ernment. Dr.
Boynton, in his "History of the United States Navy During the
Rebellion," thus describes the condition of affairs in the West, a
proper understanding of which will show the reader the importance of the
services subsequently rendered by Mr. Eads:

The main features of the rebel plan of war in the West were to
seize and hold Missouri, and, as a consequence, Kansas and
Nebraska, and thus threaten or invade the free States of the
North-west from that point; to hold Kentucky and Tennessee, and, if
possible, to cross the Ohio, and make the Northern States the
theater of the war; or, in case they should be unable to invade the
North, to maintain their battle line unbroken along the Ohio and
through Missouri; to keep the great rivers closed, and thus holding
back the North, and being secure within their own territory, at
length compel the recognition of their independence. They certainly
presented to the North a most formidable front, a line of defenses
which was indeed impregnable to any means of assault which the
Government at first possessed. No army could be moved into
Tennessee by land alone, because the line of communication with a
Northern base could not be held secure, and a defeat far from the
Ohio would be the destruction of an army, and open the road for an
invasion of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, and the destruction of
their cities.

It was quite evident that no impression could be made upon the
power of the rebellion in the West, until a firm foothold could be
gained in Kentucky and Tennessee, and until the Mississippi could
be wrested from the conspirators' control. It was clear that the
whole seaboard might be regained, even to Florida, and yet the
rebellion remain as dangerous as ever, if the rebels could hold the
Mississippi River and the valley up to or near the Ohio.

France was looking with eager eyes toward Texas, in the hope of
securing and extending her Mexican usurpation. England was ready to
give all the assistance in her power to any step which would weaken
the North; and had the rebels been pressed back from the seaports
and the Northern Atlantic slope, they would have had it in their
power, if still holding the Mississippi, the South-west, including
Tennessee, and the great natural fortresses of the mountains, to
have so