Sept. 18, 1861. |
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Breckinridge, Marshall, and Morgan entered the military service of the Confederates.
The first two were commissioned brigadier-generals, and the latter became a conspicuous guerrilla chief.
Breckinridge became a zealous servant of the Confederates.
He issued an address, in which he announced his resignation of his seat in the United States Senate, and in bitter language spoke of the dissolution of the Union, and the atrocious despotism which he alleged had been established at Washington; and he charged his own State Legislature with abject “submission to every demand o Federal despotism, and woeful neglect of every right of the Kentucky citizens.”
It is well suggested that “Mr. Breckinridge, in his exodus from Kentucky, perpetrated a serious blunder;” 1 for, had he, like other “friends of the South,” remained in Congress, he might have served the cause of the conspirators more efficiently.
He was an able and adroit politician and legislator, but was an indifferent soldier.
Vigorous military action in Kentucky, besides the seizure of Columbus and Hickman, speedily followed that act. Simon B. Buckner, the corrupter of the patriotism of large numbers of the young men of Kentucky,2 bearing the commission of brigadier-general in the Confederate service, had established a camp on the Nashville and Louisville Railway, just below the Kentucky line.
Soon after the seizure of Columbus, he left his camp with a considerable force, with the intention of moving quickly upon Louisville, by the rail-way, seizing that city, and establishing a Confederate post on the Ohio at that important point.
The telegraph wires were cut, and he was far on his way before any intimation was given of his approach.
The trains due at Louisville did not arrive, and the managers sent out an engine to ascertain the cause.
It, like a train before it, was seized by Buckner.
A fireman escaped, and, procuring a hand-car, soon returned to Louisville with the startling news.
General Anderson immediately ordered General Rousseau to move out on the road with his little force at Camp Joe Holt,3 and some Louisville Home Guards.
These were his only available forces at that moment.
The order was obeyed with alacrity, and very soon a considerable force, under the chief command of General William T. Sherman, Anderson's lieutenant, were on their way to repel the invaders — the latter, who was in delicate health, remaining in Louisville to forward re-enforcements.
Fortunately, Buckner had been delayed, near Bowling Green, by the patriotic act of a young man of that place, who went quietly up the road and displaced a rail, by which the engine of the invaders' train was thrown from the track.
But for this, Buckner might have reached Louisville before Anderson could have put any forces in motion.
As it was, he penetrated the county as far as Elizabeth-town, forty miles from that city, when he heard of the approaching troops.
He thought proper to fall back to Bowling Green, where he established an intrenched camp, and issued a proclamation
to his “fellow-citizens of Kentucky,” 4 and where he remained for several months.
At the same time, Sherman established a camp and general rendezous
1 Greeley's American Conflict, i. 615.
2 See page 458, volume I.
3 See page 72.
4 That proclamation abused the National Government and the loyal Legislature of Kentucky. He declared in it that Confederate troops occupied “a defensive position” in that State, “on the invitation of the people of Kentucky;” that he returned to his native State with peaceful intentions, “at the head of a force, the advance of which is composed entirely of Kentuckians,” whom he had seduced by false representations from their homes and their national allegiance; and that the Legislature of Kentucky was “faithless to the will of the people.” He assured the people that his forces at Bowling Green would be used in aiding Kentucky in maintaining its strict neutrality, and “to enforce it against the two belligerents alike.”
General Anderson issued a counter-proclamation, in which he said that he, a native of Kentucky, had “come to enforce, not to make laws,” and to protect the lives and property of the people of the Commonwealth. He called upon the citizens to arm in their might and drive the invader from their soil. “The leader of the hostile force,” he said, “who now approaches, is, I regret to say, a Kentuckian, making war on Kentucky and Kentuckians.” He called them to “rally around the flag our fathers loved,” and bade them trust in God and do their duty.
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