Existing comment:
War in the West:
Union strategy called for military action to divide the South into two distinctive theatres of war, the East and the West. Unlike the Eastern Theatre of northern Virginia -- barely one hundred miles between the Confederate capital at Richmond and Washington -- the West stretched from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River and from the Ohio River to the Gulf of Mexico.
Nashville was viewed by the Union as a critical location for garrisoning troops and munitions to supply the army. The city's rail, water, and road corridors could transport men and materials as Federal troops advanced into the Deep South. Nashville was surrendered to the Union in February 1862 without the firing of a shot.
Most of the major campaigns and engagements by the Union army in the West, including Stones River, Tullahoma, the battles for Chattanooga and Atlanta, and William T. Sherman's "March to the Sea", were supplied from Nashville. The period of Federal occupation of the city lasted until 1867. |