own feelings," he wrote, in reply to General Grant, "would prompt me to waive again the unimportant affectation of declining to recognize these states as belligerents, in the interests of humanity, but my government requires all prisoners to be placed at the disposal of the Secretary of War."

The brief official report of General Polk bears witness to this severely contested field. "The enemy," he wrote to Headquarters, through General A. S. Johnston, "came down on the opposite side of the river, Belmont, to-day, about 7,500 strong, landed under cover of gunboats and attacked Colonel Tappan's camp. I sent over three regiments under General Pillow to his relief, then at intervals three others, then General Cheatham. I then took over two others in person, to support a flank movement which I had directed. It was a hard fought battle, lasting from half-past ten in the morning to five in the afternoon. They took Beltzhoover's battery, four pieces of which we recaptured. The enemy were thoroughly routed. We pursued them to their boats seven miles, then drove their boats before us. The road was strewn with their dead and wounded, guns, ammunition and equipments. Our loss considerable; theirs heavy." It will be noticed in this, that while the number of the Union forces is greatly exaggerated, made nearly threefold, the calculation by the other side, of the extensive reinforcements of the enemy is fully sustained. The actual contest stood three or four of the rebels to

one of the Unionists, but, at the end, the disparity was somewhat lessened by the fire and protection of the gun-boats. A General order issued by Brigadier-General McClernand on the 8th of November, the day after the battle, from his headquarters at Camp Cairo, paid a deserved tribute to the valor displayed by his command. General Grant also, in an official order, returned his thanks to the troops under his command in the battle. "It had been his fortune," he said," to have been in all the battles fought in Mexico by Generals Scott and Taylor, save Buena Vista, and he never saw one more hotly contested, or where troops behaved with more gallantry."

The disaster at Belmont was a severe one, for nearly one-fourth of those who went into the action were killed, wounded, or prisoners; and it was doubly felt at the time when an impatient public, tired of the slow proceedings of the war, were eagerly demanding some decisive action. The attack, though parried, was, doubtless, however, felt by the enemy who, if they had any intentions of assisting the rebels in Missouri were diverted from the purpose, and who certainly were taught that the war was a reality, and that the Northern soldiers, whom they had affected to despise, were no feeble antagonists. So far from discouraging the camp at Cairo, it steeled the courage of its inmates and caused them eagerly to long for another contest, when on more equal terms they could renew the fight so valiantly begun at Belmont.

THE dream of neutrality in Kentucky, | shore by the Falls of the Ohio. It was it was soon evident, must yield to the commanded by an ardent patriot, Colpractical realities of the day. While onel Lovell H. Rousseau, whose efforts legislators and politicians were passing in the Kentucky legislature to arrest the resolutions the people were acting for incoming tide of secession, we have althemselves. The sympathizers with the ready spoken of. These proceedings did rebels were freely enlisting in the Con- not escape the jealous vigilance of Govfederate army and bands of loyal citi- ernor Magoffin. We have seen his ill citi-ernor zens were enrolling themselves during success with the Governors of Ohio and the summer as Home Guards for the Indiana. He now fared little better with protection of the State. They were, the President of the United States. Adhowever, without arms and could accom- dressing an epistle to President Lincoln, plish little against the rebel influences at through a special embassy to Washingwork around them. In this condition of ton composed of two gentlemen of Lexaffairs, while the State was threatened ington, Mr. W. A. Dudley and Mr. F. with invasion on its southern frontier, K. Hunt, in terms of remonstrance at and the property of Union men was ex- the mustering of the national troops, he posed to pillage from the secessionist earnestly requested their withdrawal, militia or State guard raised by General urging his belief that if such a course Buckner at home, the Government at were pursued "the peace of the people Washington at length interposed, sup- of Kentucky would be preserved and the plied arms to the loyal citizens and mus- horrors of a bloody war averted from a tered their forces into her service under people now peaceful and tranquil." The officers holding commissions from the President received the embassy, on their United States. A camp of loyal men arrival, with his accustomed courtesy, called together to protect the State, as a and a day or two after communicated to member of the National Union, from ag- them his reply to the Governor, in the gression from armed assailants without following letter: or within its borders, was formed in Garrand County. It bore the name Camp Dick Robinson, and was under the command of General William Nelson, a native of Kentucky, formerly an officer of the navy, who had entered the military service in 1855. It was of convenient access from East Tennessee and was reinforced by a regiment of loyal refugees from that region. There was another camp of note of loyal Kentuckians, named in honor of the patriotic orator, Camp Joe Holt. It was situated nearly opposite Louisville on the Indiana

