Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-10-26
WAR POINTS IN KENTUCKY.
PRESToEBURG

Is situated on the west fork OF Big Sandy
River, Floyd County, the stream which di-
vides Kentucky from the Old Dominion,
through a space of over one hundred miles
This village is right in the mountains its
location is high and healthy; its water very
fine, and altogether, it could be formed into
a strong military position. 1t seems, how
ever, as the mountaineers in that region
neither own nor feel any very deep interest
in "Sambo," that Secession does not thrive
we'll. The principal recruits he has are from
the "Blue Grass counties" as they are called.
This is the name given among the mountain
eers to such counties as Mason, Bourbon,
Fayette, Woodford, etc., where that kind of
grass is grown, and where large quantities
of cattle are grazed. They bear to the noun
tain counties in point of richness of soil and
cultivation, somewhat the relation which the
lowlands bore to the highlands of Scotland
in former days.
There are three or four hundred people at
this town. 1t is probable, as the Big Sandy
is navgable for steamboats, for full hun
dred miles, that it is now being used to in
troduce contrabsnd goods from the North
into Tennessee and Virginia, as they can no
longer pass through Padueah, Smithland,
Louisville or Maysville. 1t may be that
Breckinridge has chosen this locality for this
very purpose.
BARBoURsvILLE.
This is the seat of justice for Knox County.
1t is located on the Cumberland River. The
population is fully four hundred. Around it
lie undeyeloped an abundance of mineral re-
sources. Through it passes the great road
leading from Frankfort, the State Capital,
into Tennessee, through Cumberland Gap.
1t is located at distance of one hundred
and twenty miles southwest of the Capital.
Twenty miles northwest of it is situated the
| village of
| LONDON
! Which does not contain over one hundred
| inhabitants, and is the Capital of Laurel
| County, Ky. 1t is in the midst of wild,
picturesque country.
CUMBERLAND GAP.
This is about ten miles from Cumberland
Ford, and has been celebrated, for q century,
as a great depression in the mountain ridge
which traverses the continent from New
Hampshire to Northern Alabama. Through
this Gap, very similar in its appearance and
characteristics to the South Pass in the Rocky
Mountains, formerly the emigrants from Vir-
ginia and North Carolina passed on their
way to the virgin wilds of the West For
half century, thousands upon thousands
poured through this natural gateway into
the Mississippi Valley, from the Atlantic
slopes. Boone, Kenton and their pioneer
contrereS first entered the land of "cane and
turkey" over this pre-Adamite turnpike. 1t
fact, only practicable road for the transporta-
ton of troops and heavy munitions of war
from East Tennessee into Kentucky.
HICKMAN,
A point only thirty milesbelow Cairo; it is
the county seat Of Fulton, the extreme south
western county of Kentucky, and contains a
population which, before the war, was three
thousand. Formerly considerable activity
prevailed in this place. 1t has been great
shipping point. 1t forms, with two othei
villages of that section, a small triangle
within which the advance and the righ
wing of General Polk is embraced. His ad
vance 10 at
COLUMBUS,
A small town, twenty miles below Cairo
1t is a miserable, dawdling, struggling town
such ss you see often on the banks of the
Mississippi, where a couple of hundreds o.
people formerly eked out q miserable exist
ence. 0flate years it assumed more brisl
business air, and even its people began Il
think that there were other actual events il
the world besides the everlasting negro. 4
railroad, connected with the very heart o
, Western and also that of Middle Tennessee
had found terminus there, and traveller
and trade from the regions of civilization
,, actually went thither. This is the neares
; point which this part of his column has at
I tanned to Cairo. Not long since both Poll
| and Buckner were ANXIOUS 70 Hank TN
: Union forces at Cairo by obtaining com
1 mandiDg positions upon the Ohio River
: Buckner intended TO make dash upoI
louisville, while Polk essayed his skill upoI
Paducah. Grant seized and fortified the lat
ter point, while Buckner never got nearer h
8 Louisville than seventy-6ye miles. Polk was
t and has been, forced to be content TO occup
r a town south of Paducah, so as to resist tn
probable Southwark march of Grant. Th
: name Of that town ia
AAYFIELD,
. A town upon Msyfeld Greek, in Grave
County, Kentucky. 1t is twenty miles sout
of Paducah, upon the line of the Paduca
branch of the Nashville Railroad, the mai
branch of which it copjoins at Union City
1t is a mere post town, with q railroad sta
h ton, and with but few Inhabitants. AS
= strategic point it is remarkable. The poi
4 session Of II tends TO prevent the use Of th
!. railroad for the transportation of Unio
n forces down the Mississippi through Nasl
vile, Middle and Central Mississippi, Il
{ only route by which great land force ca
be taken, without enormous loss, to New o
Is leans. Over this route travelled the Westel
/. boatmen on their way home from the Ore
le cent City in the days of flat-boats and brOa
s. horns, ere steamboats, overcsme the va
sweeping current Of the "Father Of Waters