Union Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant, displaying…

Union Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant, displaying the personal initiative that will characterize his later career, bloodlessly seizes Paducah two days later, which gives the Union control of the mouth of the Tennessee River.

Henceforth, neither adversary will respect the proclaimed neutrality of the state; while most of the state government will remain loyal to the Union, the pro-Confederate elements of the legislature will organize a separate government in Russellville that will be admitted into the Confederate States in December.

This sequence of events is considered a victory for the Union because Kentucky will never formally side with the Confederacy, and if the Union had been prevented from maneuvering within Kentucky, its later successful campaigns in Tennessee would have been more difficult