WASHINGTON, D. C., Aug. 24, 1861. To His Ex'y, B. Magoffin, Gov. of the State of Kentucky SIR: Your letter of the 19th inst., in which you "urge the removal from the limits of Kentucky of the military force now organized, and in camp within said State," is received. I may not possess full and precisely accurate knowledge upon this subject; but I believe it is true that there is a military force in camp within Kentucky, acting by au thority of the United States, which force is not very large, and is not now being augmented. I also believe that some

arms have been furnished to this force to the acts of the Federal Government, by the United States. I also believe this force consists exclusively of Kentuckians, having their camp n the immediate vicinity of their own homes, and not assailing or menacing any of the good people of Kentucky. In all I have done in the premises, I have acted upon the urgent solicitation of many Kentuckians, and in accordance with what I believed, and still believe, to be the wish of a majority of all the Union-loving people of Kentucky. While I have conversed on this subject with many eminent men of Kentucky, including a large majority of her members of Congress, I do not remember that any one of them, or any other person, except your Excellency and the bearers of your Excellency's letter, has urged me to remove the military force from Kentucky, or to disband it. One other very worthy citizen of Kentucky did solicit me to have the augmenting of the force suspended for a time. Taking all the means within my reach to form a judgment, I do not believe it is the popular wish of Kentucky that this force shall be removed beyond her limits; and, with this impression, I must respectfully decline to so remove it. I most cordially sympathize with your Excellency in the wish to preserve the peace of my own native State, Kentucky; but 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.

Your obedient servant, A. LINCOLN. The closing rebuke of the letter of the President was enforced by the potent voice of the people of the State, who in the recent elections for members of Congress and the State Legislature had given an overwhelming majority to the Union candidates. Notwithstanding, however, the latter convincing demonstration of the popular will, Governor Magoffin met the new Legislature in September with a message in the old strain of disaffection

which he held to account in this portentous arraignment: And now, addressing myself to the representatives of the people of Kentucky, I protest, in their name and presence, in the name of constitutional liberty, and in presence of heaven and earth, against all and every of the President's usurpations, and unconstitutional and illegal acts; and I protest, furthermore, against the further prosecution of a war professedly for the object of restoring the government, an object utterly impossible of attainment by such insane means as a war of coercion; and I protest, moreover, against Kentucky being made a camping ground, or the pathway for the movement of forces, by either belligerent; and I recommend earnestly to the General Assembly the prompt passage of resolutions requiring both belligerents to keep off our soil, and to respect in good faith the neutrality which the people of Kentucky, with unexampled unanimity, in good faith desire to preserve. The valor and fortitude of the Southern people are underrated by those who imagine that they can be subjected to terms of humiliating submission by any military force which the North can possibly find means to maintain in the field. It is my opinion, therefore, that the General Assembly of Kentucky ought to declare, by solemn resolution, that this war ought to be instantly stopped. If it is not, our people, already oppressed by taxation, will be bankrupted, our markets destroyed, our trade ruined, our fields ravaged, every home made desolate and in mourning; and after the expenditure of all our treasure and the loss of a million of lives in the vain effort to subjugate the South, the belligerents at last will be compelled to negotiate a peace, the people and our children having been made barbarians, and the last hope of liberty extinguished. It is the policy of Kentucky to take no part in it. She should keep firmly her present position of neu

THE KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE.

However any one may be disinclined to approve of the course of Governor Magoffin in its bearing on the interests of the Government and the true welfare of Kentucky and the Nation, there certainly can be no hesitation in admiring the persistency and consistency of his Messages and Proclamations. But while he thus resolutely adhered to his convictions, he declared his intention to abide by the will of the people. "It is my duty," he said, "to execute all constitutional laws of the Commonwealth, and no matter what may be my opinions in regard to their wisdom, my respect for States rights, States sovereignty, and the will of a majority of the people is such as to make me acquiesce in their decision and bow in respectful submission to that will as long as I am a citizen of Kentucky." In justice to the people, it may be said, that they were not long in giving Governor Magoffin an opportunity to practice his democratic virtue.

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lar letter to the President of the Confederate States, asking for an "authoritative assurance" that the neutral position of Kentucky would be respected by that government, to which Jefferson Davis replied, that it would be respected "so long as her people maintained it themselves;" adding significantly, "if the door be opened on the one side for the aggressions of one of the belligerent parties upon the other, it ought not to be shut to the assailed when they seek to enter it for purposes of self-defence." In other words, when he required the soil of Kentucky for the purposes of his strategy, he would use it.

