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The
Alleghany or Appalachian mountain chain, a hundred miles broad and a thousand miles long, extending from New York to
Alabama, naturally separated the country into two principal military divisions: that of the
East, comprising the
Atlantic Coast and the
Atlantic States; that of the
West, comprising the
Mississippi River and its tributaries, and the whole immense territory of the
Mississippi Valley.
In the
East, the line of hostility quickly established itself along the
Potomac River, with
Washington as its strategical centre; this grew partly out of the paramount necessity of defending the capital, but also largely from the fact that the line from the sea to the mountains was not more than a hundred miles long, and could therefore be occupied and observed without delay.
In the
West the distance from the mountains to the
Mississippi River was nearly ten times as great.
This alone would have retarded the definition of the military frontier; but the chief element of uncertainty and delay was furnished by the peculiar political condition of the
State of Kentucky, which of itself extends the whole distance from
Virginia to
Missouri.
It cannot perhaps be affirmed with certainty that
Governor Magoffin of
Kentucky was a secession conspirator; but his own language leaves no doubt that in opinion and expectation
