Col. J. Stoddard Johnston, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 9.1, Kentucky
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[79] Western army is now moving in two columns in the direction of Kentucky, one column under the command of General Bragg from Chattanooga, and the other under the immediate command of Maj.-Gen. E. Kirby Smith, and entertaining no doubt that General Smith will be able in a short time to reach the very heart of the more wealthy and populous portion of our State, and believing from information derived from sources entitled to credit that a large majority of the people of the State sympathize with the South and that a large proportion of the young men will at once join our army, we regard it as of the very highest importance that as many of the officers in the service of the government as are from the State of Kentucky and who have heretofore held position in and had the confidence of the people of the State, should be in Kentucky when the army reaches there. We do not regard this as so important looking merely to military results, but we desire to present it to your consideration in its political aspects. We have now in Kentucky a civil government opposed to us; elections have recently been held in which the voice of the people was suppressed by the order of the military governor of the State; soldiers were placed around the ballot-boxes; the people were not permitted to vote without taking odious oaths prescribed by the military authorities unknown to and in derogation of the Constitution; candidates who were the favorites of the majority of the people, who would have been elected, were peremptorily ordered to at once withdraw from the canvass under penalty of being immediately sent to a military prison, and the officers of the election were directed not to place the names of candidates on the poll-books unless they were known to be loyal to the Federal government, of which loyalty there was no standard except the caprice, the passion or the interest of the officers themselves.

You will at once perceive that should we get military possession of the State one of the first things to be done will be to overthrow this usurpation, and to give to the people of the State an opportunity of establishing such a government as they may desire and of electing such officers to execute the powers of government as they may prefer. It then becomes important that the citizens of Kentucky who have the confidence of the great body of the people, and who have been intimately associated with