The
following presidents served in the armed forces during the Civil War. All were
Union (Northern) officers.
Abraham
Lincoln: commander in chief
Andrew
Johnson: brigadier general, military governor of Tennessee
Ulysses Grant:
general of the armies (commanded Union forces for the last part of the war)
Rutherford
Hayes: major general, wounded in combat
James
Garfield: major general, commanded troops at the Battle of Shiloh
Chester
Arthur: brigadier general, administrative posts
Benjamin
Harrison: brigadier general, commanded a brigade during Sherman's March to the
Sea
William
McKinley: brevet major, fought at the Battle of Antietam
Other
presidents alive during the war were too young to participate (such as Theodore
Roosevelt, who was a toddler when the war began). One president, Grover
Cleveland, paid another man $150 to take his place when he was drafted in 1863.
This practice was legal at the time.
Below is
Ulysses S. Grant when he was a general (not later, when he was president,
having been elected principally because of his success in the Civil War).
No comments:
Post a Comment