Pickett was, on a personal level, one of the most interesting men in the war. He wore a variety of French perfumes, was a bit of a dandy. Challenged to fight anyone who believed in evolution (nearly happened between him and an artillery engineer one time). The valor required to lead his men in that charge (which came from orders from above) was exemplary.

John S. Mosby was a badass pirate in the DC area, raiding Yankee caravans at night and housing his men on the farms of sympathetic locals.

Admiral Semmes is, to this day, the most successful maritime commerce raider in history.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4579918&forum_id=2#40572998)

Chamberlain studied for three additional years at Bangor Theological Seminary in Bangor, Maine, returned to Bowdoin, and began a career in education as a professor of rhetoric. He eventually went on to teach every subject in the curriculum with the exception of science and mathematics. In 1861 he was appointed Professor of Modern Languages.[6] He was fluent in nine languages other than English: Greek, Latin, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac.

Offered the colonelcy of the 20th Maine Regiment, he declined, according to his biographer, John J. Pullen, preferring to "start a little lower and learn the business first."[citation needed] He was appointed lieutenant colonel of the regiment on August 8, 1862, under the command of Col. Adelbert Ames.

Chamberlain became most famous for his achievements during the Battle of Gettysburg. On July 2, the second day of the battle, Union forces were recovering from initial setbacks and hastily regrouping into defensive positions on a line of hills south of the town. Sensing the momentary vulnerability of the Union forces, the Confederates began an attack against the Union left flank. Chamberlain's brigade, commanded by Col. Strong Vincent, was sent to defend Little Round Top by the army's Chief of Engineers, Brig. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren. Chamberlain found himself and the 20th Maine at the far left end of the entire Union line. He quickly understood the strategic significance of the small hill, and the need for the 20th Maine to hold the Union left at all costs. The men from Maine waited until troops from the 15th Regiment Alabama Infantry, commanded by Col. William C. Oates, charged up the hill, attempting to flank the Union position. Time and time again the Confederates struck, until the 20th Maine was almost doubled back upon itself. With many casualties and ammunition running low, Col. Chamberlain recognized the dire circumstances and ordered his left wing (which was now looking southeast, compared to the rest of the regiment, which was facing west) to initiate a bayonet charge. From his report of the day: "At that crisis, I ordered the bayonet. The word was enough." While battlefield conditions make it unlikely that many men heard Chamberlain's order, most historians believe he initiated the charge.

The 20th Maine charged down the hill, with the left wing wheeling continually to make the charging line swing like a hinge, thus creating a simultaneous frontal assault and flanking maneuver, capturing 101 of the Confederate soldiers and successfully saving the flank. This version of the battle was popularized by the book The Killer Angels and the movie Gettysburg, but there is debate on the historical validity of this account.[9] Chamberlain sustained two slight wounds in the battle, one when a shot hit his sword scabbard and bruised his thigh, and another when his right foot was hit by a spent bullet or piece of shrapnel. Chamberlain also personally took a Confederate prisoner with his saber during the charge. After initiating the maneuver, he came upon a Confederate officer wielding a revolver who quickly fired, narrowly missing his face. Chamberlain remained steadfast, and with his sword at the officer's throat accepted the man's arms and surrender.[10] The pistol Chamberlain captured at Gettysburg can still be seen on display in the Civil War exhibit of the Maine State Museum. For his tenacity at defending Little Round Top, he was known by the sobriquet Lion of the Round Top. Prior to the battle, Chamberlain was quite ill, developing malaria and dysentery. Later, due to this illness, he was taken off active duty until he recovered.

For his "daring heroism and great tenacity in holding his position on the Little Round Top against repeated assaults, and carrying the advance position on the Great Round Top", Chamberlain was awarded the Medal of Honor.

In April 1864, Chamberlain returned to the Army of the Potomac and was promoted to brigade commander shortly before the Siege of Petersburg and given command of the 1st Brigade, First Division, V Corps. In a major action on June 18, during the Second Battle of Petersburg, Chamberlain was shot through the right hip and groin, the bullet exiting his left hip. Despite the injury, Chamberlain withdrew his sword and stuck it into the ground in order to keep himself upright to dissuade the growing resolve for retreat. He stood upright for several minutes until he collapsed and lay unconscious from loss of blood. The wound was considered mortal by the division's surgeon, who predicted he would perish; Chamberlain's incorrectly recorded death in battle was reported in the Maine newspapers, and Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant gave Chamberlain a battlefield promotion to the rank of brigadier general after receiving an urgent recommendation on June 19 from corps commander Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren: "He has been recommended for promotion for gallant and efficient conduct on previous occasion and yesterday led his brigade against the enemy under most destructive fire. He expresses the wish that he may receive the recognition of his services by promotion before he dies for the gratification of his family and friends." Not expected to live, Chamberlain displayed surprising will and courage, and with the support of his brother Tom, was back in command by November. Although many, including his wife Fanny, urged Chamberlain to resign, he was determined to serve through the end of the war.

