the understanding in the minds of the people that Kentucky was to
be the theater of active operations, and that a programme of
aggression--rather than of defense--was to be carried out, as suggested
by Beauregard.

General Bragg entered upon his command with a show of great
vigor--falling into General Beauregard's views that a diversion toward
Ohio, threatening Cincinnati, would leave the main army free to march
upon Louisville before re-enforcements could reach Buell. With this
view General Kirby Smith, with all the troops that could be spared--ill
clad, badly equipped, and with no commissariat--was pushed forward
toward the Ohio. On the 29th of August--while our victorious cannon
were still echoing over the field of the second Manassas--he met and
defeated the enemy at Richmond; pressed on to Lexington, and thence to
a point in easy reach of Cincinnati--at that moment not only the great
granary and storehouse of the Federal armies of the West, but their
depot and arsenal as well; her wharves crowded with transports,
quartermasters' steamers and unfinished gunboats, and her warehouses
bursting with commissary and ordnance stores.

When the news of Smith's triumphant march to the very gates of
Cincinnati reached Richmond, it was universally believed that the city
would be captured, or laid in ashes; and thinking men saw great results
in the delay such destruction would cause to the advance of the enemy
into the heart of their territory.

Meantime, General Bragg had entered Kentucky from Chattanooga, with an
army re-enforced and better equipped than had been seen in that section
since the war began. Once more cheering reports came to Richmond that
the Confederates were in full march for the enemy; that any moment
might bring news of the crushing of Buell before re-enforcements, or
fresh supplies, could reach him. Great was the disappointment,
therefore, when news really came of the withdrawal of southern troops
from before Cincinnati; and that all action of Bragg's forces would be
postponed until Smith's junction with him.

Intense anxiety reigned at the Capital, enlivened only by the fitful
report of the fight at Munfordville--inflicting heavy loss upon both
sides, but not productive of any result; for, after the victory, Bragg
allowed Buell to escape from his front and retire at his will toward
the Ohio. That a Confederate army, at least equal in all respects, save
perhaps numbers, to that of the enemy, should thus