SEPTEMBER 6TH, 1861: Gunboats USS Tyler, Commander J. Rodgers, and USS Lexington, Commander Stembel, spearheaded operations by which General Grant, in his first move after taking command at Cairo, seized strategic Pudacah and Smithland, Kentucky, at the mouth of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers.
Captain Foote, newly designated commander in the west, participated in the operation.
This initial use of strength afloat by Grant, aimed at countering a Confederate move into the state, helped preserve Kentucky for the Union, and foreshadowed the general's great reliance on naval mobility and support throughout the campaigns that divided the Confederacy and eventually placed the entire Mississippi under Union control.
--Old B-Runner
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