70

CALLS UPON FREMONT FOR TROOPS.

offer of the commission of a brigadier-general, the thanks of Congress, and the plaudits of the loyal people. Congress gave the Twenty-third Illinois Regiment (which was now called "Mulligan's Brigade") authority to wear on its colors the name of LEXINGTON. Mulligan declined the commission of brigadier, because he preferred to remain with his regiment.

1861.

General Fremont was censured for his failing to re-enforce the garrison at Lexington. The public knew little of his embarrassments at that time. His forces were largely over-estimated,' and he was receiving calls for help from every quarter. Pressing demands for re-enforcements came from General Ulysses S. Grant, at Paducah, for the Confederates, then in possession of Columbus, in Kentucky, were threatening an immediate march upon that place, so as to flank and capture Cairo. General Robert Anderson, commanding in Kentucky, was imploring him to send troops to save Louisville from the Confederates; and a peremptory order was sent by LieutenantGeneral Scott to forward five thousand "well-armed infantry to Washington City, without a moment's delay." There were at that time seventy thousand men under General McClellan in camp near the National Capital, while Fremont's total force was only about fifty-six thousand men, scattered over his Department, and menaced at many points by large bodies, or by guerrilla bands of armed insurgents. He had only about seven thousand men at St. Louis; the remainder were at distant points. When he heard of Mulligan's arrival at LexingSept. 13. ton, and of General Price's movements in that direction with continually increasing strength, he did not doubt that General Jefferson C. Davis, commanding nearly ten thousand men at Jefferson City, and keeping a vigilant eye upon the Confederate leader, would give him immediate aid. He had reason to believe that a large portion of General Pope's five thousand men in Northern Missouri, sent for the purpose under General Sturgis,' would co-operate with the forces of General Lane on the frontier of Kansas, over two thousand strong, and those of Davis at Jefferson City, in giving all needed relief to Mulligan. So confident was he that Price would be driven from Lexington by these combined forces, that he telegraphed to General Davis on the 18th, directing him to send five thousand men to the South Fork of La Mine River, in Cooper County, where it is crossed by the Pacific Railway, there to intercept the expected retreat of the Confederates to the Osage River.

3

In these reasonable calculations Fremont was disappointed. Whilst expecting tidings of success, he received from Pope the sad * Sept. 22. news of Mulligan's surrender. The active and vigilant Price, with a force of more than twenty-five thousand men, had been enabled

1 Fremont's force in St. Louis alone, at that time, was estimated at 20,000. A week before the fall of Lexington, Schuyler Colfax, Representative in Congress from Indiana, visited him, and urged him to send forward a part of that force to confront Price. Fremont informed him how few were his troops in St. Louis then, and the importance of allowing the false impression of their number to remain. His muster-roll was laid before Colfax, and it showed that within a circuit of seven miles around the city, the whole number of troops, including the Home Guards, was less than 8,000. The official returns to the War Department at that date gives the number in the City of St. Louis at 6,890, including the Home Guards.-Speech of Schuyler Colfax, March 7, 1862, cited by Abbott in his Civil War in America; 232.

2 Major Sturgis had been commissioned a brigadier-general for his gallant service at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, on the 10th of August.

3 General Pope telegraphed to General Fremont on the 16th, saying: "The troops I sent to Lexington will be there the day after to-morrow [the day when the assault on Mulligan commenced], and consist of two full

FREMONT'S FORCES IN MOTION.

71

a Sept., 1861.

to beat back re-enforcements for the garrison and to keep the way open for recruits for his own army.' In this work a severe fight occurred at Blue Mills, on the Missouri, thirty miles above Lexington, on the 17th," in which the insurgents, commanded by General David R. Atchinson, were victorious; and on the 19th, General Sturgis, with a large body of cavalry, appeared opposite Lexington, but finding no boats for transportation, and being confronted by two thousand men under General Parsons, he was compelled to make a hasty retreat northward.

¿September.

The fall of Lexington was a discouraging blow to the Union cause in Missouri. Fremont was violently assailed with charges of incapacity, extravagance in expenditure, and a score of faults calculated to weaken his hold upon the confidence of the people, and the troops in his Department. The disasters at Wilson's Creek and Lexington were attributed to his remissness in forwarding re-enforcements; and he perceived the necessity for prompt action in the way of repairing his damaged character. In a brief electrograph to the Adjutant-General on the 23d,' announcing the fall of Lexington, he said he was ready to take the field himself, with a hope of speedily destroying the enemy, before McCulloch, who was gathering strength in Arkansas to return to Missouri, should rejoin Price. Believing the latter would follow up his success at Lexington, and march in the direction of Jefferson City or establish himself somewhere on the Missouri River, he immediately pepared to proceed with a large force in the direction of the insurgents. On the 27th of September he put in motion an army of more than twenty thousand men, of whom nearly five thousand were cavalry, arranged in five divisions under the respective commands of Generals David Hunter, John Pope, Franz Sigel, J. A. McKinstry, and H. Asboth, and accompanied by eighty-six pieces of artillery, many of them rifled cannon. While this formidable force is moving forward cautiously, let us observe the course of events on the borders of the Mississippi, and in Kentucky, bearing upon the fortunes of war in Fremont's Department.

During the few weeks preceding the fall of Lexington, General Pillow, as we have seen, had been making great efforts to secure the possession of Cairo by military operations in Missouri. In this effort, as he alleged, he had been thwarted by a lack of hearty co-operation on the part of Generals Polk and Hardee,3 and he now turned his attention to a plan which he had proposed at an early day, in which it is probable he had the active sympathies of the disloyal Governor of Kentucky, namely, the occupation and intrenching of Columbus, in Kentucky, from which he believed he could flank the position at Cairo, take it in reverse, and, turning its guns upon Bird's Point, drive out and disperse its force. So early as the 13th of May, he had asked the consent of Governor Magoffin to take possession of and fortify Columbus; and in reporting the fact to his "Secretary of War,"

€ 1861.

regiments of infantry, four pieces of artillery, and 150 regular horse. These, with two Ohio regiments, which will reach there on Thursday [19th], will make a re-enforcement of 4,000 men and four pieces of artillery."

1 Martin Green, already mentioned (see page 55), was at about that time operating successfully in Northeastern Missouri with 3,000 men. They were effectually broken up by General Pope.

2 Atchinson was at one time a member of the United States Senate, and was conspicuous as a leader of the Missourians called "Border Ruffians," who played a prominent part in the politics of Kansas a new years before.

* Autograph letter of General Pillow to L. Pope Walker, "Secretary of War," Sept. 6, 1861.

4 Autograph letter of General Pillow to L. Pope Walker, Sept. 1, 1861.

72

a June 10,

1861.

MILITARY AFFAIRS IN KENTUCKY.

1

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 of the Government troops.3

the

power

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 conditions, 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 afterward 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.

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

1861.

Aug. 24.

of a committee, urging him to remove from the limits of Ken- Aug. 19, tucky 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 coma Sept., 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 Colouel Rousseau should bring his force, increased, if possible, by two Ohio règiments, 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.