Columbus, Kentucky had been the northernmost Confederate position on the Mississippi River and was known as the "Gibralter of the West" for its extensive fortification and a massive steel chain stretched across the river to Belmont, Missouri. Fearing that the Union advance on New Madrid, Missouri around thirty miles downstream would cut him off, Confederate General Leonidas Polk had ordered an evacuation on February 25, 1862 and over the next week had moved all his men and 140 cannon to the New Madrid area. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
David G. Martin, The Shiloh Campaign, March-April 1862 (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2003), 40.
Chronicles of the Great Rebellion Against the United States of America (Philadelphia, PA: A. Winch, 1867), 20.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Battles/Soldiers
