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Cairo, occupation of

The city of Cairo, Ill. (population, 1900, 12,566), is situated near the extremity of a boatshaped peninsula, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, 175 miles below St. Louis. It is a point of great importance as the key to a vast extent of navigable waters, and to it National troops were sent at an early period in the Civil War. Both the national government and Governor Yates, of Illinois, had been apprised of the intention of the Confederates to secure that position, hoping thereby to control the navigation of the Mississippi to St. Louis, and of the Ohio to Cincinnati and beyond. They also hoped that the absolute control of the Mississippi below would cause the Northwestern States to join hands with the Confederates rather than lose these great trade advantages. The scheme was foiled. Governor Yates, under the direction of the Secretary of War, sent Illinois troops at an early day to take possession of and occupy Cairo. By the middle of May there were not less than 5,000 Union volunteers there, under the command of Gen. B. M. Prentiss, who occupied the extreme point of the peninsula, where they cast up fortifications and gave the post the name of Camp Defiance. Before the close of May it was considered impregnable against any force the Confederates might send. It soon became a post of great importance to the Union cause as the place where some of the land and naval expeditions in the valley of the Mississippi were fitted out.

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Richard Yates (2)
Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss (1)
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