Ulysses Grant - The Battle of Shiloh

With the fall of Fort Donelson, over 12,000 Confederates were captured, nearly a third of General Albert Sidney Johnston's Confederate forces in the region. As a result, he was forced to order the abandonment of Nashville, as well as a retreat from Columbus, KY. Following the victory, Grant was promoted to major general and began to experience problems with Halleck who had become professionally jealous of his successful subordinate.

After surviving attempts to replace him, Grant received orders to push up the Tennessee River. Reaching Pittsburg Landing, he halted to await the arrival of Major General Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio.

Seeking to halt the string of reverses in his theater, Johnston and General P.G.T. Beauregard planned a massive attack on Grant's position. Opening the Battle of Shiloh on April 6, they caught Grant by surprise. Though nearly driven into the river, Grant stabilized his lines and held. That evening, one of his division commanders, Brigadier General William T. Sherman, commented "Tough day today, Grant." Grant apparently responded, "Yes, but we'll whip em tomorrow."

Reinforced by Buell during the night, Grant launched a massive counterattack the next day and drove the Confederates from the field and sent them retreating to Corinth, MS. The bloodiest encounter to date with the Union suffering 13,047 casualties and the Confederates 10,699, the losses at Shiloh stunned the public. Though Grant came under criticism for being unprepared on April 6 and was falsely accused of being drunk, Lincoln refused to remove him stating, "I can't spare this man; he fights."

Ulysses Grant - Corinth & Halleck

After the victory at Shiloh, Halleck elected to take to the field in person and assembled a large force consisting of Grant's Army of the Tennessee, Major General John Pope's Army of the Mississippi, and Buell's Army of the Ohio at Pittsburg Landing. Continuing his issues with Grant, Halleck removed him from army command and made him the overall second-in-command with no troops under his direct control. Incensed, Grant contemplated leaving, but was talked into staying by Sherman who was quickly becoming a close friend. Enduring this arrangement through the Corinth and Iuka campaigns of the summer, Grant returned to independent command that October when he was made commander of the Department of the Tennessee and tasked with taking the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, MS.

Ulysses Grant - Taking Vicksburg

Given free rein by Halleck, now general-in-chief in Washington, Grant designed a two-prong attack, with Sherman advancing down the river with 32,000 men, while he advanced south along Mississippi Central Railroad with 40,000 men. These movements were to be supported by an advance north from New Orleans by Major General Nathaniel Banks. Establishing a supply base at Holly Springs, MS, Grant pressed south to Oxford, hoping to engage Confederate forces under Major General Earl Van Dorn near Grenada. In December 1862, Van Dorn, badly outnumbered, launched a large cavalry raid around Grant's army and destroyed the supply base at Holly Springs, halting the Union advance. Sherman's situation was no better. Moving down the river with relative ease, he arrived just north of Vicksburg on Christmas Eve. After sailing up the Yazoo River, he disembarked his troops and began moving through the swamps and bayous toward the town before being badly defeated at Chickasaw Bayou on the 29th. Lacking support from Grant, Sherman opted to withdrawal. After Sherman's men were drawn off to attack Arkansas Post in early January, Grant moved to the river to command his entire army in person.

Based just north of Vicksburg on the west bank, Grant spent the winter of 1863 seeking a way to bypass Vicksburg with no success. He finally devised a bold plan for capturing the Confederate fortress. Grant proposed to move down the west bank of the Mississippi, then cut loose from his supply lines by crossing the river and attacking the city from the south and east. This risky move was to be supported by gunboats commanded by Rear Admiral David D. Porter, which would run downstream past the Vicksburg batteries prior to Grant crossing the river. On the nights of April 16 and 22, Porter two groups of ships past the town. With a naval force established below the town, Grant began his march south. On April 30, Grant's army crossed the river at Bruinsburg and moved northeast to cut the rail lines to Vicksburg before turning on the town itself.

Ulysses Grant - Turning Point in the West

Conducting a brilliant campaign, Grant swiftly drove back Confederate forces on his front and captured Jackson, MS on May 14. Turning west towards Vicksburg, his troops repeatedly defeated Lieutenant General John Pemberton's forces and drove them back into the city's defense. Arriving at Vicksburg and wishing to avoid a siege, Grant launched assaults against the city on May 19 and 22 taking heavy losses in the process. Settling into a siege, his army was reinforced and tightened the noose on Pemberton's garrison. Waiting out the enemy, Grant forced a starving Pemberton to surrender Vicksburg and his 29,495-man garrison on July 4. The victory gave Union forces control of the entire Mississippi and was the turning point of the war in the West.

Ulysses Grant - Victory at Chattanooga

In the wake of Major General William Rosecrans's defeat at Chickamauga in September 1863, Grant was given command of the Military Division of the Mississippi and control of all Union armies in the West. Moving to Chattanooga, he reopened a supply line to Rosecrans' beleaguered Army of the Cumberland and replaced the defeated general with Major General George H. Thomas. In an effort to turn the tables on General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee, Grant captured Lookout Mountain on November 24 before directing his combined forces to a stunning victory at the Battle of Chattanooga the next day. In the fighting, Union troops drove the Confederates off Missionary Ridge and sent them reeling south.