Commerce, War and Beauty

Sunday we drove south and crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky very close to its confluence with the Mississippi.

There were barges everywhere, probably waiting to make it through the shallow river.

Now we’re along the Mississippi in Kentucky at Columbus-Belmont State Park. And there is a lot of commerce on the river here, as has been the case historically. Kentucky tried to stay neutral during the civil war. But because this is a bluff along the Mississippi between the confluence of the Ohio and the northern border of the Confederate States, General Polk of the Confederates came here immediately to fortify this as a defensive position.

He had 13,000 troops and 10,000 slaves and they dug miles of huge trenches.

The park preserves about 10% of the earthworks.

They also have this cannon that was dug up about twenty-five years ago from under 40 feet of earth.

Polk also had a giant chain stretched across the river. It was held up by flat boats and anchored on either shore. They could adjust the height of the chain by adding or removing boats. Unfortunately for the Confederates, they pulled out too many of the boats and the waves and current caught the chain and broke it. This section of chain and one anchor were uncovered in a landslide on the banks and are now displayed in the park.

The whole enterprise did not work out well for Polk. He had diverted so many troops to this defensive position that the line was weak to the east. The Union army was able to take that territory and cut off Columbus. Polk had to abandon the site in less than a year and the Union held it for the rest of the war.