Hey everyone, welcome to episode 277 of our Civil War podcast.

My name is Rich.

And I'm Tracy.

Hello y'all.

Thanks for tuning into the podcast.

Viewed solely from the microcosm of Virginia by the late spring of 1863, the Civil War appeared

to be a stalemate.

Confederate forces had frustrated repeated federal offensives through two long years of bloody

conflict and occupied roughly the same ground they had held in 1861.

The primary reason for this success was the rise of General Robert E. Lee.

As long as he commanded the Army of Northern Virginia, the Confederacy seemed to have little

to fear from any general President Abraham Lincoln could find to oppose him.

The proximity of the opposing capitals coupled with major media centers lining the Eastern

Seaboard, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, ensured that much of the North

and the South's attention would be focused on the largely static war in the narrow corridor

between Washington and Richmond.

However, in reality, the war covered a much wider front.

The Western Theater, running from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River, spanned hundreds

of miles.

As did the Transmississippi Theater, west of the Mississippi River.

In the West, the war was anything but static, and by nearly any measure was turning decisively

against the Confederacy.

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