In the western part of the war, the Union struck fast and hard in order to advance onto the Mississippi River. Success would eventually split the Confederate force into two. The Northern army totalled over 100,000. General W. Halleck was the commander of the two armies in Missouri an northern Kentucky. The half Portuguese General Don Carlos Buell led the Union forces in western Kentucky, while General Albert Sydney Johnston was the leader of the Confederate forces in southeastern Kentucky. He was also in command of another army in Arkansas under General Earl Van Dorn. These forces combined numbered around seventy thousand.

THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY:

Fort Henry and Fort Donelson:

The very centre of the Confederate lines was watched over by two forts: Henry, which lay on Tennessee River, and Donelson on the Cumberland River. If Northern troops could destroy these forts, the whole Confederate line in Kentucky and Tennessee would totally collapse. General Ulysses S. Grant, commanding officer under Halleck understood this. He easily captured Fort Henry in February 1862, with the help of a fleet of ironclad ships.

Grant then marched his troops to Fort Donelson. The Confederate commander at Fort Donelson, General Simon Bolivar Buckner asked Grant for "the best terms of capitulation." Grant replied, "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted." Fort Donelson was soon forced to surrender, with nearly 15,000 Confederate troops taken prisoner.

The short, stocky and silent General Grant was given the nickname "Unconditional Surrender Grant, and was classed as a national hero. To avoid his army being destroyed, Johnston retreated all the what to Corinth, Mississippi, an important railroad centre for the Confederates. The Southerners had now lost all of Kentucky and half of Tennessee. On March 6 - 8, a small Union army under the control of General Samuel R. Curtis defeated Van Dorn's army at the Battle for Pea Ridge in Arkansas. This good victory put all of Missouri in Northern hands.

Shiloh, Or Pittsburg:

Halleck, promoted by Lincoln as the new commander of all western armies, told Grant to advance down the Tennessee River and ordered Buell's army to accompany him. Grant with his army of around 42,000 camped in Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, 48 kilometres north of Corinth. Johnston and Beauregard decided that they must strike Grant before he was rein forced by Buell. Johnston, with his Generals and his army of 40,000 marched to meet Grant.

On April 6 and 7, the battle of Shiloh (named after a church on the battlefield) took place. During the first day, Confederate troops almost broke through the Union lines, but Grant stabilised them and formed a defensive barrier, while Johnston, the Confederate commander, was killed in combat. The next day, reinforced by Buell's 20,000 men, Grant forced the Confederates to retreat back to Corinth.

Lincoln's advisors urged him to replace Grant after Shiloh because of the 10,000 Union losses. But Lincoln refused saying, "I can't spare this man...he fights!" (P485) After Shiloh, Grant and Buell moved carefully southward, and forced Beauregard to abandon Corinth. By early June, the Union controlled much of the Mississippi River.

New Orleans:

Meanwhile, the Union was planning to capture the entire Mississippi River and only the Confederate's largest city, New Orleans at the Mississippi Delta, stood in the way. In April, a group of Union ironclads led by Captain David G. Farragut materialised at the mouth of the river. Farragut attacked and destroyed the weak Confederate defences, and shelled New