Osprey Essential Histories 11 : The American Civil War (4) : The War in the West 1863-1865

Union military forces suffered momentary defeat followed by sustained success in the Western Theatre during the second half of the American Civil War. At Chickamauga in September 1863, Braxton Bragg achieved the Confederacy's only notable tactical triumph in the West and drove William S. Rosecrans's northern army into a defensive position at Chattanooga. Ulysses S. Grant soon took command at Chattanooga, removing Rosecrans and orchestrating a striking victory in late-November that ended serious southern hopes of holding onto any major city in Tennessee. Grant's victory opened the way for a Union advance against Atlanta, a Confederate city second in importance only to Richmond. Sherman's campaign against Atlanta, which pitted him against first Joseph E. Johnston and later John Bell Hood, began in early May 1864 and continued for four months. The capture of Atlanta in early September inspirited the northern people, depressed Confederates, and virtually guaranteed the re-election of Abraham Lincoln. Hood unsuccessfully sought to lure Sherman northward out of Georgia by marching toward Nashville, but Sherman failed to take the bait. Hood's Tennessee campaign, marked by shattering defeats at Franklin and Nashville, ended in complete defeat in December 1864. Sherman meanwhile conducted his famous campaign of destruction from Atlanta to Savannah and then northward through the Carolinas. Without a Confederate army in his front, Sherman carried out Grant's orders to strike at Confederate logistics, while at the same time spreading terror through the southern interior. By the third week of April 1865, Sherman had reached Durham Station, North Carolina, where he received the surrender of the last major Confederate field army. It had been two years marked by stalwart Confederate resistance in the face of Union power sternly applied across the enormous canvass of the Western Theatre. Text by Joseph T. Glatthaar.

Contents

• Introduction
• Chronology
• Warring Sides : War takes its Toll
• The Fighting : Overview and Final Stages
• Common Soldiers : Black Soldiers and POWs
• Portrait of a Soldier : William Wilbur Edgerton
• The World around War : The Home Fronts
• Portrait of a Civilian : Emma LeConte
• How the War Ended : Peace is Declared
• Conclusion and Consequences : United States