Lincoln the Commander-In-Chief – While presidents such as Washington, Jackson, and Taylor had risen to the rank of general in the United States Army, Abraham Lincoln’s military service was limited to a few months in the Illinois State militia. His approach to managing the Army and Navy was marked by a combination of trial and error and eventually trusting his instincts. Early in the Civil War, Lincoln listened to advisors who promoted various officers because of their youth, experience, or political connections. Again and again these men either failed outright or were more concerned about not losing battles than winning them. By 1862, Lincoln had begun to take notice of men like Ulysses S. Grant and David Farragut, whose aggressiveness in combat Lincoln admired. Despite attempts to damage their reputations, Lincoln stuck by these leaders as they successfully defeated the confederacy and ended the Civil War.