The Tennessee Valley Campaign: June - November 1862
The issue of mixed up orders had infuriated President Lincoln, and the commanding General, William T. Sherman. President Lincoln ordered General Sherman to engage the enemy in Kentucky, as it would be yet another disaster to the Union should all of Kentucky fall to the Confederacy. General Sherman devised a plan that would rip the Confederate Army away from Kentucky, and deal a terrible blow to Confederate Moral. Conferencing with the rest of his general staff, they agreed that the best way to wrench the Confederates' control of Kentucky was to attack straight into the Heartland of the Confederacy.
Setting off on June 17th, 1862, General Sherman left his camp in Western Virginia and started to march down the Tennessee Valley, laying waste to any farms, fields, and infrastructure he ran in to. While there was some opposition, many surprised Confederate citizens let him pass through, burning a trail behind him. The Confederate Army of Tennessee, finally hearing of this move, quickly loaded onto the antiquated rail system and drove towards Knoxville, Tennessee.
General Bragg's defense of Knoxville was almost complete, he had his lines stretched well across the valley, with scouts ready to tell him when and where the Union Army would emerge. The only problem for General Bragg was that General Sherman, knowing what the challenges the Tennessee Valley posed, he made sure his army marched into the mountains, and emerged behind Knoxville. Sherman ordered the railroad to be torn up, the rails superheated and tied into knots. Early in the the morning on a hazy summer day, General Sherman ordered the Army of Kentucky to charge into Knoxville, taking the Confederates by surprise. General Bragg ordered his forces to turn around to try and deal with the advancing army, but it was to no avail. The Army of Kentucky quickly divided and enveloped the Army of Tennessee, which caused them to simply break and run to the mountains, or simply passing the Yankees and running South.
General Sherman let the Army of Tennessee escape towards the South, his main goal was to get them out of Kentucky. To make sure that Knoxville would be of no military value to the Confederate Army, Sherman ordered it destroyed and burnt to the ground. The was the first instance of Sherman's strategy of "Total War" leaving nothing in his wake but burning embers. [-1,000 Regulars from USA. -2,000 Regulars from CSA. -3,000 Conscripts from USA. -6,000 Conscripts from CSA.]
1. The aftermath of General Sherman's Siege of Knoxville.
General Bragg, responsible for losing one of the Confederacy's main strategic cities, was relieved of duty by President Davis and replaced by General Joseph E. Johnson. Halfway between the switching of Generals, Sherman's Army of Kentucky slammed into Confederate defenses at Chattanooga. Loosely organized, they simply broke and ran. The Battle of Chattanooga lasted only for an hour, and only one Corps of Sherman's Army was up and assaulting, and the entire Confederate Army melted away. General Bragg was once again called upon for being responsible, destroying the massive Confederate gains by bringing the Union Army straight to the doorstep of the very Heartland of the Confederacy. [-1,000 Conscripts from the USA. -2,000 Conscripts from the CSA.]
While in Chattanooga, General Sherman made certain to destroy all of the rail lines he could find. Chattanooga was the hub of the Confederate Railroad network, and without it, the connection between East and West has been severely hampered, but not cut off, as there was still three working railroads that ran through Georgia into Alabama. [-1 Infrastructure from the CSA.]
2. Confederate Prisoners after the Battle of Chattanooga.
General Johnson was able to reorganize the shattered Confederate forces and he reorganized the army into the Army of Georgia, ready to help defend the Heartland of the Confederacy. Making Atlanta his base of operations, General Johnson scrambled to create a successful defense. Unfortunately for him, General Sherman's army kept marching straight towards him. September 19th, 1862 marked the Battle of Atlanta, where General Sherman decided to try and make yet another shove into Confederate territory. Johnson's ability to organize a defense did prove to be successful for the first day, where General Sherman took heavy casualties. Expecting Sherman to withdraw, Johnson didn't counter attack, hoping to save some of his forces.
General Sherman, however, didn't stop the next day. He charged the Army of Kentucky forward, smashing the front of Johnson's flank. Desperate to save his forces, he retreated all his men to the west, hoping to regroup and re-arm in Montgomery, Alabama. Sherman's victorious forces celebrated by laying waste to the entire city, burning it, and then subsequently moving West to try and destroy the Confederate Army of Georgia. [-8,000 Conscripts from the USA. -6,000 Conscripts from the CSA.]
3. The Atlanta Train Depot after the Union Army burned the city.
President Lincoln was very pleased with the results of General Sherman and subsequently promoted him to General of the Armies, the highest rank in the United States, shared only by President Washington. The United States finally won a major campaign, opening up the previously impervious Confederacy. Kentucky was now completely under Union control, and a clear line from Kentucky to Atlanta was burned, leaving nothing bust waste behind. General Sherman settled down for the winter on November 19th, 1862. Right on the outskirts of the burnt Atlanta.
