...

Anyway I'm sure, given our booming economy, that bridge will be finished in just a few years.
So now would be a great time to invest in those railroads...

;-)

Early locomotive of Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad: