March 31, 1862 (Monday): Halleck Aims to Split the Confederacy

The Scottsboro, AL depot of the Memphis & Charleston RR (http://bradfordweb.info/depot/index.html)

WAR DEPARTMENT,
Washington, March 31, 1862.

General HALLECK, Saint Louis:
   Have you control of any point or points on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, and what are your designs with respect to that road?



EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War.


SAINT LOUIS, MO., March 31, 1862.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,
Secretary of War:
We have possession of no point on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. My present purpose is to attack it somewhere in the vicinity of Corinth.


H. W. HALLECK,
Major-General.

Official Records, Series I., Vol. 10, Part 2, Page 83.

Often campaigns and their purposes are lost in the reflection of great battles.  The reason Grant was at Shiloh, and Buell moving toward him, was Halleck's plan to break the line of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad.  This would break the line between the Mississippi and the eastern Confedracy, striking a serious blow against the now year old rebellion.