Ulysses Grant
Ratified the 15th amendment. With the start of the Civil War, Grant reentered the military. He started out with the Illinois militia and soon moved up the ranks in the army to general. Grant's victory at Fort Donelson was the first major victory for the Union during the Civil War. He then led his army to victory at the city of Vicksburg, a Confederate stronghold. This victory helped to split the South's forces in two and gave the Union considerable momentum. He became a famous war hero and in 1864 President Abraham Lincoln made him General-in-Chief of the entire Union Army.
Robert E. Lee
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. 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.Yet despite foiling several attempts to seize the Confederate capital, Lee recognized that the key to ultimate success was a victory on Northern soil. In September 1862, he launched an invasion into Maryland with the hope of shifting the war's focus away from Virginia. Though President Davis named the Virginian General-in-Chief of all Confederate forces in February 1865, only two months later, on April 9, 1865, Lee was forced to surrender his weary and depleted army to Grant at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the Civil War.
William T. Sherman
When Grant became president in 1869, William T. Sherman took over as general commander of the U.S. Army. One of his duties was to protect construction of the railroads from attack by hostile Indians. Believing the Native Americans were an impediment to progress, he ordered total destruction of the warring tribes. Despite his harsh treatment of Native Americans, Sherman spoke out against unscrupulous government officials who mistreated them on the reservations. From November 15 until December 21, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. The purpose of this “March to the Sea” was to frighten Georgia’s civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. Sherman’s soldiers did not destroy any of the towns in their path, but they stole food and livestock and burned the houses and barns of people who tried to fight back. The Yankees were “not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people,” Sherman explained; as a result, they needed to “make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war.”
Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson
He served under General Robert E. Lee (1807-70) for much of the Civil War. Jackson was a decisive factor in many significant battles until his mortal wounding by friendly fire at the age of 39 during the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. Jackson served only briefly as a colonel before receiving a promotion to brigadier general under General Joseph E. Johnston (1807-91). Jackson earned his nickname at the First Battle of Bull Run (also known as Manassas) in July 1861 when he rushed his troops forward to close a gap in the line against a determined Union attack. Upon observing Jackson, one of his fellow generals reportedly said, “Look, men, there is Jackson standing like a stone wall!”–a comment that spawned Jackson’s nickname. Jackson was commissioned a major general in October 1861.
Jefferson Davis
A 19th century U.S. senator best known as the president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. As president, he acted as his own Secretary of War and meddled constantly in southern military strategy. He held less power in the South than Lincoln did in the North, and the power he did have rapidly decreased as the Union Army captured large parts of the Confederacy. Davis's economic policies failed to provide the South with a stable currency or enough industrial capacity to prevail in the war. Towards the end of the war, Davis insisted on holding out until the bitter end, even when it was clear that the Confederacy had lost. In recent years, his legacy has suffered in comparison to that of Robert E. Lee, the general he appointed to replace Joe Johnston in 1862. Davis is buried in Richmond, Virginia, once the capital of the Confederacy.