Woodrow Wilson

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Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson was thought by many as a great president and as our 28th president of the United States (1913-1921) he showed great leadership. While in office Wilson led the United States during World War I (1914-1918) and was awarded the 1919 Nobel Prize for peace and that was more than any president before him had ever received. Wilson had great political skill, and was a brilliant and effective public speaker, but he also found it hard to work well with other government officials who he often argued with.
Woodrow Wilson was born into a religious and well-educated family, mainly having Scottish background. His grandparents on both sides immigrated to America in the 19th century and settled in Ohio. Wilson's father, Joseph Ruggles Wilson was a clergyman who studied at the same college at which Woodrow would later have great connections. Joseph married Janet Woodrow and they moved to Virginia together in the 1850’s. In 1855 he became minister of a church in Staunton. There, in 1856 Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born, the first son and third child of Joseph and Janet.
Wilson’s early life was the typical one except he was very sheltered as a boy. When Woodrow was three years old the family moved to Augusta, Georgia where he would stay for a little while. Wilson was a good singer and played the violin. When he had a family of his own, he stayed with the tradition he had inherited of common prayer and sessions of music and song. Wilson was a witness to the ruthless behavior of federal troops who, under General William T. Sherman, invaded Georgia and South Carolina during the Civil war. Wilson believed all his life that the South had “absolutely nothing to apologize for,” so far as its secession from the Union was concerned. He also believed that the South's willingness to shed its blood “rather than pursue the weak course of expediency” had kept its self-respect. Wilson remained a Southerner through his entire lif...