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)
Source Citation
Lowell H. Harrison, The Civil War in Kentucky (Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 1975), 11-12.
Chronicles of the Rebellion Against the United States of America (Philadelphia, PA: A. Winch, 1867), 11.
How to Cite This Page: "Confederate troops invade western Kentucky and bring the state's efforts to remain neutral to an end," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/37836.