Politicians

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

James Abram Garfield was an American political and military leader who rose to the rank of major general in the Union army during the American Civil War, and who served as a U.S. congressman and senator before being elected as the 20th President of the United States in 1880.

Joshua Giddings was a leader in the founding of the Republican Party and an outspoken opponent of the extension of slavery during his twenty-year career as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Ulysses S. Grant was an American military and political leader who rose from humble beginnings to become general-in-chief of Union forces during the Civil War and, afterward, the eighteenth President of the United States.

A prominent Confederate cavalry officer, Wade Hampton III also served as governor of South Carolina and as a United States Senator from the Palmetto State after the American Civil War.

Grandson of ninth U.S. President William Henry Harrison, Benjamin Harrison was the nation's twenty-third president from March 4, 1889 to March 4, 1893.

Robert Hatton was a U.S. Congressman from Tennessee and a brigadier general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.

Civil War general, U.S. Congressman, and Governor of Ohio, Rutherford Birchard Hayes served as nineteenth President of the United States from March 3, 1877 to March 4, 1881.

Patrick Henry was a Founding Father, member of the Continental Congress, and five-time Governor of Virginia.

Born into poverty, Andrew Johnson rose to become the seventeenth President of the United States in 1865. Although acquitted in his trial before the U.S. Senate, Johnson remains one of only three presidents ever impeached by the House of Representatives.

Henry Knox was a General in the Continental Army and a close friend of George Washington. Knox led the expedition to retrieve cannon and artillery from Fort Ticonderoga in 1775 and served as Chief Artillery Officer of the Continental Army during the American Revolution.

Abraham Lincoln was an American political leader during the 19th century. Rising from humble beginnings, Lincoln was elected as the 16th president of the United States in 1860. Lincoln's election prompted the secession of several Southern states and eventually the beginning of the American Civil War. Lincoln served as president and commander-in-chief throughout most of the conflict before an assassin's bullet tragically cut his life short on April 15, 1865.

John Marshall was a Founding Father, officer in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, congressional representative from Virginia, Secretary of State, and 4th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

John A. McClernand was an American lawyer, Democratic politician, and Union general who Ulysses S. Grant relieved as commander of the Army of Tennessee prior to the surrender of Vicksburg.

William McKinley, Jr., was an officer in the Union army during the Civil War before serving as the twenty-fifth President of the United States.

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.

Robert Cumming Schenck was an eight-time United States Congressman from Ohio and a major general in the Union army during the American Civil War.

Fourteenth and sixteenth Governor of Ohio, Wilson Shannon also served as the second Governor of the Kansas Territory from August 10, 1855, to August 18, 1856, during the period known as Bleeding Kansas.

Edwin McMasters Stanton was United States Secretary of War from 1862 to 1868, serving under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and President Andrew Johnson.

One of the more powerful Congressional Representatives in U.S. history, Thaddeus Stevens was a dominant member of the Radical Republicans who crafted Congressional Reconstruction policies after the American Civil War.