Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/495

i86i] Grant seizes Paducah. 463 combined the vigilance and the ability that destined him to a great career in the war just beginning Brigadier-General U. S. Grant. September 2 found Grant at Cairo, and on the 4th he gave partial orders for the occupation of Columbus; but a gunboat reconnaissance revealed that the Confederates were ahead of him. With true military instinct, however, he saw the possibility of a compensating movement and instantly adopted it. By midnight of the 5th he had hurriedly organised an expedition of two gunboats, 1800 men, sixteen cannon for batteries, and a supply of provisions and ammunition on transports, with which he proceeded up the Ohio river to the town of Paducah, Kentucky, at the mouth of the Tennessee river, where he landed on the morning of September 6, taking possession, and making arrangements to fortify and permanently hold the place. The importance of the seizure was appre- ciated by the Confederate General Buckner, who wrote to Richmond, " Our possession of Columbus is already neutralised by that of Paducah." In response to the invitation of the Kentucky legislature, President Lincoln at once directed Anderson to take personal command of the Unionist troops in Kentucky ; and with him were sent two brigadiers of exceptional ability and future fame, Generals W. T. Sherman and George H. Thomas. With such force as could hurriedly be sent him, Sherman advanced and took position at Muldraugh's Hill, fifty miles south of Louisville, on the railroad to Bowling Green and Nashville; while Thomas was sent to Camp Dick Robinson in eastern Kentucky to gather a force and watch the Confederate force which had come through Cumberland Gap. It soon turned out that Anderson's health did not permit him to continue on duty. He relinquished his command on October 8, and was succeeded by Sherman, who was in turn, at his own request, relieved about the middle of November by Brigadier-General D. C. Buell. No military movements followed immediately in Kentucky; but Buell, whose headquarters were at Louisville, where he was joined by regiments from the north-western States, gradually accumulated, organised and drilled a considerable army. McClellan, by direction of President Lincoln, endeavoured, by many suggestions and almost positive orders, to induce him to dislodge Zollicoffer and send a marching column through Cumberland Gap, to occupy and hold East Tennessee, a mountain region inhabited almost exclusively by loyal and devoted Unionists, who were suffering greatly at the hands of Confederate troops. Thomas was anxious to lead the expedition, and Buell at first promised compliance with the President's wishes. But, as the days passed, he systematically incorporated the regiments sent him into his own command in middle Kentucky ; and finally, heedless of the desires of his superiors, admitted that he had abandoned the idea of relieving East Tennessee, and adopted the plan of a southward campaign toward Nashville.