Ulysses S. Grant
Late in the administration of Andrew Johnson, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant quarreled with the President and aligned himself with the Radical Republicans. He was, as the symbol of Union victory during the Civil War, their logical candidate for President in 1868.
When he was elected, the American people hoped for an end to turmoil. Grant provided neither vigor nor reform. Looking to Congress for direction, he seemed bewildered. One visitor to the White House noted "a puzzled pathos, as of a man with a problem before him of which he does not understand the terms."
Born in 1822, Grant was the son of an Ohio tanner. He went to West Point rather against his will and graduated in the middle of his class. In the Mexican War he fought under Gen. Zachary Taylor.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant was working in his father's leather store in Galena, Illinois. He was appointed by the Governor to command an unruly volunteer regiment. Grant whipped it into shape and by September 1861 he had risen to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers.
He sought to win control of the Mississippi Valley. In February 1862 he took Fort Henry and attacked Fort Donelson. When the Confederate commander asked for terms, Grant replied, "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted." The Confederates surrendered, and President Lincoln promoted Grant to major general of volunteers.
At Shiloh in April, Grant fought one of the bloodiest battles in the West and came out less well. President Lincoln fended off demands for his removal by saying, "I can't spare this man--he fights."
For his next major objective, Grant maneuvered and fought skillfully to win Vicksburg, the key city on the Mississippi, and thus cut the Confederacy in two. Then he broke the Confederate hold on Chattanooga.
Lincoln appointed him General-in-Chief in March 1864. Grant directed Sherman to drive through the South while he himself, with the Army of the Potomac, pinned down Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
Finally, on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Lee surrendered. Grant wrote out magnanimous terms of surrender that would prevent treason trials.
Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee, considered by most authorities to have been the Confederacy's best general, was born and raised in his beloved Virginia. His parents, Revolutionary War hero "Light Horse Harry" Lee and Ann Carter, were from two of the most prominent families in the state, but his father squandered most of their money and deserted his mother when Robert was young.
Lee met Jefferson Davis when he entered West Point. He graduated a year after the future Confederate president, ranking second in the class of 1829. Entering the Engineers, Lee performed duties such as supervising construction of a fort and flood control work before winning notice (and three brevets) on the staff of Winfield Scott during the Mexican War.
Lee and Davis had considerable contact in the early 1850s while Lee was superintendent of West Point and Davis served as secretary of war. In 1855 Davis granted Lee's wish for a more active command and arranged his transfer to the cavalry.
Lee's personal conflict over what he should do when the Civil War broke out has been well documented. Offered command of the Union army, he chose instead to side with his native state. After serving in western Virginia and South Carolina during the first year of the war, Lee was called to Richmond in March 1862 and became Davis' top military adviser. When Joseph E. Johnston was wounded that May, Davis asked Lee to assume command of what was coming to be known as the Army of Northern Virginia.
Lee deflected George B. McClellan's move on Richmond in the Seven Days' campaign, then transferred his army northward to defeat John Pope at Second Manassas. Following up on his success, he crossed the Potomac in September, but was forced to pull back after fighting to a bloody draw at Antietam. Lee's men repulsed Union advances at Fredericksburg in December 1862 and Chancellorsville the next May, then crossed the Potomac again, only to be turned back at Gettysburg.
Throughout the final year of the war, Lee dueled U. S. Grant across eastern Virginia, with Grant laying siege to Petersburg in the fall and winter of 1864-65. When Grant finally broke through in April 1865, Lee was forced to abandon Richmond and attempt to reorganize his army west of the capital. With the Federals in close pursuit and his men near starvation, Lee finally surrendered on April 9.
Lee, who developed a rapport with Davis during his 1862 stint in Richmond, remained the president's most trusted military adviser. He understood Davis' desire for an aggressive prosecution of the war, and he also made a point of keeping the president well informed of his plans.
After the war Lee served as president of Washington College (now Washington and Lee) until his death. He apparently saw Davis only once more, when Davis was in Richmond in November 1867 for what was supposed to be the beginning of his trial.