B. Buckner, then the acknowledged commander of the State militia,
entered into negotiations with General McClellan, at Cincinnati, the
terms of which stipulated that Kentucky should protect the United States
property, and enforce all the United States laws within her limits—that
her neutrality should be respected by the Federal army, _even though the
Southern forces should occupy her soil_; “but in the latter case General
McClellan should call upon the authorities of the State to remove the
said Southern forces from her territory;” if the State were unable to
accomplish this, then the Federal forces might be called in.
This negative position was found, however, to be one of positive
advantage and aid to the traitors. They desired to secure a “masterly
inactivity” on the part of loyal men, of which they might avail
themselves by secret organizations. Taking advantage of this confessed
neutrality, large numbers of the young men of Kentucky were enticed into
Buckner’s camp; while bodies of men from Tennessee were thrown into
several localities in the southern and western portions of the State,
and boldly avowed their determination to march on Frankfort, the
capital, and revolutionize the State. Home Guards were organized by the
loyal men, and it became apparent, that if the tide were not resisted by
active measures, there was no security for Kentucky.
The election for members of the Legislature, however, early in August,
the result of which showed an overwhelming majority in favor of the
Union, signed the death-warrant of neutrality, and thenceforth Kentucky
was regarded as loyal to the Union. The Legislature assembled at
Frankfort on the 5th of September, ordered the United States flag to be
hoisted on the court-house, and proceeded to adopt various measures
calculated to promote the Union cause in the State.
[Illustration:
SECTION OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
SHOWING THE DISTANCES FROM NEW ORLEANS.
]
[Illustration:
SECTION OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
SHOWING THE DISTANCES FROM NEW ORLEANS.
]
The great Union majority now revealed gave such decided evidence that
Kentucky was not likely to be seduced from her loyalty, that the
secessionists became convinced of the necessity of accomplishing their
purpose by other means. The rebel forces were, therefore, ordered to
take possession of several important points, which they did on the 4th
of September, and commenced fortifying Hickman and Columbus—the former
being in the western part of the State, near the line, and the latter
some twenty-five miles further north, on the Mississippi river. Generals
Pillow and Polk now took command of the rebel troops, and were soon
reinforced, their combined forces amounting to thirteen regiments of
artillery, six field batteries, a siege battery, three battalions of
cavalry, three steamers, and a gunboat. In the mean time, Jefferson
Thompson, with two regiments, took possession of Belmont, on the
Missouri side, opposite Columbus. The assumed neutrality having thus
been broken by this invasion, the Federal commander, General U. S.
Grant, then at Cairo, Illinois, lost no time in making a movement to
intercept the further progress of the rebels northward. He accordingly
sent a sufficient force up the Ohio, to the mouth of the Tennessee
river, and effected
THE OCCUPATION OF PADUCAH.
On Thursday evening, the 5th of September, the gunboats Tyler and
Conestoga were ordered to convey the troops to Paducah. The Ninth
Illinois, under the gallant Major Philips, and the Twelfth Illinois,
Colonel John McArthur, with four pieces of Smith’s Chicago Artillery,
under Lieutenant Charles Willard, embarked on the steamers G. W. Graham
and W. H. B., and left Cairo at 11 o’clock, P. M., the gunboat Tyler,
Captain Rogers, leading, and the Conestoga, Captain Phelps, in the rear.
The fleet pushed out into the stream amid the cheers of thousands of
spectators, and steamed grandly up the Ohio.
They reached Paducah about eight o’clock, A. M., on Friday, the 6th. The
troops were speedily disembarked. Colonel McArthur’s regiment landed at
the Marine Hospital, in the lower part of the city, and the Ninth at the
foot of Main street. The Twelfth found quarters at the hospital, and the
Ninth repaired to the depot of the Ohio and New Orleans railroad. The
citizens were sullen and unfriendly, and closed their places of
business.
On arriving at the depot the troops found that the rolling stock of the
road had all been removed, but a large quantity of stores for the
confederate army was discovered, and promptly seized. They were marked
for Memphis, New Orleans, and other points south, and were worth about
$20,000.