In early 1865, Chamberlain regained command of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division of V Corps, and he continued to act with courage and resolve. On March 29, 1865, his brigade participated in a major skirmish on the Quaker Road during Grant's final advance that would finish the war. Despite losses, another wound (in the left arm and chest that almost caused amputation), and nearly being captured, Chamberlain was successful and brevetted to the rank of major general by President Abraham Lincoln. Chamberlain gained the name "Bloody Chamberlain" at Quaker Road. Chamberlain kept a Bible and framed picture of his wife in his left front "chest" pocket. A Confederate shot at Chamberlain. The bullet went through his horse's neck, hit the picture frame, entered under Chamberlain's skin in the front of his chest, traveled around his body under the skin along the rib, and exited his back. To all observers Union and Confederate, it appeared that he was shot through his chest. He continued to encourage his men to attack.

On the morning of April 9, 1865, Chamberlain learned of the desire by General Robert E. Lee to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia when a Confederate staff officer approached him under a flag of truce. "Sir," he reported to Chamberlain, "I am from General Gordon. General Lee desires a cessation of hostilities until he can hear from General Grant as to the proposed surrender."[12] The next day, Chamberlain was summoned to Union headquarters where Maj. Gen. Charles Griffin informed him that he had been selected to preside over the parade of the Confederate infantry as part of their formal surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 12.[13]

Thus Chamberlain was responsible for one of the most poignant scenes of the American Civil War. As the Confederate soldiers marched down the road to surrender their arms and colors, Chamberlain, on his own initiative, ordered his men to come to attention and "carry arms" as a show of respect. In memoirs written forty years after the event, Chamberlain described what happened next:

Gordon, at the head of the marching column, outdoes us in courtesy. He was riding with downcast eyes and more than pensive look; but at this clatter of arms he raises his eyes and instantly catching the significance, wheels his horse with that superb grace of which he is master, drops the point of his sword to his stirrup, gives a command, at which the great Confederate ensign following him is dipped and his decimated brigades, as they reach our right, respond to the 'carry.' All the while on our part not a sound of trumpet or drum, not a cheer, nor a word nor motion of man, but awful stillness as if it were the passing of the dead.[14]

Chamberlain stated that his salute to the Confederate soldiers was unpopular with many Unionists, but he defended his action in his posthumously published 1915 memoir The Passing of the Armies. Many years later, Gordon, in his own memoirs, called Chamberlain "one of the knightliest soldiers of the Federal Army." Gordon never mentioned the anecdote until after he read Chamberlain's account, more than 40 years later.[15]

In all, Chamberlain served in 20 battles and numerous skirmishes, was cited for bravery four times, had six horses shot from under him, and was wounded six times

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4579918&forum_id=2#40573243)

Kirby Smith

The guy who sailed around the world and was capturing Japanese whalers and didn’t even know the war was over

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4579918&forum_id=2#40573280)

Jubal Early: He toook over a very weak force and was tasked with creating some kind of distraction to help Lee. He met that command heroically, plunging into Maryland and coming within hours of sacking Washington D.C., which had been stripped of nearly its whole garrison. After that raid, he conducted a superb defense of the Valley, forcing the deployment of a massive army to defeat him, which he nearly defeated.

Patrick Cleburne: The Southern general who proposed slavery abolition as the way the South could win foreign recognition and by extension its independence. His proposal wasn't just ignored but was actively suppressed by the Davis administration, and it likely kept Cleburne from being elevated to a higher command despite his substantial skill.

Judah P. Benjamin: Not a general, but a brilliant mind who dedicated himself totally to winning Southern independence in three separate cabinet roles, as AG, War Secretary, and Secretary of War. When Confederate forces on Roanoke Island fell because the government simply had no arms to send them, Benjamin publicly took the blame, letting himself be tarred as an incompetent rather than admitting the truth, which was that Southern armories were empty. By the war's end, Benjamin had lost everything, but he fled to England and became a rich man once again by applying himself brilliantly at the bar.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4579918&forum_id=2#40573380)

https://www2.latech.edu/~bmagee/louisiana_anthology/texts/ellis/ellis--04_13_1862.html

E. John Ellis.

Edited by Steve G. Ellis.

Letter to his Father, April 13, 1862.

Dear Pa — We are now resting and recruiting men, cleaning our arms and preparing to take the field again at the call of our beloved Beauregard.

We have had a great deal of wet and disagreeable weather since the battle but today is as bright and beautiful as days ever are, the sun is warm, the buds are bursting and the birds singing, and I could lay under one of these oaks and shutting my eyes almost dream that I was at home again and that there was no war. But the drum roll or a bugle call will break the spell and bring back the harsh reality of civil war, bloodshed and misery.

As I finished the last line, General Beauregard rode up attended only by his aids to Col. Masons hut. A crowd gathered about him and I went up. He asked kindly about our sick and about our losses. Seeing one of our men who had been slightly wounded in the head, standing near with a bandage wrapped around, he rode up to him, extended his hand and inquired, "My brave friend were you wounded"? Being answered in the affirmative he went on and said, "Never mind, I trust you will soon be well. Before long we will make the Yankees pay up, interest and all. The day of our glory is near." As he rode away after gracefully bowing to the crowd, a shout such as Napoleon might have heard from the lips of the "Guard", went up, Hurrah -for Beauregard our chief'. It's strange Pa how we love that little black Frenchman, but there is not a man in the army who would not willingly die in following his lead.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4579918&forum_id=2#40577524)