All courtesy of AlternateHistory user HongCanucker

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Born in New York City to a wealthy family in 1858, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt became a national hero in 1881 during the Second Mexican War after his victory in the Battle of Teton River in the Montana Territory. After his return to New York, he entered politics in the state's General Assembly, and quickly rose through the ranks of the Democratic Party, becoming famous as a progressive and wild-card legislator. Among his achievements during his tenure of different high-ranking government positions at the federal and state levels include his support of the creation of the General Staff, the equipping of U.S forces with the M1903 Springfield bolt-action rifle, the creation of primary elections, the outlawing of child-labour and institution of a minimum wage in New York, and the expansion of the federal government's civil service.

Roosevelt would take the office of the presidency in 1913 after defeating the incumbent President Nelson Aldrich and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge for the Democratic Party nomination, and his Socialist rival Eugene V. Debs for the top spot. When war broke out in 1914, Roosevelt enthusiastically supported the war and cleaned the military by relieving older officers of their positions and placing more enthusiastic and inspirational commanders on the frontlines. He also spent time in the trenches during the midst of battle, and narrowly survived death on at least one occassion - one particular episode on the Roanoke Front had him tackled and narrowly saved by future pacifist movement leader Chester Martin. These measures, however, would come to naught after Operation Longsword led to the encirclement of Philadelphia, and the assassination of Roosevelt himself by Socialist extremist John Reed on June 6, 1917 was the death knell for the United States in the war.

Today, Roosevelt is remembered very fondly by many people around the world. Many Americans consider him one of the greatest Presidents in U.S history, and he is held in high regard for his energetic personality and his "cowboy" demeanor. Roosevelt is also widely respected in the Confederate States, Canada and the United Kingdom as a fearsome yet inspirational adversary in a time when his country needed one. He is one of the most respected Great War leaders of the Central Powers nations, and consistently ranks as one of the best U.S Presidents in surveys conducted in many parts of the world.

GEORGE CUSTER

George Armstrong Custer was a career officer in the United States Army. He saw action in three wars fought between the United States and the Confederate States. In the War of Secession, he served as an aide to General George McClellan at the Army of the Potomac's headquarters; he arose as one of the few victorious U.S. commanders in the Second Mexican War; and commanded the initial U.S Army drive into Kentucky before suddenly dying in 1916.

Although he'd fought in the War of Secession, and battled Plains Indians in Kansas during the interwar period, it was in the Second Mexican War that Custer rose in the national consciousness. He commanded a cavalry regiment which helped pacify the first Mormon rebellion in Utah. Custer and his superior, John Pope, developed such a brutal policy against Mormons and suspected polygamists, that the hearts and minds of the citizens of Utah were forever lost to the United States. Nonetheless, Pope and Custer broke the rebellion, forcing the Mormons to quietly simmer for the next three decades. (It is also noted that despite Custer's demeaning views on the Mormons's practice of polygamy, he was hypocritically a notorious womanizer even when he was married.)

However, it was the fighting in Montana that put Custer's star on the rise, as he had an important role in one of the few victories the U.S. had in that war: the defeat of a British force commanded by Charles George Gordon. Custer had help from Theodore Roosevelt's Unauthorized Regiment, and Colonel Henry Welton's Seventh Infantry. The later had put the newly introduced Gatling guns to use in mowing down British infantry, despite Custer's contempt for the modern weapons.

This battle was to shape Custer's remaining career. His beloved brother Tom was killed by British forces, and this instilled in Custer a lifelong hatred for the Canadians. The fact that the war had ended just prior to the battle added salt to the wound. Further, as the facts of the battle were sorted and credit parsed, Custer found himself in competition with Roosevelt for the national limelight. The two were to remain bitter rivals for the remainder of their lives. Finally, despite the obvious success of the Gatling guns, Custer maintained a certain contempt for modernity, believing that battles could be won by sheer numbers alone, a belief he put into operation during the Great War with horrifying results.

In the Great War, Custer was given command of the US First Army in Kentucky. Many of his policies were questionable, including his insistance of sending his infantry straight at the enemy without consideration for the defensive positions allowed by trench warfare. This myopia cost many lives, despite the best efforts and advice of his adjutant, future U.S Army Major General Abner Dowling. Dowling was quietly contemptuous of Custer's vanity. Not only did Custer continue to dye his long hair blond, he drank surreptitiously and pursued women less than half his age and, for that matter, less than a third of his age.

In spite of himself, Custer became a hero. His approach of throwing men into the lines eventually wore down the C.S. Army opposing him, with its far more limited manpower. Moreover, despite his disdain for military modernity, Custer was one of the first people to see the importance tanks could have in war. Alas, he was unable to develop and execute a strategy to utilize them like his enemies did later that year, as he died of a sudden heart attack on June 25, 1916. Shortly afterwards his army would be routed and forced out of Kentucky by the Confederate States, and by late 1917 the men under his command were exhausted and forced to surrender.

