Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[368] to make a show of adhesion to the programme of neutrality. After refusing to respond to Mr. Lincoln's call for volunteers, he advocated the organization of regiments recruited exclusively among secessionists, and commanded by the most zealous men among them, who were ready to avail themselves of the first opportunity to join the Confederates. The Unionists were at last aroused on seeing an insurgent army thus being organized in their very midst, under the name of State militia, and they spontaneously made preparations to take up arms on the day when their opponents should throw off the mask. Kentucky, being far richer, better cultivated, and with a larger population than Missouri, found herself, like the latter State, divided into two hostile and armed factions. The Union camps at Louisville, on the borders of the Ohio, and at Dick Robinson's, in East Kentucky, soon collected a sufficiently large number of volunteers to alarm Governor Magoffin and his accomplices. Wishing to make people believe in his impartiality, he addressed a communication, about the middle of August, to the authorities at Washington, and at Richmond, protesting against any schemes which might jeopardize the neutrality of Kentucky. But this neutrality was already nothing more than an idle phrase. It was known that the legislature, which was to meet at Frankfort on the 2d of September, would loyally sustain the Federal cause and take proper steps to prevent such an important State from falling into the hands of her enemies. Consequently, the latter determined to act before the meeting of the legislature; and on the 4th of September, at the very time when Mr. Davis was giving assurances that he should respect the neutrality of Kentucky, General Polk took possession of Columbus by surprise. The prompt action of Grant, as we have stated, alone prevented him from reaching Paducah in time. For a while a real comedy was enacted between the governors of Kentucky and Tennessee, the former protesting against the invasion of his State and the latter declaring that he was not responsible for it, whereas they had both prepared and favored that movement of the Confederate troops. But the signal had been given. Kentucky was henceforth given up to all the horrors of a double invasion, and she was the more exposed to be so treated because, having from the first excluded both parties from her soil, she could not expect