Andrew Johnson (1808-1875)was the 17th president of the United States, rising from poverty in North Carolina to become a prominent Tennessee politician and the nation's vice president under Abraham Lincoln. As president, he pursued a lenient Reconstruction policy conflicting with the Republican-controlled Congress. After leaving office, Johnson returned to Tennessee politics and briefly served again in the U.S. Senate before his death in 1875.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from 1861 to 1865 during the American Civil War. He led the Union to victory, issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and helped pave the way for the abolition of slavery through the Thirteenth Amendment. Assassinated shortly after the Civil War ended, Lincoln became one of America's most revered presidents, remembered for preserving the Union and redefining the nation's commitment to freedom and equality.

Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) was the 18th president of the United States and the commanding Union general during the end of the Civil War. As president, he supported Reconstruction and used federal power to defend the civil and political rights of formerly enslaved Americans, while his administration was weakened by corruption scandals involving. After leaving office, Grant faced financial ruin but completed his celebrated Personal Memoirs before dying of throat cancer in 1885.