John C. Breckinridge
Elected to Vice President in 1856 on the Democratic ticket with James Buchanan as President; unsuccessful candidate for President in 1860; elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1861, to December 4, 1861, when he was expelled for support of the rebellion; entered the Confederate Army during the Civil War as brigadier general and soon became a major general; Secretary of War in the Cabinet of the Confederate States from January until April 1865.
Jefferson Davis
Unsuccessful candidate for Governor in 1851; appointed Secretary of War by President Franklin Pierce 1853-1857; again elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1857, until January 21, 1861, when he withdrew; seat declared vacant by Senate resolution on March 4, 1861; elected President of the Confederacy for a term of six years and inaugurated in Richmond, Va., February 22, 1862; captured by Union troops in Irwinsville, Ga., May 10, 1865.
Ulysses S. Grant
Best known as the Union general who led the United States to victory over the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. He captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee, forced the surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and defeated a larger Southern force at Chattanooga, Tennessee. Grant helped end the bloody Civil War when he directed the Union forces to lay siege to General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in Petersburg, a small city south of Richmond, Virginia, forcing its surrender in April 1865. At that point, General Grant was the most revered man in the Union.
William T. Sherman
One of America’s greatest army officers was born February 8, 1820 at Lancaster, Ohio, and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1840. Sherman, one of America’s greatest war heroes, returned to the U.S. Army to fight the Civil War, and his service in the “War of Rebellion” was memorialized by San Franciscans who named a street, and an elementary school, on Union Street, in his honor.
Henry Clay
Was one of the most powerful and politically significant Americans of the early 19th century. Though he was never elected president, he held enormous influence in the U.S. Congress.When Clay first joined the U.S. Senate he was still 29, too young for the Constitutional requirement that senators be 30 years old. In the Washington of 1806 no one seemed to notice or care.Henry Clay was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1811. He was named speaker of the house in his first session as a congressman.Clay turned the position of speaker of the house, which had been largely ceremonial, into a powerful position.Clay's influence as speaker of the house helped bring about the Missouri Compromise, the first compromise that sought to settle the issue of slavery in America.
Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee (Library of Congress)
Born to Revolutionary War hero Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee in Stratford Hall, Virginia, Robert Edward Lee seemed destined for military greatness. In 1831, he married Mary Anna Randolph Custis, a descendant of George Washington. Yet with for all his military pedigree, Lee had yet to set foot on a battlefield. From 1852 to 1855, Lee served as superintendent of West Point, and was therefore responsible for educating many of the men who would later serve under him - and those who would oppose him - on the battlefields of the Civil War. In 1855 he left the academy to take a position in the cavalry and in 1859 was called upon to put down abolitionist John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry.Because of his reputation as one of the finest officers in the United States Army, Abraham Lincoln offered Lee the command of the Federal forces in April 1861.Lee declined and tendered his resignation from the army when the state of Virginia seceded on April 17, arguing that he could not fight against his own people. Instead, he accepted a general’s commission in the newly formed Confederate Army.His first military engagement of the Civil War occurred at Cheat Mountain, Virginia (now West Virginia) on September 11, 1861. It was a Union victory but Lee’s reputation withstood the public criticism that followed.He served as military advisor to President Jefferson Davis until June 1862 when he was given command of the wounded General Joseph E. Johnston's embattled army on the Virginia peninsula.
John Brown
Was a man of action -- a man who would not be deterred from his mission of abolishing slavery. On October 16, 1859, he led 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His plan to arm slaves with the weapons he and his men seized from the arsenal was thwarted, however, by local farmers, militiamen, and Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Within 36 hours of the attack, most of Brown's men had been killed or captured.Despite his contributions to the antislavery cause, Brown did not emerge as a figure of major significance until 1855 after he followed five of his sons to the Kansas territory. There, he became the leader of antislavery guerillas and fought a proslavery attack against the antislavery town of Lawrence. The following year, in retribution for another attack, Brown went to a proslavery town and brutally killed five of its settlers. Brown and his sons would continue to fight in the territory and in Missouri for the rest of the year.John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859.
Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson
One of the most famous American Generals of all time. Although he got his fame by fighting for the South in the American Civil War. He was very religious and thought to be a bit odd at times by his men. He was an 1846 graduated of the Military Academy (West Point) and a former professor at the Virginia Military Academy.Thomas Jackson is most known as being called "Stonewall Jackson" but he had several other nicknames as well. These included "Old Jack", "Old Blue Light" and "Tom Fool". But "Stonewall" Jackson was also a brilliant military strategist, and some of his campaigns are even being used as examples in military teaching even today! As a general in the army of Northern Virginia, he served under General Robert E Lee.Jackson had great campaigns at both Bull Run battles, Antietnam and at Fredericksburg. It was at First Bull Run that he got the name "Stonewall Jackson".
