Below please find the list of possible subjects for your Civil War Biography Subject. Remember, if you have a name and state of an ancestor who fought in the War, and you want to research them instead, that’s fine. (*** – Designates someone who relates to at least one site on the 8th Grade Virginia Trip)
NAMES:
Edward Porter Alexander*** – Longstreet’s artillery chief, a very good soldier
Lewis Armistead*** – Confederate commander who took part in Pickett’s charge
Francis Barlow*** – Excellent Union commander who was loved by the ladies
Clara Barton*** –nicknamed “The Angel of the Battlefield”, started the Red Cross
P.G.T. Beauregard – Conf. commander who fired on Fort Sumter
John Wilkes Booth*** – radical actor who assassinated President Lincoln
Belle Boyd – female Conf. spy
Matthew Brady*** – photographer who took most of the pictures of the Civil War
Braxton Bragg – Conf. commander who sometimes argued with himself
John Buford*** – Union cavalry commander who started the battle of Gettysburg
Ambrose Burnside*** – Union commander at Fredericksburg and Antietam
Daniel Butterfield*** – Union commander who wrote the song “Taps”
Samuel Colt – gun manufacturer who supplied the Union with guns
George Custer – arrogant and “crazy-brave” Union cavalry commander
Frederick Douglass – abolitionist who was a slave but bought his own freedom
Jubal Early – Conf. Commander who tried to attack Washington, D.C.
David Farragut – Union naval commander who was a genius
Richard Garnett*** – Conf. Commander who had to prove himself at Gettysburg
John Gibbon*** – Union commander of one of the hardest fighting corps
Winfield Scott Hancock*** – Union general who was nicknamed “The Superb”
William Babcock Hazen – Union commander who was always in the right place at the right time during battle
Harry Heth*** – Conf. Commander who “accidentally” started Gettysburg
Ambrose Powell Hill*** – Conf. General who hated Stonewall Jackson
Joseph Hooker*** – Union commander who got whipped at Chancellorsville
Albert Sidney Johnston – the highest ranking Confederate officer killed in battle
Wladimir Krzyzanowski – Polish officer who assisted us in the war
John Logan –Illinois general who helped start Memorial Day after the war
Irvin McDowell – Union commander at Bull Run, the first battle of the war
Wilmer McLean*** – Virginia storeowner who could say that the war started in his back yard and ended in his living room
George Meade*** – Union commander at Gettysburg
John S. Mosby – Confederate cavalryman who fought guerilla-style
George E. Pickett*** – Conf. General who led the most famous charge of the war, and never forgave Lee for it
Allan Pinkerton – The first head of the Secret Service
John Pope – Union commander who was embarrassed by Stonewall Jackson
Benjamin Prentiss – Union commander who held off Confederate attacks in the Hornet’s Nest before surrendering, and kept the Battle of Shiloh from being a complete Union disaster
John Reynolds*** – Union general who was the first Corps commander to arrive in Gettysburg, and paid the price
John Sedgwick*** – Union general loved by his men, and died an ironic death
Robert Gould Shaw – Union commander of the 54th Massachusetts, the first all-black soldier regiment
Phil Sheridan – Union cavalry commander who hated Indians
George Thomas – Union commander nicknamed “The Rock of Chickamauga”
Emory Upton*** – Young Union commander who developed a new and brilliant way to attack the enemy
Walt Whitman – Poet who wrote many poems about the war, and also acted as a nurse in Union hospitals
Henry Wirz – Conf. commander in charge of Andersonville Prison; some people think he was hanged for no reason