Captain Rogers immediately took possession of the telegraph office. The
post-office was next visited, and a large amount of rebel correspondence
secured. Five companies of infantry, and a battery of Smith’s Light
Artillery, Lieutenant Willard, were sent under Major Philips down the
railroad about seven miles without meeting any of the rebel troops.
Pillow was reported to be advancing, and a large bridge and trestle work
were burnt to prevent him from reaching Paducah and falling upon the
place by surprise.
A rumor became current that a large force of rebels from Tennessee were
on their way down the Tennessee river in steamboats. To ascertain the
facts, and to intercept their progress, the gunboat Conestoga was
dispatched up the river some thirteen miles to watch the rebel
movements, and to capture suspicious vessels. Although no hostile forces
were seen, a steamer was discovered on Friday, which, on seeing the
Conestoga, turned about, was run ashore, and the officers and crew
abandoned her. It was the Jefferson, a small stern-wheel boat, loaded
with a cargo of tobacco. On Saturday the Conestoga captured a fine
propeller, called the John Gault, and a boat called the Pocahontas,
belonging to John Bell, of Tennessee. The prizes were all safely taken
to Cairo.
The inhabitants of Paducah were now seized with panic, and large numbers
left the town, apprehending an attack from Pillow, in which case they
expected the gunboats would freely use shell. On Saturday part of
Colonel Oglesby’s Eighth regiment, the Forty-first Illinois, and the
American Zouave regiment, from Cape Girandeau, entered the town,
increasing the forces to about 5,000 men.
THE REBEL TROOPS ORDERED TO WITHDRAW FROM KENTUCKY.
On the 9th of September a dispatch from General Polk to Governor
Magoffin was laid before the Legislature, the substance of which was
that he had occupied Columbus and Hickman, on account of reliable
information that the Federal forces were about to possess those points;
that he considered the safety of Western Tennessee and of the rebel army
in the vicinity of Hickman and Columbus demanded their occupation, and
that, as a corroboration of that information, the Federal troops had
been drawn up in line on the river opposite to Columbus prior to its
occupation by them, causing many of the citizens of Columbus to flee
from their homes for fear of the entrance of the Federal troops. General
Polk proposed substantially that the Federal and rebel forces should be
simultaneously withdrawn from Kentucky, and to enter into recognizances
and stipulations to respect the neutrality of the State.
But it was well known that the cry of neutrality was only an invention
of the enemy to work his plans in Kentucky, so that when the appointed
time should come Kentucky would swarm with rebels from Tennessee and
Virginia; and two days afterwards both branches of the Legislature, by a
vote of 71 to 26, adopted a resolution directing the Governor to issue a
proclamation ordering the rebel troops then encamped in the State to
evacuate Kentucky. A counter-resolution, ordering both Federal and rebel
troops to leave the soil, was negatived under the rules of order.
Governor Magoffin accordingly issued a proclamation to the effect that
“the government of the Confederate States, the State of Tennessee, and
all others concerned, are hereby informed that Kentucky expects the
Confederate or Tennessee troops to be withdrawn from her soil
unconditionally.”
ATTEMPT TO FORM A REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT IN THE STATE.
After this decisive action of the Legislature, which effectually
destroyed the hopes entertained by the conspirators of obtaining a
semblance of legal authority for their designs, their next expedient was
to hold an informal meeting at Russelville, a small town in the southern
portion of the State, on the 29th of October. Here they drew up a
declaration of grievances, in which they charged the majority of the
Legislature with having betrayed their solemn trust, by inviting into
the State the “armies of Lincoln,” with having abdicated the government
in favor of a military despotism, and thrown upon the people and the
State the horrors and ravages of war. They recommended the immediate
arming of a “Guard” in each county, of not less than one hundred men, to
be paid as Confederate troops, subject to the orders of the “Commanding
General.” Finally, they called for a Convention to be held at
Russelville, on the 18th of November, to be “elected, or appointed in
any manner possible,” by the people of the several counties, for the
purpose of “severing forever our connection with the Federal
Government.”
