Sept. 3, 1861

Sept. 3, 1861: In violation of Kentucky's self-proclaimed "neutrality," Confederate troops under Gen. Leonidas Polk, led by Mexican War veteran Gideon Pillow, enter Kentucky and move to occupy Columbus, near the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi. Polk's justification for this invasion is that the Union was about to invade Kentucky also, and he just wanted to beat the Yankees to the punch. The Confederates begin to fortify the river bluffs at Columbus and install heavy artillery there, to command the river.