Studies in American History 
267 
from Washington and the Potomac, while in his Atlanta cam- 
paign Sherman was several hundred miles from the Ohio. 
Since the opening of the Mississippi was the outstanding pur- 
pose of the campaigns in the West, up to the capture of Vicks- 
burg, the fact is also sometimes lost sight of that the railroad 
played quite a prominent part in the outcome of the struggle 
west of the Appalachians. Since this region between the 
Appalachians and the Mississippi was open to attack both by 
way of the rivers and railroads, the military leaders were con- 
stantly compelled to take both means of transportation into 
consideration and place their lines of defense so as to protect 
both railroad and river lines of communication. The Union 
line along the Ohio included such railway centers as Cairo, 
Paducah, Louisville, and Cincinnati, while Forts Henry and 
Donelson were built not only to guard the Tennessee and Cum- 
berland rivers but also to protect the railroad line running 
from Louisville thru Bowling Green and on to Memphis, to- 
gether with the lines converging at Nashville on the southern 
bend of the Cumberland River.^® After the fall of Forts 
Henry and Donelson, the Confederates fell back to the rail- 
road line extending from Memphis thru Corinth, Chattanooga, 
and on to Richmond by way of Knoxville. Grant moved again 
and A. S. Johnston concentrated at Corinth not only because 
it was an important railway center on this east and west line 
but it was also near the point where the Tennessee River turns 
sharply from a westerly direction to the north. Since Corinth 
was at the junction of two very important railroads, one ex- 
tending east and west and the other north and south, train- 
loads of Confederate soldiers came from every direction. 
Beauregard had already come from Richmond to help raise 
forces, and Bragg brought his troops all the way from Florida 
to try to stop the Union advance. The battle of Shiloh was 
fought with almost disastrous results to Grant’s forces, but 
Corinth was finally taken, tho the slowness of Halleck enabled 
Beauregard to ship over his railway lines his sick and wounded 
and his heavy artillery and stores.'^® The capture of this 
important center left only the Vicksburg line connecting the 
Mississippi Valley with Richmond and the Old South.^^ Now 
James K. Hosmer, The Appeal to Arms (New York, 1907), 86. Also Rhodes, 
History of the Civil War, 1861-1865, 87 ; and Pollard, The Lost Cause, 201. 
Manning F. Force, From Fort Henry to Corinth (New York, 1881), 189. 
‘^’’Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant (New York, 1885-1886), I, 330. Also Pollard, 
The Lost Cause, 320. 
