Biographies

George Hunt Pendleton was a Democratic Congressman and Senator from Ohio. A leading Peace Democrat during the American Civil War, Pendleton was also the sponsor of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883.

George Pickett was a prominent Confederate commander during the American Civil War. He is most remembered for leading a failed assault at Cemetery Ridge during the Battle of Gettysburg, for which he bore little responsibility.

Franklin Pierce (1804–1869) was the 14th President of the United States. He was a native of New Hampshire who sympathized with Southern views on slavery based on the wording of the U.S. Constitution. As a result, he alienated anti-slavery groups by signing the Kansas–Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act.

Zebulon Pike was a soldier who explored a significant portion of the Louisiana Territory. He was killed during the War of 1812 and Pike's Peak in Colorado is named after him.

A political appointee with little military experience prior to the American Civil War, Brigadier General Gideon J. Pillow is most remembered for abandoning Fort Donelson in 1861 to avoid being captured by Federal soldiers.

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney a Founding Father who served as an envoy to France during the XYZ Affair.

A prominent Union cavalry officer, Major General Alfred Pleasonton commanded the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac during the Gettysburg Campaign.

An ordained Episcopal bishop, Confederate Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk was killed by a Union artillery shell at Pine Mountain, near Marietta, Georgia, on June 14, 1864.

Pontiac was a chief of the Ottawa Indians who remains famous for his leadership role in Pontiac's Rebellion (1763–1766).

Major General John Pope was a prominent and controversial army officer who commanded the Union Army of Virginia at the Second Battle of Bull Run.

Fitz John Porter was a corps commander with the Union Army, whose career was ruined by court martial proceedings over his performance at the Battle of Bull Run II.

Samuel Prescott was a physician who lived in Concord, Massachusetts. In the early hours of April 19, 1775, he joined Paul Revere and William Dawes to warn people the British were marching to Concord. Prescott is the only one of the three who actually made it to Concord.

William Prescott was an officer in the Massachusetts Militia and Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He is most famous for his leadership of American forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Sterling Price was an antebellum governor of Missouri, United States Congressman, and prominent Confederate commander in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.

Israel Putnam was a military veteran who was affectionately known as “Old Put.” He served bravely at the Battle of Bunker Hill, but fell out of favor with George Washington after he failed against British forces in New York and Philadelphia.

William C. Quantrill was a Confederate irregular whose band of raiders employed guerrilla tactics in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the Civil War to harass Union troops and terrorize Northern sympathizers.

Paul Revere was an American patriot who was an active participant in the movement for independence before the American Revolution. His famous "Midnight Ride" from Boston to Lexington, on April 18, 1775, to warn American patriots about advancing British troops was later immortalized in a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the 1860s.

Daniel Harris Reynolds was a Confederate general, who served in the far western and western theaters of operations during the Civil War.

One of the Union's leading general officers, Major General John F. Reynolds was killed during the first day of fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863.

Thomas Ringgold was a merchant and politician from Maryland. He participated in the Stamp Act Congress in 1765.