>>>>Well, I guess you'll never accept the fact that there were violations of Kentucky's neutrality on both sides and that, yes, degree does matter. Occupying two towns with a small army, establishing a fortress at one, and blockading the mighty Mississippi are egregious violations. Camp Dick Robinson was a violation but far less severe.>>>>>

Yes both sides did it - the Confederates mainly with the taking of Columbus. But you have to accept the fact that the Federals were doing so far earlier and with frequency. The statement of the KY state legislature clearly stated that NO troops from either side were to enter Kentucky. Not one man; not 1000 men; not 10,000 men.

And yet Federal troops did time and again in numbers large and small - clearly in violation of the no troops dictum. Camp Dick Robinson had 10,000 men at it within a week if we are to believe the Unionist accounts, which was much larger than what Polk took to Hickman and Columbus. Training camps are fortified, especially those in potentially hostile territory.

You also have to understand that the blocking of the Mississippi had already taken place when Arkansas and Tennessee had left the Union and, for that matter when Mississippi and Louisiana left the Union before those two states. Had the CSA been a nation without the war there would have been negotiated transportation rights on the rivers, which is what happened with the Ohio River after the Civil War because that river was and is still owned by Kentucky. Had KY declared for the Union right away that river was still blockaded and Union military strategy would have remained the same as it actually played out.

But my main point in this has always been to show that the blame for the violation of KY's neutrality should not be placed on Polk's or the CSA's shoulders - it should be, if one is to be historically accurate, fully on the shoulders of the Union, from the time when Benjamin Prentiss took control at Cairo to Camp Dick Robinson - all of which took place well before Polk moved. Again, the legislature's declaration stated NO men from either side - so even one is one too many.

>>>>I'm sure you'll acknowledge that people do not always behave honestly and honorably in life and, especially, in war. >>>>

I am a firm believer if we could live without politicians the world would be a much better place. Even the KY legislature did not behave with honor when they passed a resolution demanding that Polk take his troops out of the state - and then defeated an amendment that this also include a similar demand for the Union troops as well. The legislature that declared state neutrality helped kill it. So much for honor.

Greg Biggs