GDG- Re: turning point

[Biggsk at aol.com]

Nick wrties:

>>>>The west does have a turning point.  The day  Polk/Pillow decided taking 
Columbus KY was a great idea.  All downhill  from there>>>>



Nick,
 
The Army defines a turning point as when the fortunes of one side take a  
marked turn for the better after the outcome of a battle or campaign and after  
losing the war to that point, and that side goes on to win its war with further 
 victories (at least that's how officers of the 101st Airborne tell me).
 
The taking of Columbus. KY does not meet that definition at all.   
Confederate fortunes in the West were not really going anywhere at the time  other than 
shoring up the defense line of Department No. 2 from Cumberland gap  to 
Columbus.  The center was advanced from Nashville to Bowling Green, KY  later in 
September.  Other than raids along the Green River in KY and east  from Bowling 
Green, this line was purely for defensive purposes.
 
All plans for an offensive into Missouri to link up with Jeff Thompson and  
then advance on St. Louis, cross over into Illinois and take Cairo from the  
rear, fell apart on the rocks of reality; not enough men, not enough trained  
men, not nearly enough weapons, and a poor logistical support structure.   
Tennessee had to disband dozens of regiments for lack of arms by the end of 1861  
on orders from the CS War Department.  They were not fully reorganized or  
equipped in 1862 by the time the Union took Henry-Donelson.  Indeed,  this would 
not happen until well into 1862 and by then. most of Tennessee had  been 
captured.
 
Lastly, in my research for the lecture and tours that I do on the collapse  
of Confederate Dept. No. 2, I have found numerous and systematic abuses of  
Kentucky's declared neutrality by the Union well before the movement to take  
Columbus, which Polk correctly stated was a reaction to those Union  violations.
 
I found these in period newspaper articles from Illinois, Tennessee,  Indiana 
and Kentucky as well as reports.  They started when northern  Illinois 
militia took Cairo and built a fort with guns sticking out over the  Ohio River - 
which was then and still is now, owned by the Commonwealth of  Kentucky to the 
tidewater of the northern shore.  Thus, when Col. Benjamin  Prentiss sent boats 
of troops out into the river to stop steamboats to check  cargoes for 
anything heading South, he was violating the neutrality of  Kentucky.  The USS 
Lexington gunboat steamed into Paducah's harbor and  captured a steamer and hauled 
it back to Evansville, IN as they claimed it had  "contraband" cargo on board.  
The Confederates retaliated by taking an  Evansville steamer on the 
Cumberland River.  Union troops constantly landed  in Ballard County, KY (across from 
Cairo) to capture men before they could  head south to join the Confederate 
Army - whereas the pro-Confederate  Kentuckians all left the state to form units 
in training camps in Tennessee,  including Camps Boone and Burnett, not far 
from where I live.  This despite  the best efforts of Union troops violating the 
state's neutrality by trying to  capture them.
 
The real deal breaker was the formation of Camp Dick Robinson near  
Lexington, where Union Kentucky regiments formed and trained - as well as two  Union 
Tennessee infantry regiments!  This stands in stark contrast to the  camps the 
Confederates created outside of the state so as to not violate its  neutrality. 
 It was this camp that was the main impetus to Polk's movement  along with 
the Union troops that landed at Belmont, MO right across the river  from 
Columbus two days before he moved.  Department commander John C.  Fremont also 
green-lighted Grant taking Columbus in his order of August 28th,  1861 (in the ORs).
 
Leonidas Polk was a boob of a general but in this instance he is off the  
hook for all he did was react to this series of Union violations of Kentucky's  
state neutrality.  Still - it would have been better for their side had  they 
waited for grant to obey Fremont and it certainly would have put a lot more  
Kentucky men into Confederate uniforms.  As it was, Kentucky never did  fulfill 
its stated quota for Union troops.
 
Greg Biggs
 
 
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