John C. Breckinridge, late Vice President of the United States, was
appointed one of the commissioners to carry out the orders of the
convention. This Convention met at the time designated, composed of
about two hundred persons, professing to represent sixty-five counties,
though self-appointed, and without any form of election. On the 20th of
November they adopted a “Declaration of Independence, and an Ordinance
of Secession,” and appointed a “Provisional Government, consisting of a
Governor, and a Legislative Council of Ten,” and dispatched H. C.
Burnett, W. E. Simms, and William Preston, as commissioners to the
Confederate States. On the 9th of December, the “Congress’” of the
Confederate States, in session at Richmond, passed an “Act for the
admission of the State of Kentucky into the Confederate States of
America,” as a member “on equal footing with the other States of the
Confederacy.”
George W. Johnson, of Scott county, who was chosen as Provisional
Governor, by the Convention, in his “Message,” declared his willingness
to resign “whenever the regularly elected Governor [Magoffin] should
escape from his virtual imprisonment at Frankfort.”
Governor Magoffin, in a letter, dated December 13, 1861, says of this
Convention, “I condemn its action in unqualified terms. Situated as it
was, and without authority from the people, it cannot be justified by
similar revolutionary acts in other States, by minorities to overthrow
the State Governments. My position is, and has been, and will continue
to be, to abide by the will of the majority of the people of the State,
to stand by the Constitution and laws of the State of Kentucky, as
expounded by the Supreme Court of the State, and by the Constitution and
laws of the United States, as expounded by the Supreme Court of the
United States. To this position I shall cling in this trying hour as the
last hope of society and of constitutional liberty.”
MILITARY MOVEMENTS OF THE REBELS IN KENTUCKY.
While Pillow and Polk were invading the south-western part of the State,
General Zollicoffer was operating in the east. With some six thousand
rebels he came to Cumberland Ford—which is situated near the point where
the corner of Virginia runs into Kentucky—capturing a company of Home
Guards. On the 17th of September the Legislature received a message from
Governor Magoffin communicating a telegraphic dispatch from General
Zollicoffer, announcing that the safety of Tennessee demanded the
occupation of Cumberland and the three long mountains in Kentucky, and
that he had occupied them, and should retain his position until the
Federal forces were withdrawn and the Federal camp broken up.
That portion of Kentucky lying west of the Cumberland river was then
declared under insurrectionary control, and Secretary Chase instructed
the Surveyor at Cairo to prevent all commercial intercourse with that
section, and to search all baggage and all persons going thither. Just
about the same time the gunboat Conestoga captured the rebel steamers
Stephenson and Gazelle, on the Cumberland, and one of them was found to
contain one hundred tons of iron.
DECISIVE MEASURES OF THE LOYAL STATE GOVERNMENT.
When the seditious plans of General Buckner became too plain for
concealment, the Legislature found it necessary to depose him from the
command of the State troops, and General Thomas L. Crittenden, a loyal
citizen, was appointed to fill that position. Governor Magoffin, in
obedience to the resolutions and the enactments of the Legislature,
promptly issued a proclamation, authorizing that officer to execute the
purposes contemplated by the resolutions of the Legislature in reference
to the expulsion of the invaders, and General Crittenden ordered the
military to muster forthwith into service. Hamilton Pope,
Brigadier-General of the Home Guard (Union), called on the people of
each ward in Louisville to meet and organize into companies for the
protection of the city.
Great excitement existed at this time in Louisville. The Union Home
Guards began to assemble, while other Union forces were arriving and
being sent to different portions of the State. At nine o’clock on the
morning of the 18th, when the Government troops reached Rolling Fork,
five miles north of Muldragh’s Hill, they found that the bridge over the
fork had been burned by rebels under General Buckner, who were then upon
the hill.
The Legislature passed, over the veto of the Governor, a resolution to
the effect that, as the rebels had invaded Kentucky and insolently
dictated the terms upon which they would retire, General Robert
Anderson, the hero of Fort Sumter, one of Kentucky’s sons, should be
invited to take instant charge of that department, and that the Governor
must call out a sufficient force to expel the invaders from her soil.
