Confederate's Involvement In The Civil War

The Army of Tennessee was the Confederacy's primary fighting force on the western front. This group was involved in most of the conflict from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River.

The army was raised in early 1861 by Tennessee’s governor, Isham G. Harris. It was one of the most well-organized in the South by the time the Confederate States of America assumed its control in July 1861. Early in the war, the army was stationed in northern Tennessee, and tasked with protecting the border. However, they eventually succumbed to the Union at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February 1862. Despite Harris’s organizational acumen, he incorrectly assumed Kentucky’s neutrality throughout the war and did not contribute enough time or money
Support arrived in the form of General James Longstreet's First Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, and troops from Mississippi. After careful maneuvering, Rosecrans had forced Bragg to abandon his position in Chattanooga in favor of a location further south, along the banks of Chickamauga Creek in northern Georgia. On September 19 Bragg launched an attack, which ended as one of the bloodiest of the war. Confederate casualties numbered more than eighteen thousand, while the Union forces lost more than sixteen thousand men. Despite their numerous casualties, the Army of Tennessee secured one of its greatest tactical victories at Chickamauga. The Confederates drove the Federal army back to Chattanooga, though Bragg was unable to capitalize on the victory.

In late November 1863 Grant was given command of Union forces in the Western Theater. He withstood the Siege of Chattanooga and subsequent battles, nullified the strategic gains made by Bragg at Chickamauga and opened the “Gateway to the South.” After the Chattanooga Campaign, Jefferson Davis appointed General Joseph E. Johnston to lead the Army of Tennessee, while General William T. Sherman was appointed commander of the Union Army of
Hood marched through Alabama and turned north, hoping to draw Sherman away from Atlanta. The plan was mildly successful, causing Sherman to spread out his forces to protect his supply lines north of Atlanta; however, he led the main strength of his army toward Savannah, Georgia, in what is known as “Sherman’s March to the Sea.” General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry brigade won some minor skirmishes throughout this march north, using speed and maneuverability to their advantage. Continuing north into Middle Tennessee, Hood attacked Federal troops at Franklin late in the afternoon of November 30, 1864. The Confederates took Franklin, but at great cost, incurring over six thousand casualties including fourteen