Who's Who

In alphabetical order by surname:

• Ambrose, Daniel L., 1st Lieutenant, Co. H, 7th Illinois Infantry, Civil War Diarist.
• Anderson, Robert, Commander of Fort Sumter.
• Bartlett, William Francis, Brevet Major General in the Union Army. Captured during the Battle of the Crater, he spent two months in Libby Prison.
• Birchard, Sardis, Brother of Sophia (Birchard) Hayes & uncle of Rutherford B. Hayes.
• Brown, John, American abolitionist who believed armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States. During the 1856 conflict in Kansas, Brown commanded forces at the Battle of Black Jack and the Battle of Osawatomie.  Brown's followers also killed five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie. In 1859, Brown led an unsuccessful raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry that ended with his capture. Brown's trial resulted in his conviction and a sentence of death by hanging
• Buchanan, James, 15th President of the United States.
• Buell, Don Carlos, Major-General in the United States Army, in command of the Army of the Ohio.
• Calhoun, John C., United States Senator for South Carolina.
• Cameron, Simon, Lincoln's 1st Secretary of War.
• Chase, Salmon P., Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury.
• Chesnut, James Jr., Brigadier General in the Confederate Army.signatory of the Constitution of the Confederate States of America, and previous to the war a United States Senator from South Carolina, but resigned and took part in the South Carolina secession convention.  Husband of Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut.
• Chesnut, Mary Boykin Miller, Civil War Diarist.  Socialite of Charleston, South Carolina and Richmond, Virginia.  Wife of James Chesnut, Jr.
• Clarke, Reverend James Freeman, American Theologian and Author.
• Clay, Henry, United States Senator from Kentucky, proposed the Compromise of 1850.
• Curtis, George William, American writer and public speaker.  In 1863 he became the political editor of Harper's Weekly.  Husband of Anne Shaw Curtis who was the sister of Robert Gould Shaw, Colonel of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry.
• Davidson, W. J., Private, Co. C, 41st Tennessee Infantry (CSA)
• Davis, Jefferson, President of the Confederate States of America.
• Davis, Varina Howell, First Lady of the Confederate States of America, 2nd wife of Jefferson Davis.
• Dodd, Ephraim Shelby, Private, Co. D, 8th Texas Cavalry, Civil War Diarist.
• Downing, Alexander G., 5th Sergeant, Company E, 11th Iowa Infantry. Civil War Diarist.
• Dwight, Wilder, Lieutenant-Colonel of the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry.  He died September 19, 1862 from wounds at the Battle of Antietam.  Younger brother of Brigadier-General William Dwight.
• Fitzhugh, Henry.  A merchant, businessman and politician from New York. His sister was Ann Carroll (Fitzhugh) Smith (below).
• Forbes, John Murray, American railroad magnate, merchant, philanthropist and abolitionist
• Hancock, Richard R., Private, 2nd Tennesee Cavalry (CSA).
• Hay, John, Lincoln's Secretary
• Hayes, Lucy Webb, First Lady of the United States.  Wife of Rutherford B. Hayes.
• Hayes, Rutherford B., 19th President of the United States.  Entered the war as a Major in the 23rd Ohio Infantry; by the time the war ended he was a Brevet Major-General.
• Hayes, Sophia (Birchard), Mother of Rutherford B. Hayes
• Hudson, Silas A., 1st Cousin of Ulysses S. Grant. United States Ambassador to Guatamala.
• Johnston, Adam S., 79th Pennsylvania Infantry.
• Jones, John Beauchamp, Civil War Diarist. He was a popular novelist, literary editor, and political journalist during the mid 19th Century.  During the war he worked as a clerk in the Confederate Department of War.
• Leon, Louis, Private, 53rd North Carolina Infantry. Civil War Diarist.
• Lincoln, Abraham, 16th President of the United States.Husband of Mary Todd Lincoln.
• Lincoln, Mary Todd, First Lady of the United States. Wife of Abraham Lincoln.
• Lowell, Charles Russell, railroad executive, foundryman, and Brigadier-General in the Union Army He was mortally wounded October 19, 1864 at the Battle of Cedar Creek and died the next day.  Husband of Josephine Shaw Lowell.
• Lowell, Josephine Shaw, Civil War Diarist.  Wife of Captain Charles Russell Lowell and Brother of Robert Gould Shaw.
• Lynch, Charles H., Corporal, 18th Connecticut Infantry.  Civil War Diarist.
• Lyman, Theodore, Aide-de-Camp of Major-General George G. Meade. He later became a United States Congressman representing Massachusetts' 9th District.
• McGuire, Judith White Brockenbrough, Civil War Diarist who wound up as a refugee in Richmond, Virginia during the war.
• Malone, Bartlett Yancey, Private, 6th North Carolina Infantry. Civil War Diarist.
• Markland, Absalom H., childhood friend of Ulysses S. Grant. Special Agent of the U. S. Post Office Department during the war.
• Meade, George G., Major-General in the United States Army.
• Miller, Elizabeth (Smith), Daughter of Gerrit & Ann Carroll (Fitzhugh) Smith. She was an advocate and financial supporter of the women’s rights movement.
