Who is your favorite Civil War hero?

Question

OR least favorite non-hero?

YakRider: I do know who he was...you didn't mention if you thought of him as a hero or non-hero???

Answer 1

Robert Gould Shaw as he was portrayed by Matthew Broderick in "Glory." Up until that movie, I didn't have a high opinion of Broderick but "Glory" changed that. He really brought that Civil War hero to life. He was burdened with his own fears and insecurities but he still managed to do the right thing. The scene where the white officers rip up their pay vouchers because the black soldiers are being paid less than white soldiers was inspiring. How many of us would dream of doing something like that?

Was it bravery or foolishness or maybe a mix of both that made him volunteer to lead the rush on the fort at the end of the movie? They had massive casualties, including Shaw, but it was a triumphant end for the pampered son of abolitionists and secured him a place in history. However, as an avid letter writer, I feel it was his letters home (which gave much of the material for the movie) that made the difference. We got a peek into what it was like for him to be on the cutting edge of change, dramatic social change.

I also have to mention Major General James Birdseye McPherson: Sometimes called the "Forgotten Hero of the Civil War," General McPherson was mortally wounded in a skirmish during the Union advance on Atlanta July 22, 1864. At the time of his death, the 35-year old native of Clyde, Ohio, commanded the Army of the Tennessee and was the highest ranking Union Army commander to die in the Civil War. Upon hearing of McPherson's death, General Ulysses S. Grant, who later became President of The United States, retired to his tent and wept, commenting sadly, "The country has lost one of its best soldiers, and I have lost my best friend."

James B. McPherson was born November 14, 1828 in Hamer's Corners, (now Clyde) Ohio. Childhood memories of runaway slaves passing through his hometown in their escape to freedom in Canada opened his eyes to the problems of slavery and other problems which would eventually lead to the Civil War in which he would lose his life.

Among McPherson's boyhood friends were Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, William F. Sherman and Ulysses S. Grant, all of them Ohio boys who became Union generals during the Civil War. Three of them became presidents of the United States.

From 1849 to 1853 McPherson was a student at West Point, the U.S. Military Academy. At the time of McPherson's graduation, Coronal Robert E. Lee was superintendent of the academy; Secretary of War Jefferson Davis was the commencement speaker. James B. McPherson was listed at the top of his class.

Following graduation, he was retained as an engineering instructor. Later he was assigned to supervise harbor and river improvements and seacoast defenses on both Pacific and Atlantic coasts. For some time he served in a staff capacity for General Halleck, and then chief engineer with General Grant at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, and then at Shiloh. At the battle of Vicksburg, he was in command of the XVII Corps.

He had been given a furlough and permission to return to Baltimore to marry his sweetheart, Emily Hoffman, but before he could get home he was called back by General Grant to assist in planning the attack on Atlanta and to take over as the general of the Army of the Tennessee.

On July 22, 1864, while reconnoitering with his orderly, they encountered a group of rebels and he was shot and killed. The knightliest figure of them all, a young general only 35 years old, one of the most brilliant men in the Union Army had fallen in action.

I was born in McPherson, Kansas, a city named after this particular hero. In fact, the county was also named McPherson.

Answer 2

That's a tough choice there were so many good people like Lee, Forrest, and Chamberlain, and Lincoln but I must go with John Hunt Morgan. Benjamin Butler is without a doubt the Non-Hero.

Answer 3

Joshua Chamberlain, 20th Maine, probably saved the day during the Battle of Gettysburg at Little Round Top. He was wounded several times during the Civil War and had several horses shot out from under him. Before the war he was a philosophy professor. When he went to the Governor for a Commission, he was offered the rank of General. He said, I think I should learn the business first. He started out as a Lieutenant Colonel, but finished the war as a General. He won the Medal of Honor and is one of the people who lobby to make the medal of honor a very high honor, he felt that it was given out to freely (he joined Teddy Roosevelt, in this effort). He went on to be President of his college and then Governor of Maine.

Answer 4

There were good and honorable people fighting on both sides of the war. My favorites include:

North - Lincoln, Joshua Chamberlain, Winfield Scott Hancock

South - Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson

Least favorite - Nathan Bedford Forrest (founder of the KKK)

Answer 5

Nathan Bedford Forrest (Like all men he was flawed.)

Nathaniel Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821 – October 29, 1877) was a Confederate Army general during the American Civil War. Perhaps the most highly regarded cavalry and partisan (guerrilla) leader in the war, Forrest is regarded by many military historians as that conflict's most innovative and successful general. His tactics of mobile warfare are still studied by modern soldiers.

Forrest is also one of the war's most controversial figures. He was accused of war crimes at the Battle of Fort Pillow for having led Confederate soldiers in an alleged massacre of unarmed black Union troops. After the war he participated in the founding of the Ku Klux Klan.

Answer 6

General Robert E. Lee!!

Answer 7

I think that if any of those who fought in the Civil War were still alive then they would tell you that there were no heroes. They would tell you that there is nothing to be proud of and no honor in America fighting America, and in families fighting on opposing sides. Abraham Lincoln hated that our Nation was at war with itself, as well as great Generals.

Answer 8

Forrest was good, so was TJ, but my favorite is JB Hood....at least as Division Commander.. He didn't work out too good as Corp commander during the closing months of the war.

Answer 9

Abraham Lincoln! He was such a great role model for everybody and he shows that an average, even low class person, can rise up and make great changes!

Answer 10

Lincoln - of course

Anti-Hero : General George B. McClellan
may he rot in hell