Free Terrible Swift Sword by Bruce Catton

Confederates really should have moved into Columbus months earlier,
"If we could have found a respectable pretext," for he believed that
during all the time of neutrality "Kentucky was fast melting away under
the influence of the Lincoln government." 16 In any case,
another man now had the responsibility. Albert Sidney Johnston was on the scene
at last, over-all commander for everything the Confederates had in the West.
    Johnston was fifty-eight, a courtly man with
a singularly winning personality, a famous veteran of the Old Army and in the
opinion of some Southerners at that time the ablest soldier on either side. He
had been in command for the United States Army on the West Coast when the war
began; had stayed there, making no secret of his intention to side with the
South but faithfully carrying on with his duties until Washington could send
out a replacement; then he had resigned, traveling by horseback across the
rough mountains and plains of the Southwest all the way to Texas, and going on
to Richmond in the hope that President Davis could find something for him to
do. He was cheered wherever he made an appearance, and no one received him more
eagerly than Jefferson Davis, who immediately gave him a full general's
commission. ("I hoped and expected that I had others who would prove
Generals," Mr. Davis said a bit later, "but I knew I had one —and
that was Sidney Johnston.") Johnston reached Nashville on September 14,
to be received at the State Capitol by Governor Harris and an enthusiastic
crowd. Called on to say a few words to the multitude, he instinctively touched
the right note, addressing his civilian audience as "Fellow
Soldiers!" and explaining: "I call you soldiers because you all belong to the reserve
corps."
    Polk
was devoutly glad to see him. Before Johnston ever got to Richmond, Polk had
written to Mr. Davis to urge Johnston's appointment to the top spot in the
West; he had known Johnston since boyhood, had roomed with him at West Point,
and had himself been persuaded to take the Western command only on the
understanding that the job would eventually go to Johnston. Now Johnston was on
hand, taking a look at the field that would occupy him for the rest of his
life. 17
    What he saw was enough to dismay any
general: much to do, and not enough to do it with. He warned Mr. Davis, two
days after his arrival, that "we have not over half the armed forces that are now likely to be
required," and he pointed out that although there were plenty of recruits
there was no way to arm them. Whether faulty War Department planning or the
tightening of the Federal blockade was responsible, the Confederacy was already
pinched for weapons, and no one felt the pinch more than Albert Sidney
Johnston. In addition to being responsible for Confederate operations in
Missouri and Arkansas, he had to defend a line more than 300 miles long, from
the Cumberland Gap in the east to Columbus in the west, and he had fewer than
30,000 men all told. The Yankees had nearly twice that many, and although every
Federal commander was complaining bitterly about the lack of proper arms their
situation was infinitely better than Johnston's. 18 He could do
nothing but put on a bold front, acting as if he planned to move north to the
Ohio River and hoping that the Federals could be bluffed into inaction. If he
could stave off invasion during the fall and winter, Richmond might be able to
help him by spring. It seemed to General Johnston that the war was going to
last for at least seven years.
     
    5.
Mark of Desolation
    Kentucky's war had
grown out of Missouri's, a product of the shock waves that came surging east
from the Mississippi; and these waves met others which rolled in from the south
and the east, from Tennessee and Virginia, making a bewildering turbulence.
While the rival governments in Washington and Richmond settled down to the slow
and methodical business of training and equipping armies according to the
professional pattern, in the