Civil War Generals

The Union Army boasted over 500 generals. The Confederate Army had an impressive 200-plus generals.

Although their names and a bit of their history is known, the majority of these generals who served either the Federal or Confederate Army during the Civil War are unknown to most. These relatively unknown general officers either commanded units that were not involved in the major battles of the war, or were not as generally known to the public as the generals who became famous for their part in the conflict.

Without a doubt the two best known general officers who served during the Civil War were the two who were given command over the armies of their respective republics – Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee.

General Ulysses S. Grant began his Civil War career as one of the 75,000 who answered Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers to defend the United States after the siege of Fort Sumter. A West Point graduate – 21st in a class of 39 – and a veteran of the Mexican-American war, Grant distinguished himself early in the Civil War when he delivered the Union their first major victories at Forts Henry and Donelson. Known as Ulysses “Unconditional Surrender” Grant for his refusal to accept anything but unconditional surrender from the Confederate troops he bested at Henry and Donelson, Grant then went on to score a bitter victory at Shiloh, the cost being 23,000 lives. However, it was his capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi, daring strategy that while cutting off one of the most important Confederate rail-lines also cut off Grant and his troops own supply lines. It was for his feat of capturing Vicksburg that President Abraham Lincoln gave him authority over the entire U.S. Army, saying of Grant, “Grant is my man and I am his the rest of the War.” Grant’s popularity was such that he served two terms as president following the war.

But for the secession of Virginia, Grant could have been serving alongside, or even under the command of Robert E. Lee. An accomplished engineer and West Point graduate himself, Lee was approached in 1861, during the beginning of the secession crisis, by then-commanding general of the Federal Army Winfield Scott, with whom Lee had served in the Mexican-American War, to take a commanding position in the Federal Army. Lee’s responded by saying that although he was reluctant to bear arms against the Union, he could not forsake his home state of Virginia. For his experience and loyalty, he was made first one of the Confederacy’s five top generals, then general-in-chief of the Confederate forces, though Lee never wore the insignia of a Confederate general, instead choosing to wear the three stars of a Confederate colonel, equivalent to his last U.S. Army rank. It is actions such as these that earned Lee the respect both of his own men and many across the divided country, plus his determined victories, despite often being outnumbered, outgunned, and outsupplied that make him the most beloved figure of the Confederacy. His graceful surrender at Appomattox Court House endeared him to both the North and South.