Existing comment:
A Strategic Location:
Tennessee held enormous strategic importance because of its agriculture, industrial and economic resources. The state was, in Lincoln's words, the "keystone of the Southern arch," and controlling it became a paramount aim of Union strategy. Geographically and economically, the state was destined to be at the center of the conflict. Tennessee was a crucial border between North and South, and three major rivers -- the Mississippi, Tennessee, and Cumberland -- flowed across the state. Through Tennessee ran the South's main east-west rail lines as well as the western Confederacy's principal north-south line. |