IN COMMAND IN MISSOURI.

285

shore, every good point between Paducah and Hickman, and that Paducah should be occupied by us. I asked him now to include Kentucky in mycommand.

September 5th I sent to General Grant a letter of instruction, in which Irequired bim to push forward with the utmost speed all work on the pointselected on the Kentucky shore ten miles from Paducah , to be called FortHolt. In this letter I directed him to take possession of Paducah if he feltstrong enough to do so; but if not, then to plant a battery opposite Paducah on the Illinois side to command the Ohio River and the mouth of the Tennes-see . On the evening of the day on which this letter was sent to General Grant,the officer who had been sent by me within the Confederate lines reachedCairo on his way to St. Louis to let me know that the enemy was advancingon Paducah . He judged it right to inform General Grant, urging him to takePaducah without delay. General Grant decided to do so, and in accordancewith his instructions of the 28th immediately moved on Paducah with anadequate force and two gun-boats. He reached the town on the morning ofthe 6th, having only about six hours’ advance of the enemy. Taking undis-puted possession, he returned to Cairo the same day.

In answer to my persistent application for Colonel C. F. Smith he wasordered to join me, having meantime been made by the President a brigadier-general at my special request. I at once sent him forward to the command Ihad designed for him,—Paducah and the Kentucky shore of the Mississippi .His letter of instructions made known to him all the previous measures takento hold the Kentucky shore and the mouths of the Tennessee and Cumber-land. The execution of this part of my plans broke in upon the Confederatelines, drove them back, and dispersed their combinations for transferring thewar to the loyal States.

I now on the 8th of September wrote to the President, giving him in thefollowing extract the general features of my plan of campaign :

. . . . “As the rebel forces outnumber ours, and the counties of Kentucky between

the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers, as well as those along the latter and the Cumberland,are strongly secessionist, it becomes imperatively necessary to have the cooperation of theloyal Union forces under Generals Anderson and Nelson, as well as of those already encampedopposite Louisville, under Colonel Rousseau. I have reenforced, yesterday, Paducah with tworegiments, and will continue to strengthen the position with men and artillery. As soon asGeneral Smith, who commands there, is reenforced sufficiently to enable him to spread hisforces, he will have to take and hold Mayfield and Lovelaceville, to be in the rear and flank ofColumbus, and to occupy Smithland, controlling in this way the mouths of both the Tennessee and the Cumberland rivers. At the same time Colonel Rousseau should bring his force, in-creased if possible, by two Ohio regiments, in boats to Henderson, and, taking the Hendersonand Nashville railroad, occupy Hopkinsville; while General Nelson should go with a force offive thousand by railroad to Louisville, and from there to Bowling Green . As the population inall the counties through which the above railroads pass are loyal, this movement could be madewithout delay or molestation to the troops. Meanwhile General Grant would take possessionof 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 combinedattack will be made upon Columbus, and, if successful in that, upon Hickman, while Rousseau and Nelson will move in concert by railroad to Nashville, Tenn. , occupying the State capital,and, with an adequate force, New Providence. The conclusion of this movement would be acombined advance toward Memphis, on the Mississippi, as well as the Memphis and Ohio railroad.”