72

a June 10,

1861.

MILITARY AFFAIRS IN KENTUCKY.

he exhibited his contempt for the neutrality of Kentucky, by saying: "If he (Magoffin) should withhold his consent, my present impression is that I shall go forward and occupy the position, upon the ground of its necessity to protect Tennessee." The action of the people and the Legislature of Kentucky made Magoffin very circumspect. At the election in June, for members of Congress, there appeared a Union majority of over fifty-five thousand, and the Governor saw no other way to aid his southern friends than by insisting upon the strict neutrality of his State in outward form, in which its politicians had placed it. He had sent Buckner to confer with General McClellan (then in command at Cincinnati) on the subject, who reported that he had consummated an agreement officially with that officer, for a thorough support of that neutrality. He declared that McClellan agreed that his Government should respect it, even though Confederate troops should enter the State, until it should be seen that Kentucky forces could not expel them; and then, before troops should be marched into its borders, timely notice of such intended movement should be given to the Governor; also, that, in case United States troops were compelled to enter Kentucky to expel Confederate troops, the moment that work should be accomplished the National forces should be withdrawn. McClellan promptly denied ever making any such agreement with Buckner.' Yet Magoffin insisted upon acting as if such an agreement had been actually entered into by the National Government; and Governor Harris, of Tennessee, to whom Buckner was directed by Magoffin to make an oral report of his conference with McClellan, determined to aid Kentucky in preserving that neutrality, because it promised his own State the best protection against the power of the Government troops.3

While Magoffin endeavored to enforce neutrality as against National troops, he seems to have given every encouragement to the secessionists that common prudence would allow. They were permitted to form themselves into military organizations and enter the service of Tennessee or of the Confederate States; and recruiting for the latter went on openly. The Unionists soon followed the example, and "Camp Joe Holt" was established near Louisville, at an early day, as a military rendezvous for loyal citizens. This was chiefly the work of Lovell H. Rousseau, a loyal State Senator who, when he left the hall of legislation, prepared for the inevitable conflict for the National life. At about the same time, William Nelson, another loyal

1 Autograph letter of General Pillow to L. Pope Walker, May 15, 1861. He appealed to Walker for arms, and promised him, if he should comply with his request, that he would have 25,000 of the best fighting men in the world in the field in twenty days. "If we cannot get arms," he said, "it is idle to indulge the hope of successfully resisting the bodies of Northern barbarians of a tyrant who has trampled the Constitution under his feet." The Mayor of Columbus, B. W. Sharpe, seems to have been in complicity with Pillow in his designs for invading Kentucky. On the first of June he informed him by letter, that the citizens there were preparing to mount heavy guns and to collect military stores.

2 Letter to Captain Wilson, of the United States Navy, June 26, 1861.

3 Autograph letter of Isham G. Harris to General Pillow, June 13, 1861.

4 Many young men joined the Tennessee troops under Pillow, and with his army were transferred to the Confederate service. So early as the middle of May, organizations for the purpose had been commenced in Kentucky. On the 17th of that month, William Preston Johnston, a son of General A. Sidney Johnston, of the Confederate Army, in a letter to Governor Harris, from Louisville, said: "Many gentlemen, impatient of the position of Kentucky, and desirous of joining the Southern cause, have urged me to organize a regiment, or at least a battalion, for that purpose." He offered such regiment or battalion to Governor Harris, on certain condi tions, and suggested the formation of a camp for Kentucky volunteers, at Clarkesville or Gallatin, in Tennessee. This was one of many offers of the kind received from Kentucky by Governor Harris.

NEUTRALITY OF KENTUCKY.

73

Kentuckian, established a similar rendezvous in Garrard County, in Eastern Kentucky, called "Camp Dick Robinson." Both of these men were after ward major-generals in the Na

tional Volunteer service. The Government encouraged these Union movements. All Kentucky, within a hundred miles south of the Ohio River, had been made a military department, at the head of which was placed Robert Anderson, the hero of Fort Sumter, who, on the 14th of May, had been commissioned a brigadier-general of Volunteers.

