What was the major objective of the western theatre of the civil war?

Answer 1

The stated (and primary) goal for the Union side (the United State of America) was to retain the union - that is, prevent the Confederate states from leaving (seceding) the U.S.A. After the Emancipation Proclamation was declared, the abolition of slavery was added as a war goal. /// 1) Preserving the Union? A union which is enforced at the barrel of a gun? It seems that that only creates it's own subjugation. 2) Emancipation Proclamation? That document was purely a political/diplomatic instrument intended to keep Britain from more strongly supporting the Confederacy. If the war were suddenly all about freeing the slaves,that would create a morally untenable situation for Britain. If the document's true purpose were moral in nature,it would have "proclaimed" freedom to all the slaves in every state. It only proclaimed free the slaves in the "states in rebellion" not mentioning Delaware,Maryland, Kentucky,or Missouri, all were slave states. Lincoln simply did not want to drive four more states out of the Union. It was known even then that if Lincoln had stated the North's purpose for the war as being to free the slaves, half of the soldiers in the Union army would have thrown down their weapons and gone home. Preserving the Union sounds so much more noble. A book titled "When in the Course of Human Events" by Charles Adams should be read by anyone who wants a comprehensive understanding of the causes and motivations of the war.

Answer 2

The strategic objective was to capture the Mississippi River, denying it to the Confederates, preventing them from resupplying and reinforcing their armies from the trans-Mississippi states, and allowing Federal forces to use the river to strike at will along its length.

Answer 3

The main goals of the Western part of the United States and the western part of the Confederacy revolved around the "west" meaning most of the territory east of the Mississippi River to the western edge of the Appalachians. See below the information about why the West is defined in this manner.

The West is defined this way because Union general Albert Sidney Johnston was stationed in California when the war began. He resigned his Union commission and along with other "new" Confederates, rode through dangerous territory, avoiding unfriendly Apaches and Union troops to arrive finally in Virginia. It should be noted that the Civil War began in April 1861 and Johnston and his men did not arrive to Richmond until September, 1861.

A few notes on General Johnston is important at this time.

Albert Sidney Johnston served well in the Mexican War;

Albert Sidney Johnston had been promoted to Union Brigadier General and served in California at the beginning of the Civil War; and

Johnston was a West Point friend of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

A few days after Johnston's arrival in Richmond, Jefferson Davis appointed him to the second highest command, that being in charge of all Confederate troops west of the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River. Therefore in this discussion, the "West" is identified by the above military responsibility for the South.

The Union strategy in the West revolved around securing the Neutral slave State of Kentucky and taking control of the Confederate State of Tennessee.

This strategy began taking shape late in December of 1861.

The idea was a sound one, and would change from time to time over the next few years, as the war developed.

Upon the fall of Tennessee, the Union planned to control all of the Mississippi River, sever railroad connections from the West to the East, and capture the armory, supply depot and railroads leading from the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg Mississippi. Once this was accomplished, Union forces in the West could move eastward and attempt to control as much territory as it could in the "heartland" of the South.

As with many of the good ideas of the Union's strategies for ending the Southern "Rebellion", Union missteps caused delays. Combine that problem with the South's resistance to the Union's western goals and the war was protracted longer than anyone thought it would be.

Initially the Union forces in this theater numbered approximately 90,000 troops. This was almost double that of the South's 50,000 troops. The main Union problem was not in troop strength, but instead was within the North's miss communications. The major Union players in the initial part of the campaign with regard to Kentucky and Tennessee were:

A. President Lincoln who interfered with the plan by subverting the chain of command between top Union General, McClellan and his generals;

B. Constant bickering between the lower level generals. This consisted of generals Grant, Halleck, Buell & Sherman;

C. The ideas of the six above-mentioned individuals combined; and

D. Southern resistance.