Mark Twain, in Roughing It, a book that many people don't know about—but I highly recommend to anybody of any age to read it. He and his brother crossed the United States in a stagecoach. How romantic can you get?
This company operated a line of stagecoaches and wagon trains which carried passengers and freight across the western plains and the Rocky Mountains to California, two thousand miles away.
The purpose of the person in the front was to protect people inside the stagecoach from people who may want to rob them – from thieves, people who try to steal their money.
Against the slow and leisurely stagecoach, they set the swift express, rushing from New York to San Francisco in less time than Washington consumed in his triumphal tour from Mt.
And, you know, after the war, of course, they gained further notoriety by robbing everything in sight, you know, trains, banks, stagecoaches, you name it.
The horse-drawn stagecoaches and carts of the 18th century, which carried very few people and goods, and travelled slowly along poorly surfaced roads, were gradually replaced by the numerous canals that were constructed.