"Struggle for the Heartland tells the story surrounding the military campaign that began in early 1862 with the advance to Fort Henry and culminated in late May with the capture of Corinth, Mississippi. The first significant Northern penetration into the Confederate west, this campaign saw the military coming-of-age of Ulysses S. Grant and offered a hint as to where the Federals might win the war. For the South, it dashed any hopes of avoiding a protracted conflict. Stephen D. Engle colors in the details that bring great clarity and new life to the scene of these battles but also to the social and political context in which they occurred." "Considering the early military campaigns in Kentucky, Tennessee, northern Mississippi, and northern Alabama, Engle examines how prewar economic relations formed in this region were often crucial for creating loyalty to one army or to the other. He explores the relationship between locality and loyalty, the commanders themselves, and civil and military authorities. Moving beyond the battlefield, he demonstrates the campaigns' significance in light of the larger implications of Reconstruction and shows how civil and military authorities complicated the goals of the Union administration, particularly in attempts to reconstruct the captured regions of the Confederacy. Finally, Engle analyzes the societal reactions to military occupation as well as the political ambitions of the president and Congress for conceptualizing and managing the war's aims and the process of reconstruction. His work clearly reveals the importance of the western campaign in shifting perceptions of the war's limits and of its political purpose and merits."--Jacket.