The Camp Robinson, Ohio River boats and other Union presence in Kentucky have long been the Confederate claim that the Union was first to violate Kentucky neutrality. But weren't there at least as many examples of Confederate presence in Kentucky? And surely, the occupation of two West Kentucky towns by armed forces with belligerent intent is not comparable to a recruiting camp or seizing boats on the Ohio. No less an authority than John Y. Simon concluded the South was first to seriously violate Kentucky's neutrality.

Certainly, things would have turned out differently had Polk taken Paducah, which was his unrealized intent.

From memory, the Illinois and Missouri plan you cited wasn't only Pillow's. For a time, it was the generally accepted Confederate plan. Polk and Beauregard both wrote about it at length. I've seen it cited as part of the Confederate plan for recognition as a sovereign state by England and France. I don't know if that's been documented and acknowledged as fact.

Seizing Columbus was part of Fremont's rivers plan, not that nobody else had the idea or that Grant disagreed. As you noted, Fremont ordered Grant to take the town, but Pillow and Polk got there first. Fortunate for Grant and Fremont because that meant they could be seen as defenders rather than invaders at Paducah.

Doug Fiske