Abraham Lincoln Author:John Hay, John G. Nicolay Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE TENNESSEE LINE Chap, in TN the State of Kentucky the long game of po- I litical intrigue came to an end as the autumn of 1861 approached. B... more »y a change almost as sudden as a stage transformation-scene, the beginning of September brought a general military activity and a state of qualified civil war. This change grew naturally out of the military condition, which was no longer compatible with the uncertain and expectant attitude the State had hitherto maintained. The notes of preparation for Fremont's campaign down the Mississippi could not be ignored. Cairo had become a great military post, giving the Federal forces who held it a strategical advantage both for defense and offense, against which the Confederates had no corresponding foothold on the great river. The first defensive work of the latter was Fort Pillow, 215 miles below, armed with only twelve 32-pounders. To oppose a more formidable resistance to Fremont's descent was of vital importance, which General Folk's West Point education enabled him to realize. But the Mississippi, with its generally level banks, afforded relatively few points capable of effective defense. The one most favorable to the Confederate needs was at Columbus, in the State of Kentucky, eighteen miles Chap. Hi. below Cairo, on a high bluff commanding the river for about five miles. Both the Union and Confederate commanders coveted this position, for its natural advantages were such that when fully fortified it became familiarly known as the " Gibraltar of the West." So far, through the neutrality policy of Kentucky, it had remained unappropriated by either side. On the first day of September, General Polk, the rebel commander at Memphis, sent a messenger to Governor Magoffin to obtain confidential information about the " future ...« less