The occasion was close at hand. On the fourth of September, Major-General Leonidas Polk, the successor of General Pillow in the command of the Confederate army in Tennessee, ascended the river with several thousand troops from Memphis, and took forcible possession of the town of Columbus. It was an important station, as the event proved, having railway communication with the great southern lines in the interior, and commanding the waters of the Mississippi below the mouth of the Ohio. This was an invasion of Kentucky in earnest. Few persons could be honestly in doubt of the constitutional right of the general government to march its troops over the soil of any of the States; none whatever could hesitate as to the monstrous abuse of State sovereignty for another State or a combination of States, or a power calling itself Foreign, thus to enter and take forcible possession. General Polk, as an officer and gentleman, to say nothing of his position in relation to a Border State, felt himself called upon for an explanation, and he gave it in the form usual with all military commanders-he issued a proclamation. It was as follows:

The temper of the Legislature was not to be mistaken. More than twothirds of the members of both branches were decided Unionists. The special vote of the House to raise the old flag over their place of meeting indicated their resolve to support the national authority. Major Anderson was already on his way from Washington to Louisville, commissioned to execute that authority in his military department of the Kentucky and Tennessee. General Fremont, in his adjoining command covering Illinois and Missouri, was hastening his preparations on the Mississippi. All were indications of the advancing supremacy of the Union, not likely to be neglected by the Confederate command- Columbus, September 4, 1861. The ers. When Governor Magoffin wrote to Federal Government having, in defiance President Lincoln concerning the occu- of the wishes of the people of Kentucky, pation of the State by the soldiers of the disregarded their neutrality by estabUnited States, he also addressed a simi-lishing camp depots for their armies, and

by organizing military companies within site bank in formidable numbers, with the territory, and by constructing mili- their cannon turned upon Columbus. tary works on the Missouri shore imme- The citizens of the town had fled diately opposite and commanding Colum- with terror, and not a word of assurance bus, evidently intended to cover the of safety or protection had been addresslanding of troops for the seizure of that ed to them. Since I have taken possestown, it has become a military necessity sion of this place, I have been informed, for the defence of the territory of the by highly responsible citizens of your Confederate States, that a Confederate State, that certain representatives of the force should occupy Columbus in ad- Federal government are setting up comvance. The Major-General commanding plaints of my act of occupying it, and has, therefore, not felt himself at liberty are making it a pretence for seizing other to assume the loss of so important a pos- positions. Upon this course of proceedition, but has decided to occupy it. In ing I have no comment to make, but I pursuance of this decision, he has thrown am prepared to say, that I will agree to a sufficient force into the town, and or- withdraw the Confederate troops from dered them to fortify it. It is gratifying Kentucky, provided she will agree that to know that the presence of his troops the troops of the Federal government be is acceptable to the people of Columbus, withdrawn simultaneously, with a guarand on this occasion he assures them anty, which I will give reciprocally for that every precaution will be taken to the Confederate government, that the insure their quiet and the protection of Federal troops shall not be allowed to their property, with all their personal enter or occupy any point in Kentucky and corporate rights." In further ex- in the future. planation or apology for this transaction, General Polk, some days after, addressed this letter to Governor Magoffin:

In a

The author of this proclamation, General Polk, a native of Tennessee, had been educated at the Military Academy "Columbus, Kentucky, September 9th. at West Point, graduating with credit at Governor B. Magoffin: I should have that institution in 1827, when he entered dispatched you immediately the troops the National service with the rank of under my command, took possession of Second Lieutenant of artillery. this position, the very few words I ad- few months, however, he abandoned the dressed to the people here; but my du- profession of arms for another of a very ties since that time have so pressed me, different character. He studied divinity that I have but now the first leisure time and took orders in the Protestant Episto communicate with you. It will be copal Church, where he rapidly rose to sufficient for me to inform you, which my its most responsible office, being conseshort address here will do, that I had crated Bishop of Louisiana in 1838. He information on which I could rely, that was considered a zealous and high toned the Federal forces intended, and were officer of the Church, and was known by preparing to seize Columbus. I need his efforts to promote the cause of edunot describe the danger resulting to cation at the South. Possessed of conWest Tennessee from such success. Re- siderable wealth, an accomplished scholalizing my responsibility, I could not ar, a large slave owner, and a strenuous permit them quietly to lose, through the supporter of what were called "Southcommand entrusted to me so important a ern Rights," he exercised much influence position. In evidence of the informa- in the promotion of opinions in that retion possessed, I will state, as the Con- gion of the country. His advocacy of federate forces occupied this place, the Secession at the breaking out of the Refederal troops were formed on the oppo-bellion, was no doubt an important aid