Commander of the famed Washington Artillery of New Orleans

(1813-85) The owner of a New Orleans grocery store, Walton joined the Washington Artillery as adjutant when the unit was formed in 1839. During the Mexican War he commanded the 1st Louisiana Artillery. He was appointed major and commander of the Washington Artillery Battalion in May 1861, and led four batteries east to serve in Virginia at the outbreak of the war. After fighting in the 1st battle of Manassas, he was assigned to the command of General James Longstreet seeing action...  

Killed at Cold Harbor, Va. in 1864!

(1824-64) A lawyer by occupation, he served as a Democratic Congressman from South Carolina 1853-60, and was one of the South's most outspoken advocates of secession. In 1856, he accompanied fellow South Carolinian Preston Brooks to the Senate chamber when Brooks beat Senator Charles Sumner senseless. During the fray, Keitt used his own cane to keep away others who tried to come to Sumner's defense. He was elected a delegate to South Carolina's secession convention, and resigned his seat in the U.S....  

(1806-78) Graduated from the University of Nashville, and was a law partner of James K. Polk, future President of the U.S.A., in Columbia, Tenn. Serving as a major general in the Mexican War, he was twice wounded in the Mexico City campaign. Upon the secession of Tennessee in 1861, Pillow was named senior major general of Tennessee's provisional army, and on July 7th, he was appointed brigadier general in the Provisional Army of the Confederacy. He was at the battle of Belmont, Mo., and during the battle of Fort Donelson, Tenn., he managed to escape...  

(1813-90) A lawyer by profession, he graduated from South Carolina College, (now the state university), and fought in both the Seminole uprising of 1836 and the Mexican War. His political career began with election to the South Carolina state house of representatives in 1840. The secession of his state from the Union found him a member of the Federal Congress to which he had been elected in 1857 to fill the unexpired term of his cousin, Preston Brooks, who had resigned following his notorious physical assault on Senator Charles Sumner. Immediately...  

(1823-1914) Graduated in the West Point class of 1844. He was wounded and brevetted for gallantry in the Mexican War. Appointed a brigadier general in the Confederate Army on September 14, 1861, he saw action at Fort Donelson where he was forced to surrender the fort to his old friend and West Point classmate, General U.S. Grant. He was confined at Fort Warren prison for 5 months. After his release, he led a division in Bragg's Kentucky campaign, and a corps at Chickamauga, and later received promotion to lieutenant general to rank from September 20,...  

(1821-1904) "Old Pete" and "Lee's Old War Horse" were two names commonly used when referring to General James Longstreet. He commanded the 1st Corps, of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, for most of the war. He fought at 1st Manassas, in the Virginia Peninsula campaign, at 2nd Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg. He was briefly sent west by General Lee to bolster that army and saw action at Chickamauga and Knoxville. Returning east, he fought in the battle of the Wilderness where he was severely...  

The Father of Secession!

(1800-76) Born in Beaufort, S.C., he studied law, was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Beaufort in 1824. He served as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, 1826-32, and was elected Attorney General of South Carolina in 1832. From 1837-49, he served as U.S. Congressman, and from 1850-52, as U.S. Senator. Extremely pro-Southern in his views, Rhett was one of the leading fire-eaters at the 1850 Nashville Convention which failed to endorse his plan of secession for the entire South. He...  

Killed at the 1st Battle of Manasass!

(1816-61) A lawyer by occupation, he became Georgia's first martyr of the Civil War. Prominent in local politics, he was captain of the Oglethorpe Light Infantry. A member of the Georgia secession convention, he took an active part in the capture of Fort McAllister, Ga. Named to the Provisional Confederate Congress, he was appointed chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. On June 1, 1861, he was commissioned colonel of the 8th Georgia Infantry which he took to Virginia. Joining up with General...  

(1817-98) Born in North Carolina, he graduated in the West Point class of 1842. He won 2 brevets for bravery during the Mexican War, and resigned his commission in the U.S. Army in 1856 to become president of the Washington Iron Works at Newburgh, N.Y., a position he retained until returning to the South at the commencement of the Civil War. In July 1861, he was commissioned major in the Confederate artillery, and assigned to the Ordnance Department. There he was placed in charge of procuring gunpowder and quickly became the Confederacy's leading expert...  

(1806-63) Graduated from South Carolina College in 1829. A lawyer by profession, he was elected to the Virginia house of delegates in 1847, and governor of the state in 1848. President Buchanan appointed him Secretary of War in 1857, a post which he occupied until his resignation on Dec. 29, 1860. This was precipitated by the refusal of Buchanan to order Major Robert Anderson back from Fort Sumter to Fort Moultrie. Floyd was subsequently bitterly criticized in the North for alleged transfer of unwarranted numbers of arms from Northern to Southern...  

(1812-80) Son of United States Senator John J. Crittenden, and brother of Union General Thomas L. Crittenden. Graduated in the West Point class of 1832. He served in the Black Hawk War, and later went to the Republic of Texas and served in the Texas Army and was captured by Mexicans in the Mier expedition of 1843. Sent to prison in Mexico, he was eventually freed and returned to Kentucky. He fought in the Mexican War as a captain of U.S. Mounted Rifles, winning the brevet of major for gallantry. He resigned from the U.S. Army in 1861, having attained the...  

(1807-1870) Robert E. Lee graduated #2 in the West Point class of 1829. He emerged from the Mexican War with one wound, three brevets for gallantry and a brilliant reputation. During the Civil War, he commanded the Army of Northern Virginia at such battlefields as 2nd Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Petersburg, Richmond and Appomattox. His reputation became legendary and he might very well be the most famous soldier in American history!

Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph,...