Today, Custer is seen as somewhat of a folk hero in many circles in the United States. His remarkable actions and notably his fighting spirit while battling the Indians, Confederates and Canadians are still widely remembered and appreciated by not just Americans, but also Confederates and Canadians. Custer, however, is seen in a much darker light by the Mormons, who consider his actions against their ancestors in Utah during the First Mormon Uprising to be very cruel and a heinous war crime of his time. Regardless, Custer is still remembered by many military historians as the man who had the potential to turn the war around in the United States' favor, and many alternate history writers have postulated what might have happened had Custer been able to plan and execute longsword-style tank tactics during the war instead of his enemies.

JOHN PERSHING

John Joseph Pershing was a successful general in the United States Army during the Great War, and later the Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the interwar period until his death in 1934.

Born on a farm in Missouri in 1860, in 1881, after Republican James G. Blaine took the office of the presidency, Pershing quickly enlisted in the United States Army, hoping to have a chance to fight against the Confederate States. He became a remarkable and adept soldier, and was commended by his superiors as a natural leader with a remarkable ability for command. After the war ended abruptly in 1882, Pershing applied to and was accepted by the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, where he was also commended by his teachers for his exceptional leadership skills. In 1884 he also took part in a two-year exchange program and was sent to the Prussian Military Academy in Germany, where he was able to further enhance and practice his gift.

After returning to the United States in 1886, Pershing served in the Midwest, where he spent four years battling the Plains Indians, and very nearly getting killed at times. He became famous and respected by the men under his for his leadership skills and expert marksmanship, which proved handy when fighting the Natives, and was able to rise through the ranks of the Army, before receiving an appointment to be an instructor at West Point, his alma mater, in 1896.

Pershing would spend four years at the academy before returning to active duty fighting Indian raids in his home state of Missouri. His experience from the conflict led him to receive multiple diplomatic postings. In 1903 he became the military attaché of the United States embassy to Austria-Hungary, and helped oversee the sharing of bolt-action rifle technology between the nations of the Triple Alliance after the deployment of the Gewehr 98 and M1903 Springfield rifles. He would hold the post, as well as numerous others, until Nelson Aldrich's ascension to the presidency, when Pershing would finally be promoted to a colonel. Theodore Roosevelt's ascension four years later gave Pershing the rank of a lieutenant general and command of the Second Army.

Under Pershing, the U.S. Second Army fought primarily in eastern Kentucky and then Tennessee when the Great War began. He managed his campaign well, even taking Louisville by going in from the flanks rather than straight on as had happened during the Second Mexican War. George Armstrong Custer, commander of First Army, soon saw Pershing as a rival, taking whatever opportunities he could to deride the younger man. Second Army fought right alongside First Army until the end of the war. After Custer's sudden death in 1916, Pershing was reported to become increasingly ill and stressed as a result of the need to command two of the United States' field armies, and subsequently became very reluctant in his decision-making. After the Longsword Offensive's launch in 1917, Pershing could do nothing as Confederate tanks plowed through his lines and forced his army to retreat, losing the gains he had made through a brutal slog of three long years in just eight weeks. He was reported to have spent the last few days of the war alone in his office muttering obscenities at his enemies and vowing the United States would finally get her revenge.

After the war, Pershing continued his assignment as the greatly reduced Second Army's commander, and he worked with Custer's former adjutant, Abner Dowling, as his second-in-command. Despite Dowling's prior association with Custer, he and Pershing found they were able to work quite well together – as Custer himself had found when stationed in Utah over forty years earlier, during the Second Mexican War, as second-in-command to John Pope, a rival of Custer's old superior, George McClellan. During this time, Pershing became a proponent of theories that the United States would eventually be destined to rule the continent as a colossus straddling Alaska to Cuba, and called it "the final stage in achieving our Manifest Destiny". While never as virulently racist nor as ideologically influenced as the Nazi vision of Lebensraum, both had similar visions of their respective countries (the United States and Germany) conquering large amounts of their enemies' territory and annexing it as their own.

In 1922, Pershing left his field command and joined the General Staff. He was reported to have been a relatively aloof figure, preferring face-to-face discussions with a select few, and spent most of his time in his Philadelphia office with his new adjutant, Major John Abell. Although a career Democrat, Pershing chose to abstain from domestic politics, although he expressed support for the National Patriotic Party's jingoistic policies. Gordon McSweeney, however, wanted nothing to do with him, and dismissed him as yet another Democratic incompetent who had helped them to lose the war. However, after the Great Depression entered its worst times and the Patriots began gaining ground among the electorate, Pershing became open to the true extent of the Patriots' power and what it might mean for the United States. He immediately opposed McSweeney's calls for a new war in North America, and in doing so made himself an enemy of the NPPA. After the Butcher took power in 1933, the McSweeney administration attempted to coerce Pershing to step down and quietly retire. When he resisted, he died the next year in his War Department office, ostensibly and officially due to a heart attack, though many suspected murder by the Patriots.