Civil War

Civil War. Western Theater Of War. , Union efforts in the western theater of the war centered on seizing control of the many rivers and streams that pierced the Southern heartland. Employing ironclad warships capable of destroying the South's outdated masonry forts, Union forces outmaneuvered the Confederates from Kentucky and captured the key strong points at Forts Henry and Donaldson in northern Tennessee. Union forces continued their drive through Tennessee virtually unchecked and by the spring of 1862 were positioned to invade Mississippi when they were suddenly attacked at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee by a patchwork Confederate Army hastily assembled under the leadership of Confederate general Albert Sydney Johnston. In the resulting Battle of Shiloh, Johnston delivered a punishing blow but the Federal Army remained unbroken and continued to offer a threat to the Southern heartland from the North. In the same month, April 1862, a powerful combined Union navy and army operation allowed the Federals to successfully pass the forts below New Orleans and capture the South's largest city. Federal forces advanced up the river capturing Baton Rouge and appeared on the verge of securing the entire Mississippi River before Confederate forces at Vicksburg, Mississippi repelled their advance. In August 1862, the Confederates launched an attack to reclaim Baton Rouge which nearly succeeded. In the aftermath of the fighting at Baton Rouge, the Confederates fortified the bluffs at Port Hudson, Louisiana and held on determinedly to the portion of the river between Port Hudson and Vicksburg as the only lifeline to the west. In the summer of 1863, Union armies laid siege to both Vicksburg and Port Hudson. After being starved into submission, the two citadels upon the Mississippi surrendered, placing the entire Mississippi River in Federal hands.

Confederate forces would launch efforts to retake Tennessee, one culminating in the Battle Murfreesboro and another resulting in an unsuccessful siege of Chattanooga. After a decisive Confederate victory at the Battle of Chickamauga, the Confederates deployed along the ridges outside Chattanooga. When Union forces successfully drove the Confederate army from the heights near that city, Federal General William T. Sherman determined to launch an invasion of the remaining Southern heartland that would “make Georgia howl." Sherman's army launched a total war on the southern countryside producing unprecedented destruction and misery for the population. Desperate Confederate efforts to reclaim the offensive resulted in catastrophic losses in the Battles of Franklin and Nashville, Tennessee. Following some final maneuvering associated with Sherman's immensely destructive campaign in South Carolina, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston met Sherman near Durham, North Carolina, and surrendered his army on April 26, 1865, thus concluding the major operations in the West. The final major Confederate Army in the west under E. Kirby Smith surrendered near Shreveport, Louisiana weeks later.