@ Aug. 19, 1861.

Aug. 24.

When Union camps were formed in Kentucky, Magoffin became concerned about the violated neutrality of his State, and he finally wrote to the President," by the hands of a committee, urging him to remove from the limits of Kentucky the forces organized in camps and mustered into the National service. The President not only refused compliance with his request, but gave him a rebuke' so severe that he did not venture to repeat his wishes. A similar letter was sent by the Governor to Jefferson Davis, softened with Magoffin's assurance that he had no belief that the Confederates would think of violating the neutrality of Kentucky. Davis, thus made apparently unmindful of the fact that his "Congress" at Richmond had authorized enlistments for the Confederate armies in Kentucky; that his officers were organizing bands of Volunteers on its soil, and that already Tennessee troops in his employ had invaded the State, and carried away six cannon and a thousand stand of arms, replied that his "government" had scrupulously respected the neutrality of Kentucky, and would as scrupulously maintain that respect "so long as her people will maintain it themselves."

Aug. 7.

The loyal Legislature of Kentucky assembled at Frankfort on the 2d of September. Its action was feared by the conspirators; and under the pretext of an expectation that National troops were about to invade the State, General Polk, with the sanction of Davis, and Governor Harris, of Tennessee, and the full knowledge, it is believed, of Governor Magoffin, proceeded to carry out General Pillow's favorite plan of scorning Kentucky's neutrality, and seizing Columbus. On the 30th of August, Polk telegraphed to Pillow, saying: "I shall myself be at New Madrid to-morrow to arrange for the future;" and on the 3d of September, De Russey, Polk's aid-de-camp, telegraphed to the same officer, that "the general-commanding determines, with troops now at Union City, to fall at once upon Columbus ;" and directed Pillow

1 The President said that, taking all means within his reach for forming a judgment, he did not believe it was the popular wish of Kentucky that the Union troops should be removed, and added: "It is with regret I search, and cannot find, in your not very short letter, any declaration or intimation that you entertain any desire for the preservation of the Federal Union."

2 In the Senate were 27 Union and 11 Secession members, and in the Lower House 76 Union and 24 Secession representatives.

74

INVASION OF KENTUCKY.

to take his whole command immediately to Island No. 10. This was done, and on the 4th" Polk seized Hickman and Columbus, and comSept., 1861. menced the erection of batteries on the bluff near the latter place. He immediately telegraphed the fact to Davis, at Richmond, and to

THE BLUFF, AND POLK'S HEAD-QUARTERS, NEAR COLUMBUS,

Governor Harris, at Nashville.' Then followed some transparent chicanery

1 Columbus is in Hickman County, about twenty miles below the mouth of the Ohio River.

2 On the same day General Polk issued a proclamation, in which he gave as a reason for his violation of the neutrality of Kentucky, that the National Government had done so by establishing camp depots for its armies, by organizing military companies within its territory, and by making evident preparations, on the Missouri shore of the Mississippi, for the seizure of Columbus. It was, therefore, "a military necessity, for the defense of the territory of the Confederate States, that a Confederate force should occupy Columbus in advance."

When General Fremont heard of this movement, he wrote a private letter to the President, dated the 8th of September, in which he set forth a plan for expelling the Confederates from Kentucky and Tennessee.* The President urged its immediate adoption, but was overruled by his counsellors. Experts say, that had Fremont's plan been promptly acted upon, the war that so long desolated Kentucky and Tennessee might have been averted.

*The following is a copy of Fremont's letter:To the President:

HEAD-QUARTERS WESTERN DEPARTMENT, September 8, 1861.

