Kentucky Campaign

Confederate Heartland Offensive
Part of the American Civil War
From left: Confederate General Braxton Bragg and Union General Don Carlos Buell, the principal commanders of the campaign
Date June  – October 1862 Location Tennessee and Kentucky Result Union victory
Belligerents
United States	Confederate States
Commanders and leaders
Don Carlos Buell	Braxton Bragg

The Confederate Heartland Offensive or Kentucky Campaign of the American Civil War was fought in June-October 1862, when Confederates under Generals Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith tried to draw Kentucky into the Confederacy by outflanking Union troops under Major General Don Carlos Buell. Though they scored some successes, notably a tactical win at Perryville, they soon retreated, leaving Kentucky primarily under Union control for the rest of the war.

Western campaigns by Union forces earlier in 1862 had reaped much progress. The Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers had been opened to the U.S. Navy after successes at the battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. The railroad hub at Corinth had been evacuated by the Confederates, causing most of West Tennessee to fall into Union control. New Orleans, the Confederacy's largest city at that time, had been captured by Admiral David Farragut. The city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, was now an important strategic aim for the Union commanders, as the western Confederates were "narrowed down all to the single line of [rail]road running east from Vicksburg." Consequentially, protecting the Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River became a top priority for the Confederacy. Confederate General Braxton Bragg decided to avert Union attention away from Vicksburg and from Chattanooga, Tennessee, which was being threatened by a large Union force under Don Carlos Buell, by invading the border state of Kentucky. Kentucky, the most southern of the border states, produced cotton in west Kentucky, tobacco, and was the primary supplier of hemp for rope used in the cotton industry. The state was also a major slave trade center.

...
Wikipedia