about
Lexington and Frankfort, and have thus obtained possession of the
greater part of central Kentucky, and the Blue-grass region. The country
between the point indicated upon the Louisville and Nashville railroad,
and Frankfort, and also in front of the line thus drawn, is extremely
rugged and difficult of access The hills of Salt river, the Benson and
Chaplin Hills, and those of the Kentucky, present a barrier not easily
forced. Directly in front, too, of Frankfort and Lexington, at a
distance of from twenty to forty miles stretches a belt of broken and
defensible ground from the Kentucky to the main fork of the Licking
river, and on to the eastward.

A thorough tearing-up of the Louisville and Nashville railroad, which
would deprive the enemy of the use of the Bardstown and Lebanon
junctions, and the destruction of the Lexington and Louisville, and
Lexington and Covington railroads, would have rendered this line secure
against any attack from the front, while the excellent roads traversing
the region lying just south of it, would have made communication easy
between the salient positions. But the left flank and the main line of
retreat and of communication with Nashville, would have been constantly
and dangerously exposed.

These were all matters for a military chief to study; but far above all
mere strategic considerations, was the moral effect of these movements,
and that, it is certain, had been profoundly pondered by General
Johnson. The idea of an advance to the Ohio, of occupying the entire
slaveholding territory east of the Mississippi, of subsidizing all of
its resources, of arousing and recruiting from its whole population, was
very fascinating then, and opens a wide field for speculation now. But
then there was the reverse of the picture to be considered. The
unsettled, bewildered condition of the Kentucky mind, has already been
described. There were many who confidently predicted that the
Kentuckians would flock to the Confederate standard as soon as it waved
upon the banks of the Ohio, and innumerable bitter objurgations were
launched against them, because so few resorted to it when it was planted
upon the bluffs of Green river.

The patriotism which inspired, alike, the prophesies and the curses,
can not be called in question. But Albert Sidney Johnson, while he felt
the enthusiasm which was the concomitant of his perfect courage and high
military genius, had trained himself to coolly examine, and c