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People · 1861–1877

Civil War Leaders

Four years of war decided whether the United States would survive and whether slavery would end. Meet the presidents, generals and voices on both sides, and the men who tried to rebuild a broken Union.

Meet the leaders
North vs. South
Timeline
Lincoln
Grant
Lee
Sherman
Quick facts

The Civil War at a glance

DatesApril 12, 1861 (Fort Sumter) to April 9, 1865 (Lee's surrender at Appomattox); last armies surrendered that spring
The sidesUnion: 23 states, including the slave-holding border states. Confederacy: 11 seceded states
Who foughtAbout 2.1 million Union soldiers and roughly 750,000 to 1 million Confederates
Black soldiersAbout 180,000 Black men served in the U.S. Colored Troops, plus about 19,000 in the Navy
The costAbout 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers died, more than in any other American war
Bloodiest dayAntietam, September 17, 1862: about 23,000 killed, wounded or missing
FreedomThe 13th Amendment, ratified December 1865, abolished slavery everywhere in the United States
The big picture in 30 seconds

Why it matters

  • The Union survived; no state has tried to secede since.
  • About four million enslaved people gained their freedom.
  • The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments rewrote the Constitution around freedom, citizenship and voting.
  • The war made the national government far stronger than the Founders' version.

3 million+

soldiers and sailors served on both sides

620,000+

soldiers died, most from disease

10,000+

battles, skirmishes and engagements

4 million

enslaved people freed

The Union

Leaders of the North

A railroad lawyer from Illinois and two failed civilians from Ohio turned out to be the team that won the war.

1809 – 1865
Abraham Lincoln
16th president, 1861–1865
Held the Union together, issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, and explained the war's meaning at Gettysburg. Shot by John Wilkes Booth five days after Appomattox.
Read the full biography →
1822 – 1885
Ulysses S. Grant
General-in-chief, 18th president
Won at Fort Donelson and Vicksburg, took command of all Union armies in 1864, and accepted Lee's surrender. Elected president in 1868 and protected Reconstruction.
Read the full biography →
1820 – 1891
William T. Sherman
Grant's right-hand general
Captured Atlanta in September 1864, which helped re-elect Lincoln, then marched his army 300 miles to the sea at Savannah, wrecking the South's ability to fight.
The Confederacy

Leaders of the South

Southern leaders fought to create a separate nation built on slavery. Their best general nearly won the war in the East.

1808 – 1889
Jefferson Davis
Confederate president
A West Point graduate, Mississippi senator and former U.S. secretary of war. Captured in Georgia in May 1865 and held two years at Fort Monroe, but never tried.
1807 – 1870
Robert E. Lee
Commander, Army of Northern Virginia
Turned down a top Union command to side with Virginia. Won at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, lost at Gettysburg, and surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. Later led Washington College.
1824 – 1863
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson
Lee's most trusted general
Earned his nickname standing firm at First Bull Run. His 1862 Shenandoah Valley campaign is still studied. Accidentally shot by his own men at Chancellorsville and died eight days later.
Rebuilding the Union

Voices of freedom and Reconstruction

Winning the war was one fight. Deciding what freedom and citizenship would mean was another.

c. 1818 – 1895
Frederick Douglass
Abolitionist, writer, orator
Escaped slavery in 1838 and became the nation's most famous abolitionist. He pressed Lincoln to enlist Black soldiers and recruited for the 54th Massachusetts, where two of his sons served.
1808 – 1875
Andrew Johnson
17th president, 1865–1869
The only Southern senator to stay loyal to the Union. As president he clashed with Congress over Reconstruction, was impeached in 1868, and was acquitted by a single vote.
Read the full biography →
1869 – 1901
Union veterans in the White House
Five presidents who wore Union blue
Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Benjamin Harrison and McKinley all served in the Union Army. For a generation, a war record was nearly a requirement for the job.
North vs. South

The odds in 1861

The Union had more of nearly everything a modern war needs. The Confederacy had to win by outlasting the North’s will to fight. All figures are approximate.

Union Confederacy
Population (1860)
22 million
9 million
Factories
110,000
18,000
Miles of railroad
22,000
9,000
Soldiers who served
2.1 million
~900,000
Behind the numbers

Why the South still nearly won

  • About 3.5 million of the South's 9 million people were enslaved.
  • The South only had to defend; the North had to conquer a region the size of Western Europe.
  • Many of the Army's best officers, led by Lee, went with the South.
  • Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July 1863 turned the tide; Atlanta in 1864 sealed it.
Timeline

From secession to Reconstruction

Key moments for the leaders on this page.

Nov. 1860
Lincoln is elected president; South Carolina secedes in December.
Feb. 1861
Seceded states form the Confederacy and choose Jefferson Davis as president.
Apr. 12, 1861
Confederates fire on Fort Sumter; the war begins.
July 1861
First Bull Run; Thomas Jackson stands “like a stone wall.”
Feb. 1862
Grant captures Fort Donelson and becomes “Unconditional Surrender” Grant.
June 1862
Robert E. Lee takes command of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Sept. 17, 1862
Antietam, the bloodiest single day in American history.
Jan. 1, 1863
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation takes effect.
July 1863
Lee is defeated at Gettysburg; Vicksburg surrenders to Grant on July 4.
Nov. 19, 1863
Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address.
Sept.–Dec. 1864
Sherman takes Atlanta and marches to the sea.
Apr. 9, 1865
Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House.
Apr. 14, 1865
Lincoln is shot at Ford's Theatre and dies the next morning; Andrew Johnson becomes president.
1868
Johnson is impeached and acquitted; Grant is elected president.
1877
The last federal troops leave Southern statehouses; Reconstruction ends.

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.”

Abraham Lincoln
Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865

See the era

Expansion and Civil War

Our era page tells the bigger story: westward expansion, the fight over slavery, the war itself, and Reconstruction.

Expansion and Civil War era
Go deeper

Books and sources

  • Battle Cry of Freedom, by James M. McPherson (1988)
  • Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin (2005)
  • Grant, by Ron Chernow (2017)
  • Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, by David W. Blight (2018)
  • The Civil War: A Narrative, by Shelby Foote (1958–1974)
  • More recommended books
Keep exploring

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