After early setbacks for the North, the Committee on the Conduct of the War seeks the ouster of General George McClellan. In the Western theater, Union forces win a line of victories —with one notable exception, the Confederates successfully defend Vicksburg.  While Lincoln holds on to McClellan, Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant takes hold of the Tennessee River and meets the South head on at Shiloh. The first great costly battle of the war would shock the nation and shatter any hope of a rapid end to the war.