John G. Nicolay, The Outbreak of Rebellion

[128] were being armed and equipped by the Government. Ohio hurried off her earliest levies to Cincinnati; those of Indiana were sent to her several exposed river towns. At the extreme southern point of Illinois was the city of Cairo, small in population and commerce, but in a military point of view the commanding centre and key of the whole western river system. Its value was comprehended both east and west. No sooner had the Border Slave State Governors forwarded their disloyal refusals, than Secretary Cameron (April 19th), by telegraph requested the Governor of Illinois to send a brigade of four regiments to occupy it. There was not yet that total of militia in the whole State; but within forty-eight hours an improvised expedition, numbering five hundred and ninety-five men and four six-pounders, started from Chicago to carry out the Secretary's orders, arriving at Cairo on the morning of April 23d, where they were speedily reinforced to the required numbers.

Under the Sumter bombardment, the President's call, and Magoffin's refusal, Kentucky was, for the moment, simply in a hopeless bewilderment, irresolution, and conflict of opinion. A strong minority, arrogating to itself much more than its numerical importance through noise and selfasser-tion, labored with zeal and energy for secession, but could make no substantial progress against the overwhelming undercurrent of Union sentiment; and these opposing factions, with the ultimate hope of influencing and gaining the wavering or undecided, joined somewhat unavoidably in an endeavor to commit the State to an attitude of strict neutrality.

Governor Magoffin and his personal adherents were ready to lend their official influence to carry the State into rebellion. The Governor sent an agent to the Governors of Arkansas and Louisiana to solicit arms; and by way of justifying the act, he made a similar application to the