secretary of war, leroy pope walker of the confederate states, called these two railroads the vertebrae of the confederacy. and they intersected, they junctioned just 22 landward miles to the west of pittsburg landing. hence, the revival's military targets for the u.s. forces now attempting to put together a rebellion and we were less than a year into the war when union forces recovered the tennessee valley, the lower tennessee valley by seizing forts henry and donelson in the northern portion of the state. that opened up the entire lower tennessee to union navigation, particularly gun boats and military forces who could penetrate into the heartland of the confederacy, reaching points in northern alabama, northeast mississippi, to threaten the railroad here in the western confederacy. the confederates now reeling from the losses of fort henry and donelson, having abandoned kentucky and middle tennessee and the forces pushed back into northern alabama and north mississippi and western tennessee concentrated to defend the railroads. the area that intersected was corinth, mississippi, wher