During the summer and fall of 1864, Virginia's Shenandoah Valley was one of the most contested regions of the South. Federal armies invaded the Valley three times - twice they were repulsed. This book describes the third campaign, the supreme achievement of the Army of the Potomac's Sixth Corps. One of the most respected units in the U.S., the Sixth advanced on the heels of retreating Confederate forces through sweltering heat and some of the most terrible fighting of the war, winning a string of victories (some costly) from the Wilderness and Spotsylvania to Cold Harbor and Cedar Creek.

During the American Civil War few events produced more important strategic results for the cause of the Union than the campaigns resulting in the taking and holding of Vicksburg, Mississippi and Chattanooga, Tennessee. Along with the Federal victory at Gettysburg these victories were decisive in bringing about the final Union victory. Ulysses S. Grant was the man in charge of the Federal forces that won these two important victories. General Grant's solid competence and willingness to take calculated risks resulted in his being able to overcome the challenges of difficult terrain and heroic Confederate resistance at Vicksburg and what appeared to be unassailable enemy positions at Chattanooga. This book is the story of the courage and determination that accompanied the triumphs and mistakes of the officers and men on both sides.

In Tennessee in the early months of 1862, Ulysses S. Grant captured forts Henry and Donelson and opened the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers to military and commercial shipping. In April the first of many terrible battles of the Civil War was fought near Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River around a decrepit meeting-house known as Shiloh. This costly victory established Federal control over much of central Tennessee. These early Union victories gave the Federals control of two of the major rivers in the region - the highways of the period - opening large areas of the Confederacy to Federal invasion. Other important results were the end of the Confederate threat to control Kentucky and possibly close off the Ohio River. These victories also were a major factor in forcing the abandonment of a key Confederate fort on the Mississippi River at Columbus, Kentucky. This book describes not only the actual fighting that took place but how important political and economic factors influenced the overall military strategy in the region.

As the Civil War moved into 1864, people in the North expected newly appointed general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant to roll over the Confederate armies and bring victory and peace by the end of the summer. With his friend William Tecumseh Sherman, Grant devised a strategy to defeat the Confederate Army of Tennessee and lay waste to the Deep South so that the area could no longer provide support for the Confederate war effort. Making extensive use of materials both contemporary and modern, including letters, diaries, memoirs and histories, the author presents a detailed narrative of the locales, conditions, personnel, strategies, tactics, battles and skirmishes as Sherman's forces fought their way from Chattanooga to Atlanta and then made their famous march to the sea, destroying all resources along the way. He also details Confederate general John Bell Hood's ill-fated attempt to capture Nashville while Sherman was occupied elsewhere. The fighting and devastation in Georgia and Tennessee that summer of 1864 were indeed major factors in the final Union victory.

In 1862, with the outcome of the Civil War far from certain, Union and Confederate leaders began to pinpoint locations vital for their army's success. Tennessee was one such possession. Although nominally under Confederate control, with Union loyalists in the east, Confederate supporters in the west and a mixture in the central region, the state did not have ironclad loyalty to either cause. For the Union, gaining control of Tennessee meant crippling the transportation options of the Confederacy, giving Union forces access to the rivers and mountain passes which would potentially lead them to the heart of the Confederacy and victory over the South. For the Confederacy, maintaining control of Tennessee was vital not only to protect its southernmost states but also to retain control of the state's agricultural products and mineral wealth, neither of which it could afford to lose.

Drawing on contemporary sources such as memoirs and official correspondence, this volume details the struggle for control of Tennessee during 1862 and 1863. Beginning with the Union commanders' initial reluctance to challenge the Confederate army, it describes the fortuitous momentum Ulysses S. Grant's arrival added to the Federal struggle in the west and, consequently, the Union quest for Tennessee. It follows the movements of Union and Confederate forces through some of the worst battles of the war, including Shiloh, Stones River and Chickamauga. Finally, the Union victory at the battle of Chattanooga--which brought Tennessee definitively under Union control--and its consequences for both sides are discussed in detail.