• Morse, Charles Fessenden, Lieutenant Colonel in the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry. afterward, an influential businessman and civic leader in Kansas City, Missouri.
• Motley, John Lothrop, American historian and diplomat.
• Northrop, John Worell, 76th New York Infantry. Civil War Diarist. Author of “Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864”
• Norton, Charles Eliot, leading American author, social critic, and professor of art. He was a progressive social reformer and a liberal activist whom many of his contemporaries considered the most cultivated man in the United States.
• Parker, Ely S., Commissioned a Lieutenant Colonel. He served as adjutant to General Ulysses S. Grant. He wrote the final draft of the Confederate surrender terms at Appomattox. Later in his career, Parker rose to the rank of Brevet Brigadier General, one of only two Native Americans to earn a general's rank during the war (the other being Stand Watie, who fought for the Confederacy). President Grant appointed him as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the first Native American to hold that post.
• Paxson, Lewis C., was born October 25, 1836, in Solebury, Bucks County, Penn. ceived his education at the Millersville Normal School near Lancaster) and at Lewisburg University, Penn. He came west to Minnesota in April, 1862, and taught a few months in a select school at Lake City, Minn. From there he enlisted in Co. G, 8th Minn. Inf., Aug. 20, 1862, under John T. Averill and Joseph E. Faverow, though he was not mustered in until Nov. 17 at Fort Abercrombie. In May 1865 he was promoted to the position of Serg. Major of the 8th Minn, and on June 28, 1865, he was promoted to 1st Lieut. and Adjutant of the regiment. Aug. 3, 1865, he was mustered out of service. Until 1871 Mr. Paxson engaged in mercantile business and since 1872 he has been living on a small dairy farm at Stockton, N. J.
• Pearson, Benjamin F., 2nd Lieutenant, 36th Iowa Infantry. Civil War Diarist.
• Ransom, John L., 1st Sergeant, 9th Michigan Cavalry, author of Andersonville Diary.
• Rawlins, John Aaron, served on Grant's staff throughout the war, rising to the rank of brevet major general, and was Grant's chief defender against allegations of insobriety. After the war, he was appointed Secretary of War when Grant was elected President of the United States, but died of advanced tuberculosis five months into his term.
• Reichardt, Theodore, Private, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery. Civil War Diarist.
• Rogers, Nathaniel Peabody. American abolitionist writer who, from June 1838 until June 1846, served as editor of the New England anti-slavery newspaper Herald of Freedom.
• Rogers, Seth Rogers, Surgeon, 1st South Carolina Colored Infantry.
• Russell, William Howard, An Irish Reporter with the London Times.
• Senior, Nassau William, English lawyer known as an economist
• Sherman, John, United States Senator from Ohio, brother of William Tecumseh Sherman.
• Sherman, William Tecumseh, General in the United States Army, brother of John Sherman.
• Shaw, Robert Gould, Colonel of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry.  Brother-in-law of George William Curtis, Captain Charles Russell Lowell III, and Brevet Major-General Francis Channing Barlow.  His sister Josephine Shaw Lowell (wife of the above mentioned Charles Russell Lowell) was a Civil War diarist.
• Smith, George G., 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Louisiana Infantry (USA), previously served in the 13th Connecticut Infantry.  Author of  Leaves from a Soldier's Diary.
• Smith, Ann Carroll (Fitzhugh), Abolitionist Wife of Gerrit Smith (below). Her older brother was Henry Fitzhugh (above).
• Smith, Gerrit, a leading United States social reformer, abolitionist, politician, and philanthropist. Spouse to Ann Carroll Fitzhugh (above), Smith was a candidate for President of the United States in 1848, 1856, and 1860, but only served 18 months in the federal government—in Congress as a Free Soil Party Representative, in 1853–4.
• Stanton, Edwin M., Lincoln's 2nd Secretary of War.
• Stockton, Joseph, Brevet Brigadier General in the Union Army.
• Tenney, Luman Harris, 2nd Ohio Cavalry
• Thompson, George, British antislavery orator and activist who worked towards the abolition of slavery through lecture tours and legislation while serving as a Member of Parliament. He was arguably one of the most important abolitionists and human rights lecturers in the United Kingdom and the United States.
• Tyler, John, 10th President of the United States. Delegate from Virginia to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, but died before he could take his seat.
• Tyler, Julia Gardner, First Lady of the United States, 2nd wife of John Tyler (above).
• Van Alstyne, Lawrence, an officer in the 128th New York Infantry & the 90th U.S. Colored Infantry
• Walker, Amasa Francis, He began the war as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 15th Massachusetts Infantry.  By the war's end he was Brevet Brigadier-General. He went on to become economist, statistician, journalist, educator, academic administrator.
• Waring, Malvina S., diarist from Columbia, South Carolina; daughter of John Blair Black & Elizabeth Ann Shepherd; wife of Clark Waring.
• Webster, Daniel, 14th & 19th United States Secretary of State, United States Senator & Congressman from Massachusetts, 
• Welch, Spencer Glasgow, Surgeon, 13th South Carolina Infantry
• Welles, Gideon, Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy. Civil War Diarist.