When is a territory to be considered "held"?

[16thVA]

When would you consider a territory or region to be "held"?

Is it the ability to move about freely without fear, or little fear, of attack?

Is it having a large force in the area that is able to deal with trouble, though not actually
in command of the entire area?

Or is it the ability to move through a territory, say on a raid or maneuver, without fear of opposition though you don't have troops regularly stationed there?

 

[ole]

Interesting question. I would say that territory is held when you have occupied it and intend to stay there. And you can repel anyone who wants to throw you out. Only then is it "held."

 

[16thVA]

That's a very good definition, Ole. I wondered about it because as I looked at this map of
Union advances by year-

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Civil_war_1861-1865.jpg

I saw that it has Wayne County in WV as held by the Union in 1861. Wayne is that point where Kentucky, Ohio and WV meet on the river. But here is a description of Wayne County by a Union soldier writing to his hometown newspaper in Springfield, MA, from Ceredo (Wayne County), which was Eli Thayer's colony.

October 10 [1864]. MY EXPERIENCES OF THE WAR. After three years and three months of service in the army, I have arrived here, where I once had a home. My family is still here, but as I have to watch and dodge the guerrillas, and cannot stay with any feeling of security, my wife says it is no longer a home. There are no United States troops here, and the infernal robbers and murderers are more bold and reckless than ever. Three months ago they murdered one of our best citizens, because he had enrolled the militia and was trying to restore civil law. This appears rather hard, after such a trying summer campaign as our regiment has experienced.

Unfortunately I don't have the rest of the article.

In areas the map marks as 1863 I know there was still Confederate postal service operating and also some County Courts under the old Virginia system.

I'm just wondering if some historians have a more liberal attitude towards what might be considered held or captured territory. Of course, I realize the making of a map such as this would be incredibly tedious if it were to be very accurate and this is probably just a general outline.

 

[ole]

For real fun and games, The Lincoln Museum makes and shows a "Civil War in Four Minutes" video. It shows, in four minutes, major battles and ground gained. Amusing and illustrative.

 

[TerryB]

There were many areas of Tennessee that I would call "no-man's-land" until the spring of 1864, since guerrillas and regulars from both sides often fought it out in these areas, even until Hood's failure that fall. That pretty much broke the back of irregular resistance from Franklin all the way to Chattanooga.