Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/503

 i86i] Three distinct fields of war. 471 capital, lying on the Potomac river between the Slave States of Maryland and Virginia, had been the earliest point of danger, and necessitated the principal concentration of Union troops. The Confederate capital, first located at Montgomery, Alabama, where the Secessionist government was organised, was, about June 1, 1861, moved to Richmond, Virginia. This town, lying on the James river, 115 miles nearly due south of Washington, was thenceforward the political and military focus of the rebellion, requiring the support of the principal Confederate army. The country between and around these opposing capitals therefore became of necessity, with only occasional diversions, the main field of conflict in the Civil War. In the resulting campaigns in this field, the Union army by reason of its superior numbers almost constantly maintained the ag- gressive, its object being to capture, and that of the Confederates to defend, the city of Richmond. The military importance of the other two great geographical divisions lay primarily, not in their vast territorial extent, but in the political and commercial value of the Mississippi river, which divided them. As a military highway, as a principal commercial artery, as a valuable and permanent asset in national and international politics, the possession and control of that stream became the leading object of the combatants in the western campaigns. On the Mississippi were situated the two great commercial cities of the West, St Louis in Federal, New Orleans in Confederate territory. The Confederates, being in possession, had made what haste they could to fortify the stream at the most available points. Meanwhile, on its part, the Union government had secured a peculiarly advantageous position to attack it. The southern end of the free State of Illinois, wedgelike in shape, runs down between the upper Mississippi and Ohio rivers, to their junction at Cairo, thrusting free territory and anti-slavery sentiment farther into the South than at any other point; while a group of populous and energetic Free States lay immediately to the north, capable of supplying a weight of men and resources, the onset of which it would be difficult to resist, and which, if not resisted, would at once cut off and paralyse the military strength of from one-third to one half of the territory of the Confederate States. After the year 1861, therefore, the military operations of the Union armies for the suppression of the rebellion followed three great lines of activity. First, the maintenance of the Atlantic blockade, and the capture of all forts and harbours on the seaboard. Second, the Virginia campaigns for the capture of Richmond. Third, the opening of the Mississippi river, to be followed by a central and closing cam- paign through Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas. On the other hand, all the efforts of the Confederates were put forth to counteract and foil these efforts.