L. Polk to Polk, September 5, 1861

General POLK: Will you give a reason for General Pillow’s movement? L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War.

CITY OF COLUMBUS, September 5, 1861.

Major-General POLK, Commanding Division No. 2, Confederate Army :

HONORED SIR: Will you permit a few of the citizens of this city and its vicinity, so recently oppressed and suffering from the tyrannical rules – of the Northern Government, to express to you our profound gratification at the advent of the army under your command, and by your permission we will accompany that expression with a brief history of the action of that Government in respect to citizens of Kentucky, which in their judgment not only inclined our hearts to hail with delight the approach of the Confederate troops, but rendered it a duty to ourselves and our families that we should, as we did, unite and beseech them no longer to suffer the restraints of Kentucky neutrality to operate as a barrier against it. We ean attest, sir, your religious observance of that position which

Kentucky had assumed for herself. We know, sir, that when the present unhappy difficulty between the Government of the United States and the Confederate Government [arose], the State of Kentucky chose for herself a position in relation to both powers, in which her citizens fondly flattered themselves that, amid the din of war, they would find – peace, security to themselves, and the ability to serve the suffering and afflicted of both sides. : The Government of the Confederacy acknowledged and recognized the right of Kentucky thus to act. They saw in this action only the

exercise of a great right which attaches to the sovereignty of a State, .

and which was the principle that underlies the Government itself. The South has therefore tenaciously respected the position of Kentucky, but, –

~on the other hand, this position has been repudiated by the Government .

of the United States from the beginning. They have repeatedly violated -the neutrality of Kentucky and scoffed at those who trusted to it for protection. ; -~ It may not be improper to recall to your recollection a few of the instances in which the North have manifested its utter disregard of, and others in which it has openly and defiantly assailed, Kentucky neutrality. You will doubtless remember that when the Army was being first collected at Cairo, it was universally understood that its object and destination was down the Mississippi, to overrun Tennessee, take possession of Memphis, and finally march into New Orleans. That purpose is doubtless still entertained. As a military man you,know that no general would lead an army of occupation into an enemy’s country and

leave behind him unoccupied such a position as the map shows Colum-.

bus to be. Can any man be so blinded as to suppose that, amid a vast arrangement then being made for the military occupation of the entire South, the War Department at Washington suffered the declaration of

Kentucky neutrality to interpose for one single moment a barrier to the

panes of Columbus? .

e, sir, from the first hour that Cairo became a military eneampment, have felt perfectly satisfied that this place would be taken possession of by Northern troops just so soon as the objeets and designs of the

leaders of the war rendered it needful, and, sir, we have trembled with — apprehension for the consequences to our persons, our Pu rue our

property. We had witnessed the outrages perpetrated by Northern soldiery. We had known private residences of our neighbors across the river in Missouri entered by these soldiers and despoiled, the owner made prisoner or chased into the woods or the canebrake, and insult and indignity offered to unprotected and defenseless females. We knew that we stood within the danger of similar treatment, for our offense was the same. Those men had dared to exercise the freedom of opinion and of speech, and so had we; they had dared to think and express the thought that a sectional President, elected by a seetional party and

administering the Government upon purely sectional ideas, was a bane —

and a eurse to the nation. We had offended in like manner. Because

they would not prove such dastards as to disavow their sentiments, this —

treatment was visited upon them. We, too, felt incapáble of retracting our opinions thus expressed, even though punishment awaited the refractory. We knew that they did not intend to respect the neutrality of Kentucky. We knew, moreover, that in more instances than one they did openly violate it.

The case of the Columbus Rangers is in point. You, sir, may perhaps not have heard the particulars of that case. Capt. M. H. Wright,

= Omar. XIL] ADVANCE OF CONFEDERATES INTO KENTUCKY, ETC.

a gentleman highly respected and honorable in all the relations of life,

organized from the young men of Columbus and vicinity a company of

Rangers, for the mere purpose of drill, to learn camp life, and to amuse

themselves in hunting. A squad of this company went some 10 miles up the river on the Kentucky side. Some evil-disposed persons reported their presence in the neighborhood to the commander at Cairo, and he determined to capture or slay them. Accordingly, a troop of citizen it would be surrounded, and the peaceful inmates, aroused in utter astonishment from their slumbers, would be placed under guard. Thus this force moved on, arresting the citizen and administering : oaths until they approached the camp of the Rangers, avowing their object to be to arrest them or shoot them down if they resisted. The boys had left the evening before and returned to their homes, dreaming

of anything less than they had become the objects of suspicion and of

search to the army at Cairo. It has never suited the pleasure of any

. person connected with this flagrant infraction of Kentucky neutrality

to allege any fault committed by a single individual of that party of Rangers. It was a wanton, unprovoked invasion of Kentucky soil to hunt down and murder Kentucky citizens. – Only a few days after the occurrences related above, another instance – of their utter disregard of the rights of the people of Kentucky presents itself in a scene that was enacted in this place, as follows: There existed in our midst a diversity of opinion on the great question that was dividing the nation, one party favoring the doctrine of secession, the other for the Union. Each party, as was customary, manifested their opinions by the display of symbols that represented its peculiar views. The secession party had its flag, the Union party theirs. This was a matter that concerned ourselves alone. A flag of the Southern Confederacy floated from a pole on the river bank. The City of Alton, a steamboat belonging at Cairo, came down to Columbus filled with troops and having on board several cannon. She was run in to shore where the secession flag was floating, and the officer in command of the expedition demanded, in a rude and authoritative manner, by whose authority that flag was placed there. He was told it was done by citizens of Columbus. He then ordered it to be taken down. He was told it would not be done by any citizen. He then said if it was not taken down immediately he would shoot itdown. He was told to shoot it down then. Thereupon three men came on shore, and, standing under the protection of their cannon, and guns bearing in point-blank distance of our persons and our dwellings, one of these men tore down the flag, took it on board the boat, and, amid shouts, jeers, and derision, it was stamped upon and carried away.

