Department of the Tennessee

Army of the Tennessee
The Siege of Vicksburg
Active	December 20, 1861 – August 1, 1865
Country	United States of America
Branch	United States Army
Type	Field army
Part of	District of Cairo (1861–1862) District of West Tennessee (1862) Dep't of the Tennessee (1862–1863) Military Division of the Mississippi (1863–1865)
Engagements	American Civil War Battle of Belmont Battle of Fort Henry Battle of Fort Donelson Battle of Shiloh Siege of Corinth (May 1862) Battle of Iuka Battle of Corinth (October 1862) Vicksburg Campaign Chattanooga Campaign Relief of Knoxville Meridian Campaign Atlanta Campaign March to the Sea Carolinas Campaign
Commanders
Notable commanders	Ulysses S. Grant William Tecumseh Sherman James B. McPherson Oliver O. Howard John A. Logan Joseph Hooker

American Civil War

Ulysses S. Grant
William Tecumseh Sherman
James B. McPherson
Oliver O. Howard
John A. Logan

The Army of the Tennessee was a Union army in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, named for the Tennessee River. It should not be confused with the similarly named Army of Tennessee, a Confederate army named after the State of Tennessee.

It appears that the term "Army of the Tennessee" was first used within the Union Army in March 1862, to describe Union forces perhaps more properly described as the "Army of West Tennessee"; these were the troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the Union's District of West Tennessee. In April 1862, Grant's troops survived a severe test in the bloody Battle of Shiloh. Then, during six months marked by discouragement and anxiety for Grant, his army first joined with two other Union armies to prosecute the relatively bloodless Siege of Corinth and then strained to hold Union positions in Tennessee and Mississippi. In October 1862, Grant's command was reconfigured and elevated to departmental status, as the Department of the Tennessee; the title of his command was thus officially aligned with that of his army. Grant commanded these forces until after his critically important victory at Vicksburg in July 1863. Under other generals, starting with William Tecumseh Sherman, the army marched and fought from the Chattanooga Campaign, through the Relief of Knoxville, the Meridian Campaign, the Atlanta Campaign, the March to the Sea, the Carolinas Campaign, and to the end of the war and disbandment. This article also discusses Grant's 1861–1862 commands — the District of Southeast Missouri and the District of Cairo — because the troops Grant led in the Battle of Belmont and the Henry-Donelson campaign during that period became the nucleus of the Army of the Tennessee.