This severity was not pleasant to the citizens, but it served an admirable purpose.  When Kirby Smith arrived in front of the defenses, he found forty thousand men confronting him.  Of these, not over six or eight thousand had borne arms more than a week or ten days.  The volunteer militia of Cincinnati, and the squirrel-hunters from the interior of Ohio and Indiana, formed the balance of our forces.  Our line of defenses encircled the cities of Covington and Newport, touching the Ohio above and below their extreme limits.  Nearly every hill was crowned with a fortification.  These fortifications were connected by rifle-pits, which were kept constantly filled with men.  On the river we had a fleet of gun-boats, improvised from ordinary steamers by surrounding their vulnerable parts with bales of hay.  The river was low, so that it was necessary to watch several places where fording was possible.  A pontoon bridge was thrown across the Ohio, and continued there until the siege was ended.

It had been a matter of jest among the journalists at Memphis and other points in the Southwest, that the vicissitudes of war might some day enable us to witness military operations from the principal hotels in the Northern cities.  “When we can write war letters from the Burnet or the Sherman House,” was the occasional remark, “there will be some personal comfort in being an army correspondent.”  What we had said in jest was now proving true.  We could take a carriage at the Burnet House, and in half an hour stand on our front lines and witness the operations of the skirmishers.  Later in the war I was enabled to write letters upon interesting topics from Detroit and St. Paul.

The way in which our large defensive force was fed, was nearly as great a novelty as the celerity of its organization.  It was very difficult to sever the red tape of the army regulations, and enable the commissary department to issue rations to men that belonged to no regiments or companies.  The people of Cincinnati were very prompt to send contributions of cooked food to the Fifth Street Market-House, which was made a temporary restaurant for the defenders of the city.  Wagons were sent daily through nearly all the streets to gather these contributed supplies, and the street-cars were free to all women and children going to or from the Market-House.  Hundreds walked to the front, to carry the provisions they had prepared with their own hands.  All the ordinary edibles of civilized life were brought forward in abundance.  Had our men fought at all, they would have fought on full stomachs.

The arrival of General Buell’s army at Louisville rendered it impossible for Bragg to take that city.  The defenders of Cincinnati were re-enforced by a division from General Grant’s army, which was then in West Tennessee.  This arrival was followed by that of other trained regiments and brigades from various localities, so that we began to contemplate taking the offensive.  The Rebels disappeared from our front, and a reconnoissance showed that they were falling back toward Lexington.  They burned the turnpike and railway bridges as they retreated, showing conclusively that they had abandoned the siege.