General Anderson, who had been previously appointed by the Government to
command in Kentucky, responded to the call, and on the 21st of September
issued a proclamation calling upon the people of Kentucky to rally to
the support of the Union.
General S. B. Buckner, who had previously acted under neutrality
pretences, now gradually assumed an attitude of hostility, and in
September was openly arrayed against the Government. On the 12th he
issued an inflammatory proclamation to the people of Kentucky, in which
he declared that he sought to make no war upon the Union, but only
against the tyranny and despotism of the Federal Government, which was
about to make the people of Kentucky slaves. By such means as these he
aimed to arouse the freemen of that State to arms and to rebellion. The
proclamation was dated at Russelville, while he was entrenching a
position at Bowling Green, about thirty miles from the Tennessee line,
on the Louisville and Nashville railroad.
Very soon the Government formed a new department, consisting of Ohio,
Indiana, and that part of Kentucky within a commanding distance of
Cincinnati, placing it under the charge of General Mitchell, in order to
relieve General Rosecranz in Western Virginia and General Anderson of a
part of their responsibility, and enable them to give greater attention
to their own specific departments. The department under General Anderson
seemed to require similar military discipline to that of Annapolis and
Maryland, and, as a commencement, Martin W. Barr, the telegraphic news
reporter of the Southern Associated Press, the medium for the
transmission of correspondence from traitors at the North to rebels in
the South, was arrested, together with ex-Governor Morehead and Reuben
T. Murrett, one of the proprietors of the _Courier_, a rebel sheet.
[Illustration: UNION HEROES FOOTE. GOLDSBOROUGH. FARRAGUT. STRINGHAM.
PORTER.]
The State had now become a portion of the ground which was to be so
fiercely contested. Rebel journals and leaders made no concealment of
their purpose to wrest Kentucky from the Union at every hazard. The Ohio
river was to be the boundary of the Southern empire, and notwithstanding
the emphatic voice of her people, all the energy of the combined forces
of the rebel armies were to be brought to bear upon the work. The fact
could be no longer disguised from the people, and the loyal men, finding
that their patience and confidence in the disloyal portion, with their
previous consent to a negative position of neutrality, were in vain,
boldly declared that the time had come to arouse and resist the
impending ruin. The attempt of the conspirators of the Cotton States to
make Kentucky the battle-field, along with Virginia, was to be defeated
at every cost, and the people, rising to a comprehension of their
responsibility, hastened to the work of organization and defence.
Among the loyal men of the State to whom the highest honor is due for
their bold and stirring advocacy of the Union, and for the most summary
measures which patriotism and honor could dictate, were Hon. JOSEPH
HOLT, and Hon. LOVELL S. ROUSSEAU, of the State Senate, and the gifted
divine, R. J. Breckinridge, D.D.
NAVAL OPERATIONS.
At the commencement of hostilities the Government was unprepared to meet
the naval requirements incident to the contest which had so suddenly
been forced upon it. The necessity of a stringent blockade of the entire
southern coast had become apparent; while the protection and supply of
the naval stations in the rebel States still in possession of our
forces, and the recapture of those which had been seized, required a
navy vastly greater than that at the command of the Government; and no
time was lost in preparing as far as practicable to meet this emergency.
Long before the attack on Fort Sumter, the enemy had given evidence of a
determination forcibly to destroy their relations with the Government by
seizing the revenue cutters belonging to the United States stationed in
the harbors of Charleston, Pensacola and New Orleans, contemporaneously
with their appropriation of the forts, arsenals, marine depots and other
property belonging to the Government within the limits of the disloyal
States.
Immediately upon the opening of hostilities, and to give the pretence of
law and authority to the proceedings now determined on, Jefferson Davis,
on the 17th of April, 1861, by proclamation, invited men of every class,
without regard to nationality, to become privateers under letters of
marque, to be issued by the Confederate Government.