Clara Barton
Became a teacher in Massachusetts at the age of 17; founded her own school six years later and after ten years of teaching, felt the need to alter her career path. She then pursued writing and languages at the Liberal Institute in Clinton, New York. With the emergence of the Civil War, Barton refused to take a salary from the government's treasury and dedicated herself aiding soldiers on the front. Never before had women been allowed in hospitals, camps or on battlefields; initially, military and civil officials declined her help. Eventually, she gained the trust of these officials and began receiving supplies from all over the country. As a result of her untiring work, she became known as the "Angel of the Battlefield." Officially, she became the superintendent of Union nurses in 1864 and began obtaining camp and hospital supplies, assistants and military trains for her work on the front. She practiced nursing exclusively on battlefields, experiencing first-hand the horrors of war on sixteen different battlefields.
George McClellan
Is often remembered as the great organizer of the Union Army of the Potomac. Nicknamed "Young Napoleon," "Little Mac" was immensely popular with the men who served under his command. His military command style, however, put him at odds with President Abraham Lincoln, and would ultimately upset his military and political fortunes. He was also the Democratic presidential nominee in 1864.
John Wilkes Booth
He was born May 10, 1838 in Bel Air, Maryland. At age 17, he made his acting debut. In the 1850s, he joined the No-Nothing Party. During the Civil War, he was a Confederate secret agent. In March of 1865, his attempt to kidnap President Lincoln failed. On April 14, 1865, he assassinated Lincoln at Ford Theater. Booth was killed on April 26, 1865 in Port Royal, Virginia.
Andrew Johnson
He was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. As Abraham Lincoln's vice president, Johnson became president when Lincoln was assassinated. A Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket, Johnson came to office as the Civil War concluded. The new president favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union. His plans did not give protection to the former slaves, and he came into conflict with the Republican-dominated Congress, culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives. The first American president to be impeached, he was acquitted in the Senate by one vote.
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809 in Kentucky (USA). He did different types of jobs before he settled as a highly successful lawyer. He was gradually drawn to politics.At this difficult time, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the USA in 1860. He wanted to solve the problem of slavery. The southern states were prepared even to form a new country. Abraham Lincoln wanted all the states to remain united.He faced many problems. He wanted to preserve the unity of the country at any cost. Finally a civil war broke out between the northern and southern states. He won the war and kept the country united.Lincoln was elected president for a second term. He was not against anybody and wanted everybody to live in peace. In 1862, Lincoln declared that from then onwards all slaves would be free. This made him very popular among the people. Lincoln was assassinated in 1865.
William H. Seward
Born in New York State in 1801.He served as state senator and, in 1838, won his first term as governor. He was reelected in 1840. During this time, he formed a close friendship and alliance with the editor, Thurlow Weed. As a politician, Seward supported Whig economic programs, particularly internal improvements.An election defeat in 1842 returned Seward to private law practice for seven years before he reentered politics with his election to the United States Senate.Failing to get the Republican nomination at Chicago in 1860, Seward campaigned extensively in the North for Lincoln. His prominence in the party led Lincoln to offer Seward the chief position in the cabinet, secretary of state. After some hesitation due to the composition of the cabinet, Seward accepted. In the early days of the administration, he thought his political experience and skills would enable him to dominate the President and the administration.
Alexander H. Stephens
Was born in Wilkes (now Taliaferro) county, Georgia, on the 11th of February 1812. In 1836 he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives after a campaign in which he was vigorously opposed because he had attacked the doctrine of nullification, and because he had opposed all extra-legal steps against the abolitionists. He was annually re-elected until 1841; in 1842 he was elected to the state Senate, and in the following year, on the Whig ticket, to the National House of Representatives. Before the Georgia legislature in November 1860, and again in that state's secession convention in January 1861, he strongly opposed secession, but when Georgia seceded he followed his state, assisted in forming the new government, and was elected vice-president of the Confederate States.
Fernando Wood
A Representative from New York; born in Philadelphia, Pa., June 14, 1812; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1841-March 3, 1843); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1842 to the Twenty-eighth Congress; appointed by Secretary of State John C. Calhoun dispatch agent for the State Department at the port of New York; reappointed to the position by Secretary of State James Buchanan and served from 1844 to 1847; unsuccessful candidate for mayor of New York in 1850 and in 1867; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-eighth Congress (March 4, 1863-March 3, 1865); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1864 to the Thirty-ninth Congress; elected to the Fortieth and to the seven succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1867, until his death at Hot Springs, Ark., February 14, 1881, before the beginning of the Forty-seventh Congress, to which he had been reelected
Edwin Stanton
Was born on December 19, 1814, in Steubenville, Ohio. He is remembered in history for serving as secretary of war under President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. He continued to served in that role under President Andrew Johnson after Lincoln's assassination,but a clash between Stanton and President Johnson over the country's future led to turmoil within the administration, as well as Stanton's eventual retreat from politics back into law.