Today in History:

147 Series I Volume LII-I Serial 109 - Supplements Part I

Page 147 Chapter LXIV. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION.

It is important that the plan of the campaign in the West should be fixed upon, and that the major-general of the division should be furnished the means and be instructed to shape the military movements of his department so as to carry it into effect at the earliest period. We also think that the force called out in Major-General McClellan's department should be materially increased. Before any movement South takes place the loyalty of Kentucky should be secured, which can be done this summer before troops are moved to more Southern States. To the extent of the appropriations made by the Legislatures of the several States represented by the undersigned in aid of the General Government, we desire it to be understood these appropriations will be promptly available for the uses of the Government as its necessities, if any, shall require; and, to sustain the Government in the vigorous prosecution of the war, further aid may be relied upon from our respective States, if required. Authority ought also to be given to occupy points in Tennessee and Missouri.

W. DENNISON.

RICH'D YATES.

O. P. MORTON.

[4.]

GENERAL ORDERS, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 27.
Washington, May 28, 1861.

So much of the State of Kentucky as lies within 100 miles of the Ohio River will constitute the new Military Department of Kentucky, under Colonel Robert Anderson, U. S. Army; headquarters for the present, Louisville, Ky.

By order:

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

[4.]

Remarks on a memorial signed by Their Excellencies the Governors of Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana, ad handed to me yesterday by the second of these high functionaries.*


HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
Washington, D. C., May 29, 1861.

First. The signers are of "opinion that the United States should at an early day take possession of prominent points in Kentucky, such as Louisville, Covington, Newport, Columbus, &c., and the railroads leading from the same south." Independent of this paper the United States had occupied Newport, adjoining Covington, and Colonel Anderson had been directed to establish his headquarters as the commander of the Department of Kentucky at Louisville, and, in conjunction with the surveyor of the customs thee, to restrict exports thence by land and water; and Major-General McClellan had been instructed to give reasonable aid to the friends of the Union across the Ohio and across the Mississippi. Under this authority he might, if he had thought it expedient, have occupied Columbus, but many of the wisest and best union men in Kentucky have strongly intimated that thrusting protection upon their people is likely to do far more harm than good, and probably the danger can be better estimated at home than by friends abroad.

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*See memorial of May 24, 1861, second, ante.

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Page 147 Chapter LXIV. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION.