As we have seen, Halleck's great army at Corinth was dispersed, the Army of the Ohio going eastward. It spent the month of June, 1862, in rebuilding bridges, including the great bridge across the Tennessee at Decatur, but recently burned under his direction, and soon again to be abandoned to the Confederates.
The Confederate authorities projected an invasion on two lines and with two armies,—one under General E. Kirby Smith and the other under General Braxton Bragg,—the Ohio River and the cities of Louisville and Cincinnati being the objective points; the design being, also, to recruit the Confederate armies in Kentucky, obtain supplies, and force the evacuation by the Union Army of Alabama and Tennessee, and especially of Nashville. Early in August, 1862, these two Confederate armies were assembled at Knoxville and Chattanooga and along the Upper Tennessee, Kirby Smith's main force at the former and Bragg's at the latter place. The objectives of these armies were soon known, and the Army of the Ohio was therefore ordered to concentrate from its scattered situation at Decherd and Winchester, Tennessee.
General Robert L. McCook, late Colonel of the 9th Ohio, commanding a brigade under General George H. Thomas, while riding in an ambulance at the head of his command, ill and helpless, was shot and mortally wounded, August 5th, about three miles eastward of New Market, Alabama, by a body of ambushed men, said to have been guerillas in citizens' dress. He died at 12 M., August 6th. His command, in retaliation, laid the country waste around the scene of his death.( 1) McCook had fought in Western Virginia; at Mill Springs (where he was wounded), at Shiloh, and elsewhere. He was one of the ten sons of Major Daniel McCook, who was killed (July 21, 1863), at sixty-five years of age, near Buffington's Island, during the Morgan raid in Ohio, while leading a party to cut off Morgan's escape across the Ohio River. Two brothers of his were killed in battle—Charles M., at Bull Run, July 21, 1861, and Daniel at Kenesaw, July 21, 1864. Alexander McDowell McCook commanded a corps, and all the brothers had honorable war records. Dr. John McCook, brother of the senior Daniel McCook, likewise served and died in the war. He had five sons, three of whom served with distinction in the volunteer army and two in the navy. I knew John's son, General Anson George McCook, first in Mitchel's division as Major and Lieutenant-Colonel of the 2d Ohio, then in the Forty- fifty, Forty-sixth, and Forty-seventh Congresses, and later as Secretary of the United States Senate.
The killing of General R. L. McCook, under the circumstances, was regarded as murder, and excited deep indignation both in and out of the army. Even Buell issued orders to arrest every able-bodied man of suspicious character within a radius of ten miles of the place where McCook was shot, to take all horses fit for service within that circuit, and to pursue and destroy bushwhackers.( 2) With the arrest of a few men and the taking of some horses, however, the incident closed so far as official action was concerned.
Memphis was taken, on June 6, 1862, by Flag Officer C. H. Davis, who had with him a Ram Fleet under Colonel Charles Ellet, Jr., and an Indiana brigade under Colonel G. N. Fitch.( 3)
The plan of the Confederate invasion, as already stated, was to operate on two lines. Kirby Smith from Knoxville was first to move on and take Cumberland Gap, then held by General George W. Morgan. Bragg was at Tupelo, Mississippi, July 18th, but, fired with the idea that on Kentucky being invaded her people would flock to arms under the Confederate standard, he commenced transferring his army to the new field of operations and removed his headquarters, July 29th, to Chattanooga.
Kirby Smith took the field August 13th, moving on Cumberland Gap, but, finding it impregnable by direct attack, he left General Stevenson with a division to threaten it and advanced on Lexington. John Morgan with a considerable body of cavalry preceded Smith into Middle Kentucky, and his incursion was taken as a forerunner of the greater one to follow. Alarm over the audacious movement was not limited to Kentucky; it spread to Ohio, and there were fears for the safety of Cincinnati.
General Horatio G. Wright was assigned to a new Department of the Ohio, composed of the States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Kentucky east of the Tennessee River, including Cumberland Gap, and he assumed command of it August 23d, headquarters at Cincinnati.( 4) On the 16th, Buell had ordered General Wm. Nelson from the vicinity of Murfreesboro, with some artillery and infantry, to Kentucky, to there organize troops to keep open communications and operate against John Morgan.( 5) Wright, on the 23d, ordered Nelson to Lexington to assume command of the troops in that vicinity and relieve General Lew Wallace. Nelson, with insufficient, and mainly new, undrilled, and undisciplined troops, moved to Richmond, Ky., where (August 30th) he was assailed by Kirby Smith's army and his forces disastrously routed with much loss, principally in captured. He was himself wounded in the leg by a musket ball. There were few organized Union troops now between Smith's army and the Ohio River, and such organizations as could be assembled were new and unable to cope with the Confederate veterans. The news of the defeat at Richmond reached Cincinnati the same evening, and it was at once assumed that Lexington and Frankfort would soon be in the enemy's hands, and Kirby Smith's army would forthwith march on Covington, Newport, and Cincinnati. The assumption proved correct, as the defeated troops retreated through Frankfort and Lexington.
The Mayor (George Hatch) and City Council of Cincinnati acted with courage and energy to meet the impending emergency, and the loyal people earnestly responded to all requirements and submitted to the military authorities, either to take up arms or to work on intrenchments. Lew Wallace, assigned by Wright to the immediate command of the three cities, proclaimed martial law to be executed (until relieved by the military) by the police; and business generally was suspended.
The Mayor, with Wallace's sanction, permitted the banks to remain open from 1 to 2 P.M.; bakers to pursue their occupation; physicians to attend their patients; employees of newspapers to pursue their business; funerals to be permitted, but mourners only to leave the city; all druggists were allowed to do business, but all drinking saloons, eating-houses, and places of amusement were to be kept closed. Governor David Tod, September 1st, authorized the reception of armed citizens from throughout the State, who were denominated "Squirrel Hunters." The patriotism of the people of Ohio and Indiana was heroically shown, and their rushing in large numbers to the defence of Cincinnati and other threatened cities may have had its influence, and was, at least, highly commendable; yet, if a real attack had been made on these cities, it is hardly likely that the "Squirrel Hunters" would have proved efficient as soldiers. Kirby Smith entered Lexington, Ky., September 1st, and two days later he dispatched General Heth with about six thousand men to threaten Cincinnati. Heth was joined the next day by Morgan and his raiders. By the 10th these forces were near Covington and threatened a serious attack. There were some artillery shots fired and some light skirmishing, but the next day it was ascertained the Confederates had commenced a retreat, and in a few days the "Squirrel Hunters" returned to their homes amid the plaudits of a loyal people, and business was resumed in the Queen City. A single act of disorder is reported in Cincinnati on the part of some citizens who began tearing up a street railroad because it was believed to be invidious to allow it to do business "when lager- beer saloons could not."( 6)