In the Western theater of the war, the North struck early and hard in order to seize and control the Mississippi River. Success would split the Confederacy into two parts. The Northern forces totaled 100,000. General Henry W. Halleck commanded in Missouri and western Kentucky. General Don Carlos Buell led Union forces in eastern Kentucky. General Albert Sidney Johnston commanded Confederate forces in Kentucky. His commanded included an army in Arkansas under General Earl Van Dorn. The Southern forces in this Western region numbered about 70,000.

Mississippi Valley

Fort Henry and Fort Donelson The center of the Confederate line rested on two forts, Henry on the Tennessee River and Donelson on the Cumberland River. General Ulysses S. Grant, commanding officer under Halleck in western Kentucky, knew that the capture of these forts would seriously compromise the Confederate position in Kentucky and western Tennesee. He easily captured Fort Henry in February, 1862, with the support of a fleet of ironclad ships. He then moved against Fort Donelson, which was captured, along with its nearly 15,000 Confederate troops.

Grant's force now lay between the two flanks of the Confederate army. To escape destruction, Jonhston pulled back all the way to Corinth, Mississippi, an important railroad center. The Confederacy had now lost Kentucky and half of Tennessee.

West of the Mississippi River, on March 6-8, a Union army under General Samuel R. Curtis defeated Van Dorn at Pea Ridge, Arkansas. This defeat put Missouri solidly in Northern hands.

Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing) Halleck, now commander of all western Union forces, ordered Grant to move down the Tennessee River, and told Buell to join Grant. Grant and about 42,000 men moved to Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, 30 miles north of Corinth. Johnston and General Pierre G.T. Beauregard decided that they had to strike Grant before Buell arrived. They planned to destroy Grant's forces with an army of 40,000. The Battle of Shiloh (named after a church on the battlefield) took place on April 6 and 7. On the first day, Confederate troops almost smashed Grant, but he held his lines. Johnston was killed in the first day of battle. The next day, with about 20,000 reinforcements from Buell, Grant forced the Southerners to retreat to Corinth. The Northerners had won again, but at a cost of more than 10,000 killed and wounded.

After Shiloh, Halleck took command of Grant's and Buell's forces, moved cautiously southward, and forced Beauregard to evacuate Corinth. By early June, the Union held the Mississippi River as far south as Memphis.

New Orleans Meanwhile, Northern forces were moving up the Mississippi from the South. In April, a naval squadron under Captain David G. Farragut appeared at the mouth of the river. He steamed through the weak Confederate defenses, and forced New Orleans to surrender on May 1. Behind him came an army force under General Benjamin F. Butler, to occupy the South's largest city. Northerners held New Orleans and southern Louisiana for the rest of the war.

Raids In April, 1862, a Union spy named James J. Andrews led 21 men through the Confederate lines to Marietta, Georgia, where they captured a railroad engine, the General. They ran it northward toward Chattanooga, Tennessee, destroying telegraph communications as they went. Confederate troops in another engine, the Texas, pursued the General and caught it after an exciting chase. The Confederacy hanged Andrews and seven of his men.

Confederate generals Nathan Bedford Forrest and John Hunt Morgan led many cavalry raids into Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and neighboring states. Forrest's men galloped as far north as Paducah, Kentucky, destroying Union supplies and communication lines. "Morgan's Raiders" made a dash into Ohio in July, 1863. They destroyed property worth $500,000 before they were captured. Morgan escaped in November, but was killed a year later in Tennessee.

Perryville After Corinth fell to Union forces, Grant was assigned the job of guarding communications along the Mississippi River, while Halleck was sent to capture Chattanooga. Before Buell could advance, however, General Braxton Bragg, the Confederate commander in Tennessee, invaded Kentucky, hoping to draw the Northerners out of Tennessee. Buell raced to meet him, and the two armies met on October 8 in the Battle of Perryville. The result was indecisive, but Bragg retreated to Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Murfreesboro (Stones River) Believing Buell was too cautious, President Lincoln replaced him with General William S. Rosencrans. Rosencrans advanced south from Nashville toward Bragg's army at Murfreesboro. A hard-fought battle dragged on from December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863. Bragg retreated after losing 9,000 men. The battle brought into prominence a Union leader who later gained fame -- General Philip H. Sheridan.

Vicksburg In the winter of 1862-1863, Grant proposed to capture Vicksburg, the key city that guarded the Mississippi River between Memphis and New Orleans. Grant initially hoped to take Vicksburg from above, with naval support from Captain David D. Porter, but the ground north of Vicksburg was low and marshy, and the army bogged down. Grant's army tried many times to approach the city. Engineers even tried to dig a canal to divert the waters of the Mississippi so that troops moving down the river could bypass the city.

In April, 1863, Union gunboats and suply ships slipped past the Confederate batteries in the dead of night, and established a base on the river below the city. The army then marched down the west side of the river and crossed over by ship to the eastern sid. Grant had now reached dry ground below the city. In a brilliant campaign, Grant scattered Confederate forces in the field and drove toward Vicksburg. After direct attacks failed, Grant started to besiege the city in mid-May. The Confederate garrison held out for six weeks, but Vicksburg finally surrendered on July 4, the day after the Southern defeat at Gettysburg.

Five days later, Port Hudson, Louisiana, fell to Union forces under General Nathaniel P. Banks. The Confederacy had been split into two parts, and the North controlled the Mississippi.

The Tennessee Campaign

Chickamauga In the fall of 1863, General William S. Rosecrans advanced on Chattanooga with a Union army of 55,000 men. Bragg, seeking to keep his army free for action, evacuated the city and withdrew southward into Georgia. Rosecrans pursued him. Bragg had received reinforcements from Virginia, and his forces numbered close to 70,000. He fell on Rosecrans in the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19 and 20. The Northern right flank crumbled and broke completely. Only the left flank fought on under General George H. Thomas. Rosecrans' entire Union army was badly mauled and had to retreat into Chattanooga.

Chattanooga Bragg had lost about 17,000 men, so did not follow up his victory immediately. He finally advanced and occupied Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and other heights south of Chattanooga. From these points, Confederate artillery commanded the roads and the Tennessee River, which supplied the city. Grant, now commander of all western forces, replaced Rosecrans with Thomas. Grant then advanced to Chattanooga with part of his own Army of the Tennessee. On November 23-25, the Northerners dealt Bragg a staggering blow in the Battle of Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain and other heights fell on the first two days. On November 25, Thomas' Army of the Cumberland swept up Missionary Ridge without orders. The successful charge ended the battle in an hour.

From Chattanooga, Northern armies could move into Georgia and Alabama and split the eastern Confederacy in two.

President Abraham Lincoln
Philip Henry Sheridan

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This page was last updated on 06/21/2011.