MY DEAR SIR:-I send, by another hand, what I ask you to consider in respect to the subject of the note by your special messenger. In this, I desire to ask your attention to the position of affairs in Kentucky. As the rebel troops, driven out of Missouri, had invaded Kentucky in considerable force, and by occupying Union City, Hickman, and Columbus, were preparing to seize Paducah and Cairo, I judged it impossible, without losing important advantages, to defer any longer a forward movement. For this purpose I have drawn from the Missouri side a part of the force stationed at Bird's Point, Cairo. and Cape Girardeau, to Fort Holt and Paducah, of which places we have taken possession. As the rebel forces outnumber ours, and the counties of Kentucky, between the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers, as well as those along the Cumberland, are strongly Secessionist, it becomes imperatively necessary to have the co-operation of the Union forces under Generals Anderson and Nelson, as well as those already encamped opposite Louisville, under Colonel Rousseau. I have re-enforced, yesterday, Paducah with two regiments, and will continue to strengthen the position with men and artillery. As soon as General Smith, who commands there, is re-enforced sufficiently for him to spread his forces, he will have to take and hold Mayfield and Lovelaceville, to be in the rear and flank of Columbus, and to occupy Smithland, controlling in its way both the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. At the same time Colonel Rousseau should bring his force, increased, if possible, by two Ohio regiments, in boats, to Henderson, and taking the Henderson and Nashville Railroad, occupy Hopkinsville, while General Nelson should go, with a force of 5,000, by railroad to Louisville, and from there to Bowling Green. As the population in all the counties through which the above railroads pass are loyal, this movement could be made without delay or molestation to the troops. Meanwhile, General Grant would take possession of the entire Cairo and Fulton Railroad, Piketon, New Madrid, and the shore of the Mississippi opposite Hickman and Columbus. The foregoing disposition having been effected, a combined attack will be made on Columbus, and, if successful in that, upon Hickman, while Rousseau and Nelson will move in concert, by railroad, to Nashville, occupying the State capital, and, with adequate force, New Providence. The conclusion of this movement would be a combined advance towards Memphis, on the Mississippi, as well as the Ohio and Memphis Railroad, and I trust the result would be a glorious one to the country. In a reply to a letter from General Sherman, by the hand of Judge Williams, in relation to the vast importance of securing possession, in advance, of the country lying between the Ohio, Tennessee, and Mississippi, I have to-day suggested the first part of the plan. By extending my command to Indiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky, you would enable me to attempt the accomplishment of this all-important result, and in order to secure the secrecy necessary to its success, I shall not extend the communication I have made to General Sherman, or repeat it to any one else. With high respect and regard, I am very truly yours,

J. C. FREMONT.

LOYALTY OF THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE.

75

on the part of the conspirators, to deceive the people and defend Confederate honor. Walker, the "Secretary of War," ordered Polk to withdraw his troops from Kentucky, while Davis, his superior, telegraphed to the same officer in approval of his movement-"The necessity justifies the act."1 When the authorities of Kentucky demanded from Governor Harris, of Tennessee, an explanation of the movement, that functionary replied with the false assertion that it had been done without his knowledge or consent; "and I am confident," he said, "without the consent of the President. I have telegraphed President Davis," he

continued, "requesting their immediate withdrawal."

FELIX K. ZOLLICOFFER.

On the day after Polk invaded Kentucky on the west, and General Felix K. Zollicoffer, formerly a member of Congress, with a considerable force had passed from East Tennessee, through the Cumberland Mountains, and entered the State on its eastern border, Magoffin laid a message before the Legislature, in which he made special complaint of Union military organizations within the State, and asked for the passage of a law for maintaining for the Commonwealth an armed neutrality; also to request the National Government to order the immediate disbanding of such organizations. The Legislature responded by directing the Governor to order, by proclamation, all the Confederate troops within the State to leave it immediately. An attempt to have the Union troops included in the order was promptly voted down. The Legislature did more. They passed a series of resolutions, by an overwhelming vote, declaring that the peace and neutrality of Kentucky had been wantonly violated, its soil invaded, and the rights of its citizens grossly injured "by the so-called Southern forces;" and, therefore, by special act, the Governor was requested to call out the military force of the State, "to expel and drive out the invaders." It was further resolved that the National Government should be asked for aid and assistance in that business; that General Anderson be requested "to enter immediately upon the discharge of his duties" in that military district, and that they appealed to the people to assist in expelling and driving out "the lawless invaders of the soil."

