Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 9.djvu/61

CHAPTER IV.

POLITICAL MOVEMENTS-GENERAL JOHN C BRECKINRIDGE RESIGNS HIS SEAT AS U. S. SENATOR—ENTERS CONFEDERATE ARMY AT BOWLING GREEN-ORGANIZATION OF PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT AT RUSSELLV1LLE—GEORGE W. JOHNSON CHOSEN FEDERATE DEFEAT AT FISHING CREEK, CALLED BY FEDERALS BATTLE OF MILL SPRINGS—A SERIOUS DISASTER—DEATH OF GENERAL ZOLLICOFFER—GENERAL GEORGE B. CRITTENDEN—CRITICAL POSITION OF GENERAL JOHNSTON AT BOWLING GREEN—FALL OF FORT HENRY—GENERALS FLOYD AND BUCKNER SENT WITH THEIR DIVISIONS TO DEFEND FORT DONELSON.

BEFORE entering upon an account of the military operations which eventuated in the evacuation of Kentucky, it will be well to note briefly the political movements at this period. When the reign of terror was inaugurated in central Kentucky by the arrest of Southern men and their transportation to Northern prisons, a large number of leading Kentuckians, including some members of the legislature, sought safety in the Confederate lines, and most of them entered the army. Senator Breckinridge, upon his arrival in Bowling Green on the 8th of October, issued an address to the people of Kentucky, in which he reviewed the events of the past year and exposed the duplicity and usurpation which had placed Kentucky in the deplorable condition she then was, and closed by resigning his seat in the United States Senate. "To defend your birthright and mine," said he, "which is more precious than domestic ease or

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