A “reward” of twenty dollars was offered by the Confederate Congress for
every life taken by these privateers in conflict with a Federal vessel,
and twenty-five dollars for each prisoner. In view of the extensive
commerce of the United States, the large number of vessels sailing to
all parts of the world, and the supposed inefficiency of our navy,
confident expectations were entertained by the rebels of a rich harvest
of wealth from this source, as well as of the destruction of our
commerce. The hope was also indulged that many vessels would be secretly
fitted out in northern ports to engage in this enterprise. This hope
soon proved to be futile; while the want of proper vessels for the
service in their own ports, and the scarcity of able seamen, and, more
potent than either, the rigorous blockade that was soon established,
presented insurmountable obstacles to their plans. The English
Government, by the Queen’s proclamation of June 1, decided that
privateers should not take prizes to any of her ports; and France and
Spain also declared that such vessels should remain but twenty-four
hours within their harbors, and prohibited either confiscation or sale
during such stay.
The first offensive act of the war on the part of our navy was the
attack on Sewall’s Point battery, in Virginia, on May 18, 1861. This
battery, then not completed, was situated at the mouth of Elizabeth
river, commanding also the entrance to James river. On the 18th the
United States steamer Star, two guns, and transport Freeborn, of four
guns, opened their fire and dislodged the enemy from their
entrenchments. During the night, however, the works were repaired and
occupied by a larger force. On the following day the steamer Star again
opened fire on them, and after exhausting her ammunition retired.
On the 31st of May, the United States steamers Thomas Freeborn, Anacosta
and Resolute attacked the rebel batteries at the railroad terminus at
Acquia Creek. As the tide was out, the vessels could not approach near
enough to accomplish their reduction. On the following day the fire was
renewed by the vessels, under command of Captain Ward, and returned by
the enemy with spirit from three batteries on the shore, and one on the
heights above. They were soon driven from the shore batteries, but that
on the hill was at an elevation which could not be reached by shot from
the gunboats. The vessels were struck several times, with but little
damage, and two men were wounded. The loss of the enemy was not
ascertained.
On the 6th of June, while reconnoitering on the James river, the steamer
Harriet Lane discovered a heavy battery at Pigs Point, at the mouth of
the Nansemond river, opposite Newport News. She opened fire on it to
discover its character, and finding from the response that it was too
formidable for her guns, she withdrew, having five men wounded in the
encounter.
On the 27th of June, Commander J. H. Ward of the steamer Freeborn,
accompanied by a party of men from the Pawnee, under Lieutenant Chaplin,
who were engaged in erecting a breastwork at Matthias Point, on the
Potomac, were attacked by a large force of the enemy. The men on shore
were exposed to a galling fire, but made good their retreat in their
boats, three only being wounded, taking all their arms and implements
with them. Commander Ward immediately opened fire from his vessel on the
attacking party, and drove them to cover. While sighting one of the guns
of the Freeborn, Commander Ward was struck by a rifle ball, mortally
wounded, and died within an hour.
Captain JAMES H. WARD was born in the year 1806, in the city of
Hartford, Connecticut. His early days were spent in the usual studies of
youth, and on the 4th of March, 1823, he entered the United States
service, sailing as midshipman, under Commodore McDonough, in the
frigate Constitution. After serving faithfully for four years with
McDonough, he was promoted to the position of lieutenant, and was for
some time attached to the Mediterranean service. Many years of his life
were spent on the coast of Africa, and he was also in the gulf, as
commander of the United States steamer Vixen. Nearly all his naval life
was spent on the ocean. For some time he had a very responsible
professorship in the naval school at Annapolis, and later was in command
of the receiving ship North Carolina. His talents were not entirely
devoted to naval affairs, for he is well known as an author by his
works, entitled “Steam for the Million,” “Ordnance and Gunnery,” and
“Naval Tactics.” The news of his death brought sorrow to many, and his
memory is safely embalmed in the heart of an appreciating nation.
THE EXPEDITION TO CAPE HATTERAS
AUGUST 26–30, 1861.
The first naval achievement of the war which was attended with any
important result was the successful attack of the fleet under Commodore
Stringham, accompanied by General B. F. Butler, and his land forces,
upon Forts Hatteras and Clark, at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina.
[Illustration:
ATLANTIC COAST FROM FORTRESS MONROE TO FORT MACON.
]