CHAP.XII.] ADVANCE OF CONFEDERATES INTO KENTUCKY, ETC.
tucky, to Bowling Green and Muldraugh's Hill if necessary and I predict he will not leave an enemy behind him south of that place in two weeks.
In confidence I say to you the service here needs a general at its head in whom the Army and the country have unlimited confidence. Albert S. Johnston first, and Buckner and Guns. W. Smith as officers under him , would give such confidence as would insure success. ai do not even insinuate that any one now in office should be displaced. I do not think they ought, but that the persons above named should be added to the list.
The neutrality of Kentucky has been all the time a cloak to enable the Lincoln party there to hide their real design to arm the friends of Lincoln and to disarm the Southern Rights party. We ought to strike now. A step backward would be fatal, in my opinion. We cannot long avoid a conflict with the paid and bought friends of Lincoln in Kentucky, and the fight might as well come off now as at any other time. If it is to be done, it should be done quickly.
Ever your friend and obedient servant,
G.A. HENRY.
RICHMOND, September 14, 1861.
General S.B. BUCKNER, Nashville, Tenn.:
Your several telegraphs received. A dispatch from the President to Governor Harris yesterday will inform you of his views. A similar dispatch was sent to General Polk at Columbus. General Johnston is presumed to be now in Nashville, to assume command. Appointment of brigadier-general will be sent to you by mail, and it is designed that you take command of either Camp Boone or Trousdale. You are authorized to accept regiments for twelve months, if they furnished their own arms, if they will not come for the war. There is no law which authorizes the transportation as suggested by you.
S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General
NASHVILLE, TENN., September 16, 1861.
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS:
MR. PRESIDENT: Your dispatch of the 13th instant,* was received at Chattanooga. After full conference with Governor Harris, and after learning the facts, political and military, I ma satisfied that the political bearing of the question presented for my decision has been decided by the legislature of Kentucky.
The legislature of Kentucky has required the prompt removal of all Confederate forces from her soil, and the governor of Kentucky has issued his proclamation to that effect. The troops will not be withdrawn. It is not possible to withdrawn them now from Columbus in the west, and from Cumberland Ford in the east, without opening the frontiers of Tennessee and the Mississippi River to the enemy, and this is regarded as essential to our present line of defense as well as to any future operations. So far from yielding to the demand for the withdrawal of our troops, I have determined to occupy Bowling Green at once.
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*Not found.
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