You know about President Abraham Lincoln and General U.S. Grant. But do you know who was probably the next most popular civil war hero from Illinois? He was from a prominent family of Democrats from “Little Egypt,” that southern part of Illinois to which northerners went to buy food after their crops failed in 1832. He was so highly regarded that, upon his death in 1886, his body was laid in state in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. Earlier, when President Lincoln was assassinated, there was such outrage among the Union troops stationed at Raleigh, N.C., that they were prepared to destroy that city out of pure anger. However, this Union general rode his horse in front of the Union cannons and soldiers and declared they would have to shoot him first. Read More...