Grant's western approach sought strength where the Confederacy was weak and tried to settle as much as possible before the armies met. He preferred to arrange supply, position, and relative strength so that battle confirmed an operational advantage already created. The Meridian campaign was an imperfect precursor to Sherman's later operation through Georgia. The method carried risks when intelligence was stale or an opponent had time to entrench, as Grant later discovered in Virginia. The comparison explains the power and limits of trying to decide a battle before fighting it.
Chapter · 30:00-32:17
Grant and Sherman: deciding battles before battle
The campaign grew from a Grant-Sherman preference for exploiting weakness and arranging conditions before fighting.