March 2, 1862 (Sunday): "The Work Is Done. Columbus Gone."

Chain and Anchor Stretched Across River at Columbus, Ky. (Columbus-Belmont State Park)

Numbers 3. Reports of Major General Leonidas Polk, C. S. Army.

COLUMBUS, KY., March 2, 1862.

The work is done. Columbus gone. Self and staff move in half an hour. Everything secured.



L. POLK.

Official Records, Series I., Vol. 7, Part 1, Page 437.

With the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson the evacuation of Columbus, Kentucky was inevitable.  Polk got away clean by about 24 hours, burning down what he could not take with him (although some ordinance stores were left behind as well as the iron chain which had stretched across the river). Polk managed the evacuation with some degree of skill, and preserved his command.  But the Gibralter of the West was gone.  The Confederates headed south for New Madrid, then Island No. 10.