Grant

Born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, Ulysses S. Grant went on to become one of the most famous generals of the American Civil War. He fought on the side of the Union and eventually became the commander of all Union forces. Famously, he and the Confederate commander Robert E. Lee made the agreement at Appomattox Court House that ended the war.

Riding high on his fame from the Civil War, in 1868 Grant was elected the 18th president of the United States, representing the Republican Party. His presidency was known for several landmark victories for the civil rights of African Americans, but also for heavy corruption enabled by members of his own administration. With his wife Julia, he had four children: Fred, Ulysses Jr. or Buck, Jessie, and Nellie. He died from throat cancer on July 23, 1885.

Julia was Ulysses S. Grant’s wife and a native of Missouri. Although she came from a pro-slavery family with Confederate sympathies, she eventually became a sincere supporter of her husband and the Union cause. As First Lady, she was known for her social gatherings and her appreciation of the status that came from being the president’s wife. After Grant’s death, she relocated to Washington, DC. She wrote her own memoirs, although they were unpublished until long after her death. She passed away on December 14, 1902.

A close friend of Grant’s, John Aaron Rawlings also fought in the Civil War, eventually achieving the rank of major general. Grant credited him with helping him in his battle against his own alcoholism. He was born in Galena, Illinois, where Grant once worked as a store clerk. Plagued by a severe illness in the lungs, he died on September 6, 1869.

An anti-slavery Republican from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States in 1861—the act of which brought about Southern secession, according to Chernow. While Lincoln was against slavery from the beginning of his political career, he began his presidency attempting to appease all political opponents and did not sign the Emancipation Proclamation until 1863—three years into the Civil War. Lincoln won reelection in 1864 and saw the war’s end with a peace treaty signed by General Grant and Robert E. Lee at the Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Just five days later he was assassinated while attending a play by John Wilkes Booth, a sympathizer with the Confederacy.

Much like Grant, McClellan graduated from West Point and served with distinction in the Mexican-American War. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, he was appointed a major general and soon rose in the ranks to precede Grant in the highest military office, Commanding General of the United States Army. He and Lincoln did not agree on military tactics, and this, coupled with McClellan’s defeat to Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and diffident victory at the Battle of Antietam, led to his dismissal.

Also a graduate of West Point, Sherman served under Grant as they fought for Vicksburg. Sherman is known as one of the first generals to embrace the modern concept of “total war,” and he famously burned capitals and civilian towns in a “scorched earth” policy that ultimately led to Union victory. Aside from succeeding Grant as Commanding General of the Army, Sherman avoided politics and died of pneumonia in 1891.

The most famous general who fought for the Confederacy, traditional historical accounts often remember Lee and Grant as rivals, although they did not fight each other until toward the end of the war. A native of Westmoreland County, Virginia, it was Lee’s loyalty to his home state that drew him to the Confederate cause. Lee and Grant’s agreement at Appomattox Court House is typically seen as the end of the Civil War. After the war, Lee tried to retire from the public light, becoming president of the modern Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He died on October 12, 1870, from pneumonia.

As Lincoln’s vice-president, Andrew Johnson assumed the presidency after Lincoln’s assassination in 1865. A Democrat, he sympathized with the Southern cause and largely dismantled more rigid Reconstruction rules to rebuild the South in a way that favored Black rights and a move to Northern culture. Instead, his laissez-faire approach to Reconstruction, in which he allowed Southern states to reinstate old leadership and enact Black Codes, paved the way for the Jim Crow era. This led to his impeachment by a Republican House of Representatives, but he was saved from removal of office by one vote in the Senate. He did not win his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination and left office in 1868 and was succeeded by Grant.

Hayes succeeded Grant in the US presidency. His assumption of the presidency was widely contested, as neither candidate in the election won the popular or electoral vote outright. A Senate commission awarded Hayes the presidency on the condition that he withdraw all federal troops from Southern territories and end Northern Reconstruction efforts in the South. He retired after one term and died at his home in 1893.

James Garfield was a sitting member of the House when he won the Republican nomination for president. He served from March-September 1881, and in that short time he advocated for Black rights, civil service reform, and a return of appointment power to the presidency. He was assassinated in 1881 by a disgruntled seeker of such an appointment.