<P> The West was by some measures the most important theater of the war . Capture of the Mississippi River has been one of the key tenets of Union General - in - Chief Winfield Scott's Anaconda Plan . Military historian J.F.C. Fuller has described the Union invasion as an immense turning movement, a left wheel that started in Kentucky, headed south down the Mississippi River, and then east through Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas . With the exception of the Battle of Chickamauga and some daring raids by cavalry or guerrilla forces, the four years in the West marked a string of almost continuous defeats for the Confederates; or, at best, tactical draws that eventually turned out to be strategic reversals . Union generals consistently outclassed most of their Confederate opponents, with the exception of cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest . Lacking the proximity to the opposing capitals and population centers (and the accompanying concentration of newspapers) of the East, the astounding Confederate victories, and the fame of Eastern generals such as Robert E. Lee, George B. McClellan, and Stonewall Jackson, the Western theater received considerably less attention than the Eastern, both at the time and in subsequent historical accounts . The near - steady progress that Union forces made in defeating Confederate armies in the West and overtaking Confederate territory went nearly unnoticed . </P> <P> The campaign classification established by the United States National Park Service is more fine - grained than the one used in this article . Some minor NPS campaigns have been omitted and some have been combined into larger categories . Only a few of the 117 battles the NPS classifies for this theater are described . Boxed text in the right margin show the NPS campaigns associated with each section . </P> <Ul> <Li> Lt. Gen . Ulysses S. Grant, USA </Li> <Li> Maj. Gen . Henry W. Halleck, USA </Li> <Li> Maj. Gen . William T. Sherman, USA </Li> <Li> Maj. Gen . George H. Thomas, USA </Li> <Li> Maj. Gen . Don Carlos Buell, USA </Li> <Li> Maj. Gen . William Rosecrans, USA </Li> <Li> Maj. Gen . James B. McPherson, USA </Li> <Li> Gen . Albert Sidney Johnston, CSA </Li> <Li> Gen . P.G.T. Beauregard, CSA </Li> <Li> Gen . Joseph E. Johnston, CSA </Li> <Li> Gen . Braxton Bragg, CSA </Li> <Li> Lt. Gen . John Bell Hood, CSA </Li> <Li> Lt. Gen . Nathan Bedford Forrest, CSA </Li> <Li> Maj. Gen . Edmund Kirby Smith, CSA </Li> </Ul> <Li> Lt. Gen . Ulysses S. Grant, USA </Li>

Who commanded all union forces in the civil war