Wallace had spent an almost sleepless week and a half. He feared that a determined assault by Heth might rout the citizen defenders, driving them to a deadly congest rush on the pontoon bridge. But Heth found the defenses too strong and withdrew during the night of September 11. The next morning found Cincinnati unthreatened and the Lexington pike once more open. Back in the city, there was ‘a splendid triumphal march, with music and banners’ through a cheering crowd. Wallace recalled it as ‘one of the gladdest days’ of his life; he had, he thought, justified himself after Shiloh. Congratulatory telegrams poured in, and the city passed unanimous resolutions testifying to ‘the promptness, energy and skill’ with which he organized the defense that saved Cincinnati and ‘Prevented the rebel forces under Kirby Smith from desecrating the free soil of our noble State.’

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Before leaving, Wallace issued the following proclamation, which indicates the dramatic style of the man.

For the present, at least, the enemy have fallen back and your cities are safe….When I assumed command there was nothing to defend you with, except a few half-finished works and some dismounted guns; yet I was confident. the energies of a great city are boundless; they have only to be aroused, united and directed. You were appealed to. The answer will never be forgotten.

Paris may have seen something like it in her revolutionary days, but the cities of America never did. Be proud that you have given them an example so splendid. The most commercial of people, you submitted to a total suspension of business, and without a murmur adopted my principle–’Citizens for labor, soldiers for battle.’

In coming time, strangers, viewing the works on the hills of Newport and Covington, will ask, ‘Who built these intrenchments?’ You will answer, ‘We built them.’ If they ask, ‘Who guarded them?’ you can reply, ‘We helped in thousands.’ If they inquire the result, your answer will be, ‘The enemy came and looked at them, and stole away in the night.’

You have won much honor; keep your organizations ready to win more. Hereafter be always prepared to defend yourselves.

Whether or not Cincinnati long remembered, Wallace did not forget, and his experience in directing the defense provided him with firsthand background for his story of the siege of Constantinople in The Prince of India. And a year and one half later, by his stubborn fight at Monocacy, Maryland, he probably saved yet another threatened Northern city, the Capital itself, Washington D.C.

The defense was sufficiently impressive to keep the Confederates from making more than a feint. Bragg never did catch up with Smith, and by moving to Bardstown, he left Buell an open route to Louisville. A major battle never materialized in the area, and Kentucky failed to rally to Confederate support in the overwhelming numbers that had been hoped for.

Several years after the war, Wallace met General Heth in the bar of the Burnet House and learned that Heth would have held Cincinnati for $15,000,000 ransom or else have sacked the city. The two veterans compared notes on the campaign, discussed the spies each had sent intotheother’s camp, and Heth learned that the seemingly unguarded spot where he had planned to attack was actually a trap set up by Wallace in which the Confederates would have been cut to pieces in a cross fire of artillery and sharpshooters.

The fact that a battle was not fought is due to Wallace’s prompt and decisive action. Had he not taken command, nothing would have stood in the way of the Confederate army, which could have taken the city as readily as Wallace took Memphis after the Confederate collapse at Shiloh. Heth’s plans to hold the city for ransom (as Jubal Early later did to Frederick, Maryland) or sack it indicated that he felt his forces were too weak to hold it for the Confederacy, but he might have caused the Union to divert troops from critical operations elsewhere. Wallace earned the city’s gratitude, but the absence of a battle prevent him from regaining the standing he lost at Shiloh and kept the defense of Cincinnati from being as celebrated as it deserves.

This article was written by Robert E. Morsberger and originally published in the February 1999 issue of Civil War Times Magazine.

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