Why didn't any of these guys fight in the Civil War?
Answer...poor people went for them!
I admire Carnegie and Vanderbilt and Edison, great men, but they can't be used as a measure for ordinary people to be measured by, few people are that great.
And no, they did not do it themselves. Vanderbilt didn't build a steam engine, Carnegie didn't invent the Bessemer Steel process and well, edison was so great no argument there, he deserved whatever the world could give him.