Lesson 19: The Civil War part 6

Union Armies in the West

In the meantime, the Union forces in the West began the fight for control of the Mississippi.

In February 1862 a Union army led by General Ulysses S. Grant captured two forts (Forts Henry and Donelson) in 11 days in Tennessee.

The two forts held strategic positions on important rivers, Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, and Southern Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River.

THE UNION GUN-BOATS ADVANCING UP THE TENNESSEE RIVER TO THE ATTACK OF FORT HENRY, TENNESSEE

GUN-DECK OF ONE OF THE MISSISSIPPI GUN-BOATS ENGAGED IN THE ATTACK ON FORT HENRY

At Fort Donelson, Grant informed the Southern commander that “no terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.”

The Confederates surrendered and, from then on, people said that Grant’s initials stood for “Unconditional Surrender” Grant.

One month after the victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, in late March of 1862, Grant gathered his troops near a small Tennessee church named Shiloh, which was close to the Mississippi border.

Confederate soldiers, led by Johnston and Beauregard, launched a surprise attack on Grant and his men.

• The Confederates achieved considerable success on the first day

Union reinforcements arrived in the evening and turned the tide the next morning, when the Union commanders launched a counterattack along the entire line.

The Battle of Shiloh taught both sides that they had to send out scouts, dig trenches, and build fortifications.

Shiloh also demonstrated how deadly the war might become, as nearly ¼ of the battles 100,000 troops were killed, wounded or captured.

As Grant pushed toward the Mississippi River, sixty-year-old David G. Farragut approached the river’s mouth in Louisiana with a Union Fleet of about 40 ships under his command.

If the Union captured all the major cities along the lower Mississippi, then Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee would be cut off.

During the next two months, Farragut took control of Baton Rouge and Natchez.

On April 24, 1862, Farragut ran his fleet past two Confederate forts in spite of booming enemy guns and fire rafts heaped with burning pitch. Five days later, the U.S. flag flew over New Orleans.