During the worst days of the Civil War, President Lincoln would often get away from the summer heat of Washington by riding up to a telegraph office on a cool hill north of the city. The telegraph was the first great technology of the revolution in telecommunications that over time developed into communications satellites and the Internet. The President would sit in the telegraph office receiving the very latest reports from the battle field.
One night a telegraph message came in detailing yet another Union army calamity. Confederate Calvary had surprised a Union camp near Manassas, Virginia, and captured a brigadier General and a hundred horses. With the telegraph operator watching, Lincoln slumped in his chair as he read of the latest setback. Moaning slightly he said " Sure hate to lose those one hundred horses."
The operator felt obliged to ask, " Mr President, what about the brigadier General ?"
Lincoln replied, " I can make a brigadier General in five minutes, but it is not easy to replace one hundred horses."
NO PERSON IS INDISPENSABLE
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