Main Union objective in 1862 is the conquest of Tennessee. If the taking of Kentucky has gone on schedule there should be a large army in Paducah and a second one in Bowling Green posed to move into Tennessee early in 1862. Looking at the map below you will see the most dominate feature of Tennessee is how the rivers break it up. Control of these rivers is the first order of business for the Union and by the beginning of 1862 their ship production should give them the gunboat fleets to start taking control of them. On the west side Tennessee is bordered by the Mississippi. The primary objective here is blocking it and using fleets to support land attacks. But the more important one is the Tennessee River. Taking control of this river will cut Tennessee in half making it impossible for Rebel army covering Memphis to give or receive support from the one covering Nashville. While Union transport on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers allow the Union armies to be mutually supporting and quickly shift forces to exploit weaknesses.
So the first order of business when the Union gets initiative in 1862 is to get into position for the main attacks. The army at Paducah will advance into Humbolt. This along with fleets on the rivers will cut the main connections between central and western Tennessee. The army at Bowling Green will advance into its jump off positions along the Cumberland River by taking the northern regions of Tennessee (Clarksville, Gallin, and Livingston). These are shown on the map by dark blue for the main advances and light blue for secondary ones which are usually overruns.
The next phase of the invasion usually takes place in early spring and is shown in purple. Here the Union takes advantage of how weak the South’s armies are in early 1862 to capture the key central regions. Here the Union can take advantage of its ability cross rivers to avoid equal fights and pick off undefended regions until the Southern forces have to retreat to avoid being cut off. In my particular situation the main CSA armies were in Memphis and Nashville intending to contest these key regions. The Union took advantage of its larger forces to take first Shiloh by overrun then striking the weakly held Dickson region with the Grant’s main body. Meanwhile Lyon with the other army in Gallin attacked Nashville to pin it in place. Farragut meanwhile took a large fleet of gunboats and cleaned out the Tennessee River. The Nashville attack was defeated but with Memphis isolated from Central Tennessee the confederate forces had to pull back into Murfreesboro to keep from being cut off.
The Union response is to nibble away at the edges while concentrating troops for the main objective Nashville. They quickly overrun the small forces holding Cumberland, Tullahoma and Lawrence regions threatening the Rebel rear. Bragg responds to these by attacking and retaking Tullahoma. This is the event the Union is waiting for. Lyon send a force large enough to overrun Murfreesboro to act as a shield against any reaction from Bragg then strikes at Nashville with the rest of his army with reinforcements from Grant also overrunning it. Bragg counterattacks against Murfreesboro but is defeated.
Meanwhile Grant has shifted his main force to Shiloh so that he can both threaten Memphis and Corinth. While he is weakened by detachments the Rebels attack him at Shiloh and are defeated. Hoping this weakened them Grant tries to follow them back into Memphis with his own attack but it is to weak and fails. Now getting some of his army back he tries against Corinth since a victory here will cut off Memphis but is again defeated.
Thus ends the summer and beginning of winter and I suspect I am behind schedule. I think the Union should have all of western and central Tennessee by now since Southern armies are building rapidly during 1862. The Rebels are pulling Bragg’s troops back toward Corinth probably to avoid the supply costs of being in Tullahoma in winter. Grant luckily gets initiative in October and moves to take Memphis. He still doesn’t have the force necessary to do it because of the two defeats he has suffered but comes up with a tactic to do it on less. General Reynolds with nine brigades strikes at Corinth in a suicide attack to pin the main Confederate army in place there. Grant takes the rest of the army and attacks Memphis taking it.
The remainder of the year is used to rebuild forces and take the smaller regions along the Tennessee River bringing the Union control of western Tennessee and all the regions north of the Tennessee River.
I think the major change I would now make to my strategy is increasing the weight of the attacks toward Memphis and executing them earlier. In early 1862 the Southern armies are weaker relative to the Union and a powerful drive toward Memphis, Shiloh and Corinth area would be more successful. The Central region is difficult to defend with the threat to the CSA rear that a force in Corinth would make. I think it might even be taken without a fight but even if resisted I doubt the South can effectively defend the regions while the late attempt at Memphis was almost stopped when executed late in the year.
Refer to AAR for more info: 2nd ARR WbtS Whitehead(USA)