1862

Three battles two small one large  started to change the civil war toward the union.The fall of Ft Henry, and  Ft Donaldson on the Tenn river. when the south lost these to Forts it open up the river, and the cumbland gap.  The river was open up all the way to the Mississippi State line. Later that month the city of New Orleans  fell to the union navy. In  March 1862 the union  Controled the Mississippi river from Memphis  to the Gulf.

the south controled Vicksburg mississippi overlooking the bluffs above the river. This
prove to to be quite a hard ship for the union.