Confederate troops invade western Kentucky and bring the state's efforts to remain neutral to an end

Kentucky's year-long effort to maintain its neutrality in the war came to a sudden end when General Gideon Pillow advanced from Tennessee on orders from General Leonidas Polk, occupied the western Kentucky town of Columbus, and stretched a steel chain across the Mississippi River to Belmont, Missouri.  Two days later Union forces under General U.S. Grant occupied Paducah, Kentucky on the Ohio.  The day after that, the state legislature voted 77 to 20 to hoist the Union flag over the Kentucky Capitol.  (By John Osborne)