1. Ulysses S. Grant (Union Army) 

One of the most inspirational generals of the Civil War was Ulysses S. Grant. He treated the defeated Confederates with gentility and respect. His humane treatment avoided a protracted guerrilla war that probably would have extended the conflict indefinitely.

Ulysses S. Grant Had a drinking problem, but Lincoln liked a fighter. Grant was a failure during his early career and was forced to resign because of drunkenness. When war broke out, Grant rejoined the Union Army. Grant, who could not stand the sight of blood and detested wearing a uniform, outlasted and out-generaled his contemporaries.

Grant commanded Union forces during the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862. Although a Union victory, the over 10,000 casualties at Shiloh shocked the country.  Because of the bad press, Grant’s superior, General Halleck, demoted Grant to second in command. Grant seriously considered resigning, but his friend General William T. Sherman talked him out of it.

Lincoln reinstated Grant, who went on to lead the Union Army to final victory. Grant fought with determination and the knowledge that he was fighting a war of attrition.

Years later, knowing he was dying, Grant fought his last battle with illness. Having lost his considerable wealth in a fraudulent investment scheme and facing financial ruin, Grant wrote his wartime memoirs. 

2. William Tecumseh Sherman (Union Army)

William Tecumseh Sherman was a friend and loyal subordinate to U.S. Grant. When Grant was called east to fight Robert E. Lee, Sherman led his army of rough westerners through the heartland of Georgia and up through the Carolinas.

Famous for the quote, “War is hell,” Sherman brought the hell of war to the South. Sherman’s march to the sea through Georgia and up through the Carolinas destroyed the infrastructure and public morale of the Confederacy. 

3. Robert E. Lee (Confederate Army)

Robert E. Lee was a 30-year veteran of the US Army and served with distinction in Mexican-American War. He had a reputation as one of the finest officers in the US Army. President Lincoln offered Lee command of the Union forces, but Lee declined. Like many of his southern cohorts, he resigned from his commission to fight for his home state.

As a Confederate field commander, Lee got off to a shaky start. He fought Union forces in West Virginia and had to call off an attack in the face of fierce Union resistance at Cheat Mountain.

Confederate President Jefferson Davis nevertheless gave Lee command of the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee’s tactical skill and guile helped defeat a superior Union force under the command of George McClellan. His skills and leadership prolonged the life of the Confederacy and the Civil War.

Lee realized that the days of the Confederacy were numbered. Jefferson Davis preferred a defensive strategy, hoping the North would tire of the struggle. Lee, however, believed that a stunning victory in the North could even help the South gain foreign recognition.

Those hopes died at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania during Pickett’s charge up Cemetery Ridge. Losing 15,000 men—one-third of his army—Lee limped home. He had no choice but to fight a brilliant but hopeless defensive battle in Virginia that would extend the Civil War another two years and add thousands of battle deaths to the rolls.

4. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson (Confederate Army)

Stonewall Jackson was a skilled military tactician and nearly as popular as Robert E. Lee. Jackson earned the colorful nickname “Stonewall” at the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run). He charged his army to bridge a gap in the defensive line against a strong Union attack and impressed his commander, who exclaimed that Jackson was “standing like a stone wall.”

General Jackson died on May 5, 1863 from complications of a gunshot wound to his left arm, which surgeons had amputated. He was hit by two .69-caliber rounds from a small bore musket fired by his own troops. His loss was a grievous blow to the Confederacy.

Historians attribute Lee’s loss at Gettysburg to the poor performance of his generals in the field. Lee’s stubbornness and impatience for a decisive victory were also factors. Another factor could have been the absence of his trusted corps commander, Stonewall Jackson.

5. Braxton Bragg (Confederate Army)

Braxton Bragg was undoubtedly the worst general of the Confederacy. In positions of high command of the Confederacy’s western armies, Bragg was responsible for several costly southern defeats and the loss of thousands of men.

Braxton Bragg’s personality and body language were described as “that of a cornered animal.” To those officers under his command, Bragg was described as “vindictive, contrary, and deceitful.” Even after Jefferson Davis had no choice but to relieve his old army buddy, he gave Bragg a high government job as a principal military advisor, a sort of “quasi-commander in chief,” where he also proved ineffective.