Because of Union victories at Fort Donaldson and Fort Henry, the outer perimeter of defenses that protected western and middle Tennessee left the city of Memphis, Tennessee exposed to Union attack by river. After Grant's victory at Shiloh the Confederate forces would concentrate their strength along the Ohio and Mobile Railroad in northern Mississippi. The disastrous defeat of General Earl Van Dorn at Corinth, Mississippi left the door wide open for a union victory at Vicksburg and the fall of her sister fortress at Port Hudson, Louisiana. The Mississippi River represents the jugular vein of...
Because of Union victories at Fort Donaldson and Fort Henry, the outer perimeter of defenses that protected western and middle Tennessee left the city...
