F
ollowing the general standoff between Lee and McClellan at Antietam in September 1862, McClellan was replaced by General Ambrose Burnside. The new commander of the Army of the Potomac returned to the old strategy of invading Virginia, which brought the opposing forces together at the Rappahannock crossings, near Fredericksburg. Lee's army fought a purely defensive battle there from protected positions that allowed the Confederates to receive Union assaults and decimate them. Lee won a lopsided...
T
he war in the east had been proceeding toward disaster for the Union while the northern armies were showing success in the region to the west of the Appalachian Mountains. Scarce resources, inattention from Washington preoccupied with the threat to the National capital and relatively weak Confederate forces when compared to those in the east under quarrelsome commanders meant that Federal commanders had to react quickly in a creative fashion or face destruction. This strategic situation led...
Relative positions of both forts and the connecting roads during the siege of
PAGE 15 This Currier and Ives print depicts General Ulysses S. Grant demonstrating his tenacity and highly developed military skills as he struck hard at the Confederate defenders at Fort Donelson. Previous Confederate defensive measures along the Mississippi system were designed to prevent powerful Union flotillas from accomplishing the much-desired military goal of splitting the enemy the Confederacy into two parts. The Confederacy built powerful fortresses at such strategic points as Island...
Peace for Missouri
future general, William Tecumseh Sherman had come to the same conclusion as many others regarding the military importance of the rivers of the Midwest. He wrote his brother, John, then an Ohio senator Whatever nation gets the control of the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers will control the continent. These western rivers had great length, flowed generally north to south, and reached deep into the heartland of the Confederacy. The winner in the west would be the side that could control the...