Personalities of the Lincoln Era

This group of significant characters, such as Ann Rutledge, Steven A. Douglas, a young Mary Todd, and an ambitious John Fremont, centers on the rising career of Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War, Lincoln was supported by his Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and field General Ulysses S. Grant. Their Confederate counterparts, Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee were equally talented, but lacked an equivalent industrial war machine. They all played roles in the greatest crisis ever to face the United States. All were engaged in a conflict over principles. To many it was a war to death!  Even Lincoln was felled by John Wilkes Booth. Over decades enslaved African Americans gained some economic opportunity as C. J. Walker personified.