We had in all former periods of our national history been in the habit of manifesting our peculiar political views by any emblem we chose to adopt, and had felt it as one of the blessings of our form of government that we had the right to canvass and call in question the acts of our rulers in any method we might desire, so that we preserved the peace. We had, however, presumed too far in our trust in Kentucky neutrality. We had also been told by General Buckner, the commander of the military force of our State, that he had entered into an agreement with General McClellan which secured to us perfect immunity from all future disturbance; but even this consolation was denied us, for quickly

upon the heels of this last act comes the denial of General McClellan

that any such arrangement existed, and that, too, in such terms as to leave it perfeetly apparent that the Northern Army were at liberty to invade Kentucky at such times and places as suited its pleasure or convenience. : :

Contemporaneously with all this, it should be noted that in the city of Louisville, the great commercial nfart of the State, a strict and severe embargo was being enforced, so that the trade of Kentucky was obstrueted and the means of disposing of our surplus absolutely denied to us.

As we draw nearer to the present period of time you will see the cloud thiekens over the State, and the purposes and designs of the Government at Washington become more and more apparent.

Congress convened on the 4th of July. Was there any intimation of a purpose in that body to treat Kentucky otherwise than a State in the Union, and bound by her allegiance to all the duties and obligations of that relation as understood and construed, not by Kentucky herself, but by the Northern Black Republican States? None whatever. In all the vast arrangements in the form of 500,000 men and $500,000,000 of money devised and voted for the prosecution of the war, for the overrunning Southern States, butchering her soldiery, and reducing their citizens to bondage, the State of Kentucky and the people of Kentucky were as fully embraced and included as the people and the States of Massachusetts or New York. Fearful the onerous tax imposed upon the people for the purpose of raising this blood money would be resisted in Kentucky, we find an army being raised and quartered in the very heart of the State, officered, equipped, fed, and armed by the General

Government; held ready in the very center of the State to proceed to.

either extremity and assist that Government in placing the heel of power upon the neck of the peuple and constraining them into submission to unconstitutional usurpation and tyranny.

We have recently witnessed the spectacle of a thousand armed men, under General Rousseau, marching with loaded guns through the principal streets of the city of Louisville. We have witnessed the spectacle of another armed force, under Colonel Bramlette, marching into the city of Lexington, to place an unarmed populace under duress and compel them to submit to have Federal guns distributed from their city and a depot for Federal arms established in their midst. We have witnessed the placing of two gunboats at anchor in front of ourown town, with a battery from each frowning upon our dwellings and menacin g our citizens. We have seen the property of the city of Columbus—the ferry franchise— obstructed and the steam ferry-boat sunk and destroyed. We have seen bombs thrown into the city of Hickman. We have, sir, finally, witnessed the inhuman and fiendish act of a bomb hurled into our own town, bursting near a private residence, and in the very midst almost of shrinking, affrighted women. We have spent anxious days and sleepless nights in constant apprehension of the destruction of our town and the death of our wives and children.

Can you not then conceive of the sincere delight with which we hail the approach of the army under your command? But you will fall far short of a just conception of the lively sentiment of pleasure we derive from the sense of restored confidence and the enjoyment of a conseiousness that now our families and our property are safe. It is from hearts.

filled with such emotions as these that this entire community extends to you and to your gallant army à cordial welcome.

COLUMBUS, KY., September 8, :.861. Governor MAGOFFIN, Frankfort, Ky.:

Ishould have dispatched to you immediately, as the troops under my command took possession of this position, the very few words I addressed to the people here; but my duties since that time so preoccupied me, that I have but now the first leisure moment to communicate with you.

. . It will be sufficient for me to inform you (as my short address herewith will do) that I had information on which I could rely that the Federal forces intended and were preparing to seize Columbus. I need not describe to you the danger resulting to Western Tennessee from such occupation. My responsibility could not permit me quietly to lose to the command intrusted to me so important a position. In evidence of the accuracy of the information I possessed, I will state that as the Confederate forces approached this place the Federal troops were found in formidable numbers in position upon the opposite bank, with their cannons turned upon Columbus. The citizens of the town had fled with terror, and not a word of assurance of safety or protection had been addressed to them. Since I have taken possession of this place I have been informed by highly respectable citizens of your State that certain representatives of the Federal Government are seeking to take advantage of its own wrongs and setting up complaints against my act of oceupation, and are making it a pretext for seizing other points.

Upon this proceeding I have no comment to make. But I am prepared to say that I will agree to withdraw the Confederate troops from Kentucky, provided that she will agree that the troops of the Federal Government be withdrawn simultaneously, with a guarantee (which I will give reciprocally for the Confederate Government) that the Federal troops shall not be allowed to enter or occupy any part of Kentucky in the future.

I have the honor to be, respectfully, your obedient servant,