OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE. [CHAP. XII.
these are mere demonstrations, but that is all that can be attempted. The main reliance is on what you have in hand.
You must act on the defensive until much strengthened, but the safety of our nation depends on you holding that ground for the present. Yours, truly,
W. T. SHERMAN, Brigadier-General, Commanding.
SPECIAL ORDERS, } HDQRS. DEP'T OF THE CUMBERLAND, Numbers 55. } Louisville, Ky., October 15, 1861.
Upon the arrival in this city Brigadier Gens. Thomas J. Wood and R. W. Johnson, U. S. volunteer forces, are directed to proceed with all possible dispatch to the camp at Nolin and report to Brigadier-General McCook, commanding, for further orders.
By command of Brigadier-General Sherman:
OLIVER D. GREENE, Assistant Adjutant-General.
LOUISVILLE, October 16, 1861.
His Excellency the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:
Matters are in a much worse condition than I expected to find them.* A large number of troops needed here immediately.
SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of War.
LOUISVILLE, KY., October 16, 1861.
THOMAS A. SCOTT, Assistant Secretary of War:
Arms and re-enforcements needed here immediately. How many muskets, pistols, and sabers can be had? Is Negley's brigade ready to march, and where is it?
SIMON CAMERON.
PADUCAH, KY., October 16, 1861.
ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL, Headquarters Department of the West, Saint Louis, Mo.:
SIR: A few days since the gunboat Conestoga (Captain Phelps) went up the Tennessee to Fort Henry. He describes it as a respectable earthwork, mounting heavy guns, with outworks, and a garrison of probably 1,700 to 1,800 men.
Since then I have learned from three different sources that the number of guns is 20 and the garrison 2,000; that they are constructing three gunboats, iron plated, to mount heavy ordnance, and expect to attack this place, aided by a land force from different directions. The old scheme.
I went pu the Tennessee this morning in the Conestoga to the Chain of Rocks. I can render the gunboats useless to the enemy hereafter, if need be, by sinking at this place two or three coal barges filled with stone.
---------------
*See Thomas to Cameron, October 21, 1861, p. 313.
---------------
