BIOGRAPHIES OF THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTIONR ABRAHAM LINCOLN ROBERT LEE Ulysses at times seemed uneasy with the idea of war itself for example when he expressed in a letter to his son before the outbreak of the war his deep dismay at a union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets and in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love and kindness Aside from the issues that led to the war and the rationales of the soldiers involved in the conflict readers of this book will also learn quite a bit about the presidents of the time and their lives before tak ing office Included within are interesting details such as which president once sold real estate which was a tailor which had his name changed because of the 19th century equivalent of a typo courtesy of West Point which one attended school for only a year and which one did not go to school at all But this book goes well beyond the lives of the presidents who served in this era Readers will also learn about the famous Confederate general who seriously wounded in battle died soon thereafter as a result of friendly fire and about the life of the well known Union general who much to 10
INTRODUCTION President Abraham Lincoln's consternation was clearly reluctant to go into battle Looking back on historical events can have a way of making them seem inevita ble When it comes to the Civil War and its aftermath we all know that slavery ended that the North won and that the country moved forward as a single nation albeit one that faced grave problems of readjustment and reconstruction But reading about those who peopled the era whether brave or brilliant villainous or vanquished makes the events the decisions and the mistakes come alive In addition going beyond the famous to introduce lesser known figures such as the Northern woman who disguised herself as a man signed up as a volunteer and participated in several key battles adds dimension to a story that still surprises edu cates and unfolds All that and more awaits in this volume that chronicles the lives of the 19th century men and women whose beliefs actions and legacies changed the course of American history all during a time in which the end of slavery and the future direction of the country were anything but certain 11
CHAPTER 1 MILLARD FILLMORE n 185o the United States was close to civil war over the seemingly impassable prob lems of slavery A proposed compromise had touched off the greatest political storm in the nation s history Amid this bitter struggle President Zachary Taylor suddenly died on July 9 1850 Succeeding to the presidency was Vice President Millard Fillmore a Whig from New York Fillmore worked hard to secure the passage of five separate mea sures dealing with the slavery problem This set of laws called the Compromise of 1850 postponed war for another ten years It also ended Fillmore s political career The Whig party refused to nominate him for a second term in 1852 and Fillmore thus became the nation's last Whig president Fillmore was born in a log cabin on a frontier farm in Cayuga County N Y on Jan 7 18oo Work on the farm took up most of young Millard's time and he was unable to attend school more than three months each year When he was 14 years old his father hired Millard out for seven years as a 12
MLLARD FLLMORE Millard Fillmore Library of Congress Washington D C 13
