The last quarter of the 19th Century was a period of dramatic change in the United States. Amidst this era of realignment, new political leaders came to the fore. Many were products of the Civil War, with all but one of the occupants of the White House from 1868 to the turn of the century having worn the blue uniform of a Union officer. While there is a common tendency to lump these leaders together as a band of indistinguishable bearded former generals, some were clearly more prominent than others, in both war and peace. One of those war heroes who emerged for his single presidential term may be the most anonymous of all, with one of the only remembrances related to his grandfather who preceded him in the White House nearly half a century before but lasted only a month in office before dying. But this historical reality must be assessed in the context of a very busy presidency. From the years 1889-1993, this President oversaw the fundamental altering of the U.S. currency; passed the highest peacetime tax increase the country had ever experienced; signed legislation that added six states to the Union in less than a year, creating 12 new spots in the U.S. Senate, seven in the House of Representatives, and 19 votes in the Electoral College, all going (at least initially) to his political his party; named more Federal judges, and specifically Supreme Court judges, than any one term President in the history of the country to date (including one to the highest court as a lame duck with less than a month left in his term); left office on the verge of an economic depression that would corrode much of his successor’s term; gave his sanction to a U.S.-aided takeover of a sovereign nation; and came within an eyelash of going to war over a bar fight. All of this activity occurred under the purview of a man whose wife of nearly 40 years, his soul mate and love of his life since the age of 18, died two weeks before the date in which his country went to the polls to vote him out of office. That’s the presidential legacy of the most anonymous President in U.S. history. That’s the presidential legacy of Benjamin Harrison.