112 The American Civil War
In 1861, Albert Sidney Johnston was regarded as one of
the nation's finest military commanders, but his Civil War
career was one of the great disappointments of the
Confederacy. He was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh
and bled to death while his staff physician was
attending to wounded Southern and Northern soldiers.
(Ann Ronan Picture Library)
under the leadership of Major-General Albert
Sidney Johnston. A charismatic Texan, with
outstanding credentials, having graduated
from West Point eighth in his class and
having served in the Black Hawk War, the
Mexican War, and the Mormon War of 1858,
Johnston was an excellent choice. Moreover,
he was a good friend of President Davis. On
his shoulders would fall the responsibility of
defending the 500-mile (800km) line that
stretched from the Appalachians to the
Ozarks in the west across the Mississippi
river. He constructed a defensive cordon that
ran from Columbus on the Mississippi to
Cumberland Gap in the Appalachians.
Besides the daunting task of defending
such a vast line, Johnston was also strapped
with the liability of having a core of
subordinates whose authority exceeded their
abilities. Polk, the commander of the western
stronghold at Columbus, was also a West
Point graduate, but left the military to
become an Episcopal Bishop before the war.On the extreme of the Confederate defensive
line was Brigadier-General Felix Zollicoffer, a
prewar journalist who advanced his Southern
forces into eastern Kentucky. To block a
Union invasion from Louisville, the
Confederates occupied Bowling Green in the
center of the state and command of the
forces there went to Simon Bolivar Buckner.
To assist in holding the front, Johnston had
two political generals, Gideon Pillow and
John B. Floyd, who proved wholly
incompetent as military commanders.
Trying to defend a huge expanse of
territory with inept leadership, Johnston's
task was further handicapped by a lack of
resources - a problem that would plague the
Confederacy throughout the war. East of the
Mississippi River, Johnston could concentrate
at any one place only about 45,000 men.
and west of the river, perhaps 15,000 soldiers.
Still, once they occupied Kentucky, the
Confederates enjoyed excellent railroad
connections that gave them the distinct
advantage of interior lines. They could
reinforce any one region quickly by moving
troops through these interior lines and a maze
of tiny installations. To buoy this strength,
Johnston's troops had built two forts on the
Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers just below
the Kentucky-Tennessee line. Fort Henry on
the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson on the
Cumberland River were designed to inhibit
Federal navigation on these rivers.
While Halleck and Buell considered the
best avenue by which to penetrate the South,
Grant decided to head down the Mississippi
River from Cairo, Illinois. On 7 November,
some 3,000 troops were ferried downriver to
Belmont, Missouri, opposite the bluffs of
Columbus, Kentucky. Although Grant's
troops moved swiftly to capture the tiny
river hamlet, driving the defenders away,
General Polk sent reinforcements across the
river and soon forced Grant's troops to
retreat. Aside from the casualties, which cost
Confederates and Federals about 600 men
each, Grant came to appreciate the strength
of Columbus and the viability of using the
Mississippi as an avenue of invasion south.
Another route would have to open up.