forced by Kirby Smith, had now an
opportunity of fighting Buell with great advantage. But the Confederate
generals, who mistakenly believed that Kentucky was at heart with them,
saw an imaginary political gain in occupying Frankfort, the State
capital, and formally setting up a new State Government there. Bragg
therefore marched on to join Kirby Smith at Frankfort, which was well to
the east of Buell's line of retreat, and Buell was able to reach
Louisville unopposed by September 25.

These events were watched in the North with all the more anxiety because
the Confederate invasion of Kentucky began just about the time of the
second battle of Bull Run, and Buell arrived at Louisville within a week
after the battle of Antietam while people were wondering how that victory
would be followed up. Men of intelligence and influence, especially in
the Western States, were loud in their complaints of Buell's want of
vigour. It is remarkable that the Unionists of Kentucky, who suffered
the most through his supposed faults, expressed their confidence in him;
but his own soldiers did not like him, for he was a strict disciplinarian
without either tact or any quality which much impressed them. Their
reports to their homes in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, from which they
mostly came, increased the feeling against him which was arising in those
States, and his relations with the Governors of Ohio and Indiana, who
were busy in sending him recruits and whose States were threatened with
invasion, seem, wherever the fault may have lain, to have been
unfortunate. Buell's most powerful friend had been McClellan, and by an
irrational but unavoidable process of thought the real dilatoriness of
McClellan became an argument for blaming Buell as well. Halleck defended
him loyally, but this by now probably seemed to Lincoln the apology of
one irresolute man for another. Stanton, whose efficiency in the
business of the War Department gave him great weight, had become eager
for the removal of Buell. Lincoln expected that as soon as Buell could
cover Louisville he would take the offensive promptly. His army appears
to have exceeded in numbers, though not very much, the combined forces of
Bragg and Kirby Smith, and except as to cavalry it was probably as good
in quality. If energetically used by Halleck some months before, the
Western armies should have been strong enough to accomplish great
results; and if the attempt had been made at first