People

George Thomas was a southerner who remained loyal to the United States during the Civil War. He earned the nickname "The Rock of Chickamauga" for his stand in that battle, and later commanded the Union Army of the Cumberland.

Braxton Bragg served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He is most famous for commanding the Army of Tennessee at the Battles of Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga.

In 1856, John C. Breckinridge became the youngest vice president in U.S. history as the running mate of James Buchanan and four years later he lost the presidency to Abraham Lincoln. Siding with the Confederacy despite his native Kentucky remaining in the Union, Breckinridge rose to the rank of major general and became Confederate Secretary of War during the final weeks of the conflict.

Bushrod Johnson was born in Belmont County Ohio, on October 7, 1817 into a family of Quakers, pacifists and abolitionists and contributed, at an early age, to the escape of runaway slaves. Still, upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Johnson accepted a commission in the Confederate Army and eventually rose to the rank of major general.

Enlisting in the Confederate army with no prior military experience, James Chalmers rose to the rank of brigadier general, fighting in many of the major campaigns of the Western Theater.

Kentucky politician-turned-soldier Lovell Rousseau who served in the with the Union army in the Western Theater before resigning his commission in 1865 to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Simultaneously Episcopal bishop of Louisiana and Confederate general, Leonidas Polk was not a particularly effective commander, but was a personal friend of President Davis. He was also popular with his men, who mourned him greatly when he was killed by a shell in June of 1864.

Joseph Wheeler was a U.S. and later senior Confederate army officer who provided invaluable service to the Confederacy during the American Civil War. After the war, Wheeler served eight terms as a United States Congressman from Alabama and then rejoined the U.S. Army in 1898 to fight in the Spanish-American War.

Patrick Cleburne was an Irish immigrant who, after his election to Colonel of the 15th Arkansas, quickly rose into the senior ranks of the Confederate army. In 1864, he joined Robert E. Lee and others to advocate for the enlistment of African Americans in the Confederate army.

William Rosecrans was an engineer who scored successes in western Virginia in 1861 and Mississippi in 1862. His victory at Stones River ended 1862 on a high note. In 1863 he outmaneuvered Braxton Bragg's Confederates and drove them from Middle Tennessee, an accomplishment overshadowed by victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. His star fell that September when Bragg defeated him at the Battle of Chickamauga.