Well, of course degree matters! To say it doesn't is like saying a stubbed toe is the same thing as a broken femur.

U2 flights over Moscow are not the same as occupying the city.

Soviet missles placed in Cuba is not the same as firing them at Miami.

One raindrop is not the same as a downpour.

Establishing Camp Dick Robinson is not the same as occupying Hickman and Columbus with a small army.

Surely, Polk was aware of Union and Confederate violations of Kentucky neutrality, but he took Hickman and Columbus when he did because Fremont was about to. Polk was in Memphis in early July, Robinson was started in early August, Polk took Columbus in early September. If he had reasons other than imminent Federal seizure, he would have acted earlier. And tit for tat doesn't make any strategic or practical sense. It's like acting on idealistic principle rather than cold hard reality. The small possible gain is not worth the huge potential downside.

I have two Polk bios, one Pillow bio, the Davis book I cited, access to the OR, the first three volumes of Simon's "Papers of USG" and access to all the others, and far too many other Civil War-related books to list. I haven't been to the places you mentioned. People have been researching and writing about the Civil War for 150 years, but new information, articles and books continue to appear, so I suppose there might be undiscovered gems in the collections you cited.

Doug Fiske