[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 my command. September 5th I sent to General Grant a letter of instruction, in which I required him to push forward with the utmost speed all work on the point selected on the Kentucky shore ten miles from Paducah, to be called Fort Holt. In this letter I directed him to take possession of Paducah if he felt strong 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 Tennessee. 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 reached Cairo on his way to St. Louis to let me know that the enemy was advancing on Paducah. He judged it right to inform General Grant, urging him to take Paducah without delay. General Grant decided to do so, and in accordance with his instructions of the 28th immediately moved on Paducah with an adequate force and two gun-boats. He reached the town on the morning of the 6th, having only about six hours advance of the enemy. Taking undisputed possession, he returned to Cairo the same day. In answer to my persistent application for Colonel C. F. Smith he was ordered 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 I had designed for him,--Paducah and the Kentucky shore of the Mississippi. His letter of instructions made known to him all the previous measures taken to hold the Kentucky shore and the mouths of the Tennessee and Cumberland. The execution of this part of my plans broke in upon the Confederate lines, drove them back, and dispersed their combinations for transferring the war to the loyal States. I now on the 8th of September wrote to the President, giving him in the following 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 the loyal Union forces under Generals Anderson and Nelson, as well as of those already encamped opposite Louisville, under Colonel Rousseau. I have reenforced, 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 reinforced sufficiently to enable 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 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 Henderson and Nashville railroad, occupy Hopkinsville; while General Nelson should go with a force of five thousand 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 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 a combined advance toward Memphis, on the Mississippi, as well as the Memphis and Ohio railroad.
