It could have been taken soon after the occupation of Paducah; but before November it was so strongly fortified that it would have required a large force and a long siege to capture it.
In the latter part of October General Fremont took the field in person and moved from Jefferson City against General Sterling Price, who was then in the State of Missouri with a considerable command.

About the first of November I was directed from department headquarters to make a demonstration on both sides of the Mississippi River with the view of detaining the rebels at Columbus within their lines.

Before my troops could be got off, I was notified from the same quarter that there were some 3,000 of the enemy on the St.Francis River about fifty miles west, or south-west, from Cairo, and was ordered to send another force against them.

I dispatched Colonel Oglesby at once with troops sufficient to compete with the reported number of the enemy.

On the 5th word came from the same source that the rebels were about to detach a large force from Columbus to be moved by boats down the Mississippi and up the White River, in Arkansas, in order to reinforce Price, and I was directed to prevent this movement if possible.