page_title: American Civil War
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: American Civil War / Western theater / Background
caption_attribution_description: Original Caption: Gen. Ulysses S. Grant U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 111-B-2481 From:: Series: Mathew Brady Photographs of Civil War-Era Personalities and Scenes, (Record Group 111) Photographer: Brady, Mathew, 1823 (ca.) - 1896 Coverage Dates: ca. 1860 - ca. 1865 Subjects: American Civil War, 1861-1865 Brady National Photographic Art Gallery (Washington, D.C.) on/ExternalIdSearch?id=526675 Persistent URL:catalog.archives.gov/id/526675" Repository: Still Picture Records Section, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001. For information about ordering reproductions of photographs held by the Still Picture Unit, visit: www.archives.gov/research/order/still-pictures.html Reproductions may be ordered via an independent vendor. NARA maintains a list of vendors at www.archives.gov/research/order/vendors-photos-maps-dc.html Access Restrictions: Unrestricted Use Restrictions: Unrestricted
context_page_description: The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States from 1861 to 1865, fought between northern states loyal to the Union and southern states that had seceded from the Union to form the Confederate States of America. The civil war began primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people. War broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina just over a month after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North, which also included some geographically western and southern states, proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights to uphold slavery.
  Of the 34 U.S. states in February 1861, seven Southern slave-holding states were declared by their state governments to have seceded from the country, and the Confederate States of America was organized in rebellion against the U.S. constitutional government.
context_section_description: Army of the Tennessee and Army of the Cumberland
  The primary Union forces in the Western theater were the Army of the Tennessee and the Army of the Cumberland, named for the two rivers, the Tennessee River and Cumberland River. After Meade's inconclusive fall campaign, Lincoln turned to the Western Theater for new leadership. At the same time, the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg surrendered, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River, permanently isolating the western Confederacy, and producing the new leader Lincoln needed, Ulysses S. Grant.
  Army of Tennessee
  The primary Confederate force in the Western theater was the Army of Tennessee. The army was formed on November 20, 1862, when General Braxton Bragg renamed the former Army of Mississippi. While the Confederate forces had numerous successes in the Eastern Theater, they were defeated many times in the West.
caption: Ulysses S. Grant
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