Editing American Civil War (section)

=== Battles ===
The Union's key strategist and tactician in the West was [[Ulysses S. Grant]], who led the Union to victories in battles at [[Battle of Fort Henry|Fort Henry]] (February 6, 1862) and [[Battle of Fort Donelson|Fort Donelson]] (February 11 to 16, 1862), earning him the nickname of "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. With these victories, the Union gained control of the [[Tennessee River|Tennessee]] and [[Cumberland River]]s.{{sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=405–413}} [[Nathan Bedford Forrest]] rallied nearly 4,000 Confederate troops and led them to escape across the [[Cumberland River]]. [[Nashville]] and central Tennessee fell to the Union, leading to attrition of local food supplies and livestock and a breakdown in social organization.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

Confederate general [[Leonidas Polk]]'s subsequently invaded [[Columbus, Kentucky]], which ended Kentucky's policy of neutrality and turned it against the Confederacy. Grant used river transport and [[Andrew Hull Foote]]'s gunboats of the Western Flotilla, threatening the Confederacy's "Gibraltar of the West" in Columbus, Kentucky. Although rebuffed at Belmont, Grant cut off Columbus. Confederate forces, lacking their gunboats, were forced to retreat and the Union took control of west Kentucky and opened Tennessee in March 1862.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Whitsell |first=Robert D. |year=1963 |title=Military and Naval Activity between Cairo and Columbus |journal=Register of the Kentucky Historical Society |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=107–121}}</ref>

At the [[Battle of Shiloh]], in [[Shiloh, Hardin County, Tennessee|Shiloh, Tennessee]], in April 1862, Confederates forces launched surprise attack on Union forces, pushing them back to river as night fell. Over that night, however, the [[United States Navy|Navy]] landed reinforcements, and Grant counterattacked. Grant and the Union ultimately won a decisive victory in the first battle with a high number of casualties in what proved to be the first in a series of such battles.{{sfn|Frank|Reaves|2003|p= 170}} Confederate forces lost [[Albert Sidney Johnston]], considered their finest general, before Lee emerged to assume command.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Death of Albert Sidney Johnston – Tour Stop #17 |url=https://www.nps.gov/places/death-of-albert-sidney-johnston-tour-stop-17.htm |access-date=March 12, 2022 |publisher=National Park Service}}</ref>

[[File:Chickamauga.jpg|thumb|The [[Battle of Chickamauga]], the war's highest two-day loss battle]]

One of the early Union objectives was to capture the [[Mississippi River]], which would permit it to cut the Confederacy in half. The Mississippi was opened to Union traffic to the southern border of Tennessee after it took [[Battle of Island Number Ten|Island No. 10]], [[New Madrid, Missouri]], and then [[Memphis, Tennessee]].{{sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=418–420}}

In April 1862, the Union Navy [[Capture of New Orleans|captured New Orleans]].{{sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=418–420}} "The key to the river was New Orleans, the South's largest port [and] greatest industrial center."<ref>Kennedy, p. 58.{{full citation needed|date=August 2024}}</ref> U.S. naval forces under [[David Farragut|Farragut]] ran past Confederate defenses south of [[New Orleans]]. Confederate forces abandoned the city, giving the Union a critical anchor in the deep South,{{sfn|Symonds|Clipson|2001|p=92}} which allowed Union forces to move up the Mississippi. [[First Battle of Memphis|Memphis fell to Union forces]] on June 6, 1862, allowing it to serve as a key base for further Union advances south along the Mississippi. On the Mississippi River, the Union took every fortress city with the exception of [[Vicksburg, Mississippi]]. But Confederate control of Vicksburg was sufficient in preventing the Union from controlling the entire river.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 31, 2013 |title=10 Facts: The Vicksburg Campaign |url=https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/10-facts-vicksburg-campaign |access-date=September 13, 2022 |publisher=American Battlefield Trust}}</ref>

Bragg's second invasion of Kentucky in the [[Confederate Heartland Offensive]] included initial successes, including [[Kirby Smith]]'s triumph in the [[Battle of Richmond]] and the capture of the Kentucky capital of [[Frankfort, Kentucky]], on September 3, 1862.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Kent Masterson |url=https://archive.org/details/civilwarinkentuc0000unse/mode/2up |title=The Civil War in Kentucky: Battle for the Bluegrass State |publisher=Savas |year=2000 |isbn=978-1-882810-47-5 |location=Mason City, IA |page=95}}</ref> The campaign ended with a meaningless victory over Maj. Gen. [[Don Carlos Buell]] at the [[Battle of Perryville]], and Bragg was forced to end his attempt to invade and control Kentucky. Lacking logistical support and infantry recruits, Bragg was instead forced to retreat,{{sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=419–420}} and ended up being narrowly defeated by Maj. Gen. [[William Rosecrans]] in the [[Battle of Stones River]] in Tennessee in what proved to be the culmination of the [[Stones River Campaign]].{{sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=480–483}}

U.S. naval forces assisted Grant in the long, complex [[Vicksburg Campaign]], which resulted in Confederate forces surrendering in the [[Battle of Vicksburg]] in July 1863, which cemented Union control of the Mississippi River in one of the war's turning points.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mangum |first=Ronald Scott |year=1991 |title=The Vicksburg Campaign: A Study In Joint Operations |url=https://carlisle-www.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/Articles/1991/1991%20mangum.pdf |journal=Parameters: U.S. Army War College |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=74–86 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121127192600/https://carlisle-www.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/Articles/1991/1991%20mangum.pdf |archive-date=November 27, 2012}}</ref><ref>[[Donald L. Miller|Miller, Donald L.]] ''Vicksburg: Grant's Campaign that Broke the Confederacy''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2019. {{ISBN|978-1-4516-4137-0}}.</ref> The one clear Confederate victory in the West was the [[Battle of Chickamauga]]. After Rosecrans' successful [[Tullahoma Campaign]], Bragg, reinforced by Lt. Gen. [[First Corps, Army of Northern Virginia|James Longstreet's corps]], defeated Rosecrans, despite the defensive stand of Maj. Gen. [[George Henry Thomas]].{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} Rosecrans retreated to [[Chattanooga, Tennessee]], where Bragg was then besieged in the [[Chattanooga Campaign]]. Grant marched to the relief of Rosecrans, where he led the defeat of Bragg in the Third Battle of Chattanooga,{{sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=677–680}} eventually causing Longstreet to abandon his [[Knoxville Campaign]] and driving Confederate forces out of Tennessee and opening a route to [[Atlanta]] and the heart of the Confederacy.<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 17, 2014 |title=Sherman's March to the Sea |url=https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/shermans-march-sea |publisher=American Battlefield Trust}}</ref>