1 This was denied by some of the partisans of Davis. I have before me an autograph letter, written by Nash H. Burt to Governor Harris, dated at Nashville, September 6, 1861, in which he says: "The following dispatch is received this morning, dated Union City, 12 P. M., Sept. 5, 1861," directed to Governor Harris:

"On last evening I had the honor of telegraphing to you the necessity I had been under, of seizing the town of Columbus in advance of the enemy, who had already taken all the preparatory measures to do so. On this evening I received from his honor the Secretary of War, an order to withdraw the troops from Kentucky; but while issuing the appropriate orders to that effect, had the gratification to receive from the President the following dispatch, viz.: GENERAL POLK, Union City-Your telegram received. The necessity must justify the act. Signed, JEFFERSON DAVIS.'

"LEONIDAS POLK, Major-General."

General Polk sent a dispatch to Governor Magoffin, announcing to him that military necessity had compelled him to take possession of Columbus, and that, in reporting to Davis, his reply was, "the necessity justified the action." That dispatch is before me.

In the House, 68 to 26; and in the Senate, 26 to 8.

76

a Sept. 6,

1861.

END OF KENTUCKY NEUTRALITY.

Magoffin vetoed these resolutions, and they were promptly passed over his negative by a large majority.' In the mean time, the invasion of Kentucky by Tennessee troops had brought in a National force, under MajorGeneral Ulysses S. Grant, then in command of the district around Cairo. He took military possession of Paducah," at the mouth of the Tennessee River, where he found Secession flags flying in different parts of the town in expectation of the arrival of a Confederate army, nearly four thousand strong, reported to be within sixteen miles of that place. He seized property there prepared for the Confederates, and he issued a proclamation declaring that he had come solely for the purpose of defending the State from the aggression of rebels, and to protect the rights of all citizens, promising that when it should be manifest that they were able to maintain the authority of the Government themselves, he should withdraw the forces under his command.

Thus ended the neutrality of Kentucky, in which its politicians had unfortunately placed it. That neutrality had suppressed the practical loyalty of the State, given freedom to the growth of its opposite, and allowed Confederate troops to make such a lodgment on its soil, that large National armies were required to oppose them, and war in its most horrid aspects filled all its borders with misery. But for that neutrality, Tennessee, whose disloyal authorities had espoused the Confederate cause, would probably have been the frontier battle-ground, and the blood and treasure of Kentucky, so largely spent in the war, would have been spared. Too late to avoid the penalties of remissness in duty, Kentucky, five months after the war was begun in Charleston harbor, took a positive stand for the Union.

Encouraged by the new attitude of Kentucky, the National Government determined to take vigorous measures for securing its loyalty against the wiles of dangerous men. Ex-Governor Morehead, who was reported to

be an active traitor to his country, was arrested at his residence, near Louisville, and sent as a State prisoner to Fort Lafayette, at the entrance to the harbor of New York. Others of like sympathies took the alarm and fled, some to the Confederate armies or the more southern States, and others to Canada. Among them was John C. Breckinridge, late Vice-President of the Republic, and member of the National Senate; also William Preston, late American Minister to Spain; James B. Clay, a son of Henry Clay; Humphrey Marshall, lately a member of Congress, and a life-long politician; Captain John Morgan, Judge Thomas Monroe, and others of less note.

HUMPHREY MARSHALL.

1 Compelled to issue a proclamation by order of the Legislature, Magoffin put forth one on the 18th as mild as possible, simply saying that he was instructed to declare that "Kentucky expects the Confederate or Tennessee troops to withdraw from her soil immediately."