Key U.S. Presidents, Civil War Figures, and Reconstruction Leaders

John Tyler

10th U.S. president; annexed Texas and opposed many Whig policies.

James K. Polk

11th U.S. president; oversaw Mexican-American War and expansion to the Pacific.

Stephen W. Kearny

American general who captured New Mexico and California during the Mexican-American War.

John C. Fremont

Explorer and military officer; led American forces in California during the Mexican-American War.

Winfield Scott

Union general in the Mexican-American War and early Civil War; developed the Anaconda Plan.

David Wilmot

Proposed the Wilmot Proviso to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico.

Zachary Taylor

U.S. general in the Mexican-American War; later became 12th president.

Harriet Tubman

Escaped slave and conductor on the Underground Railroad; helped hundreds reach freedom.

Millard Fillmore

13th U.S. president; supported Compromise of 1850 and Fugitive Slave Law.

Franklin Pierce

14th U.S. president; pro-Southern policies intensified sectional tensions.

William Walker

American adventurer who attempted to establish English-speaking colonies in Latin America, including briefly ruling Nicaragua.

Caleb Cushing

Diplomat who negotiated the Treaty of Wanghia with China.

Matthew Perry

U.S. naval officer who opened Japan to trade with the U.S. via the Treaty of Kanagawa.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which galvanized anti-slavery sentiment in the North.

Henry Ward Beecher

Abolitionist preacher and supporter of anti-slavery settlers in Kansas.

James Buchanan

15th U.S. president; failed to prevent Southern secession before the Civil War.

Charles Sumner

Abolitionist senator from Massachusetts, famously beaten on the Senate floor in 1856.

Dred Scott

Enslaved man who sued for freedom; Supreme Court ruled African Americans were not citizens.

Stephen A. Douglas

Senator; debated Lincoln in 1858; author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Abraham Lincoln

16th U.S. president; led the Union during the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

John Brown

Abolitionist who led the raid on Harpers Ferry to incite a slave rebellion.

John C. Breckinridge

Vice president and Southern Democrat candidate for president in 1860; later Confederate general.

John Jordan Crittenden

Senator who proposed the Crittenden Compromise to prevent Southern secession.

Frederick Douglass

Former enslaved African American, abolitionist, writer, and orator.

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.

Elizabeth Blackwell

First woman in the U.S. to earn a medical degree; promoted women in medicine.

Clara Barton

Nurse during the Civil War; founder of the American Red Cross.

Sally Tompkins

Confederate nurse who ran a private hospital in Richmond, Virginia.

Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson

Confederate general; noted for his tactical skill and bravery.

George B. McClellan

Union general; cautious and criticized for inaction during the Civil War.

Robert E. Lee

Commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia; surrendered at Appomattox.

A.E. Burnside

Union general; known for his defeat at Fredericksburg and distinctive facial hair.

George Pickett

Confederate general; led Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg.

Ulysses S. Grant

Union general; led successful campaigns in the West and East; later 18th president.

William Tecumseh Sherman

Union general; led Sherman's March to the Sea, employing "total war" tactics.

John Wilkes Booth

Actor and Confederate sympathizer who assassinated Abraham Lincoln.

Oliver O. Howard

Union general; headed the Freedmen's Bureau during Reconstruction.

Harriet Jacobs

Former enslaved woman who wrote "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl."

Andrew Johnson

17th U.S. president; succeeded Lincoln and clashed with Congress over Reconstruction.

Thaddeus Stevens

Radical Republican leader in Congress advocating for civil rights and harsh Reconstruction policies.

Hiram Revels

First African American U.S. senator, representing Mississippi during Reconstruction.

Blanche Bruce

African American senator from Mississippi; served during Reconstruction.

Edwin M. Stanton

Secretary of War under Lincoln; key figure in Civil War administration.

Benjamin Wade

Senator and Radical Republican; president pro tempore during Johnson's impeachment trial.

William Seward

Secretary of State under Lincoln and Johnson; negotiated the purchase of Alaska ("Seward's Folly").