The last of July a state convention organized a provisional government and declared for the Union. But the secessionists, under General Price, continued the struggle. The Union forces, after a brave fight against great odds at Wilson's Creek, August 10th, in which Lyon was killed, had to retreat north. General Fremont had shortly before been put at the head of the Western Department, which included Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, and Kansas. His difficulties were great. He was unable to clear the State of secessionists, who besieged Lexington and took it on September 20th. Generals Hunter and Halleck, Fremont's successors, were equally unsuccessful, and the State was harassed by a petty warfare all the year. In Kentucky, Governor Magoffin was inclined to secession. The Legislature leaned the other way, but preferred neutrality to active participation on either side. September 6th, Brigadier-General U. S. Grant occupied Paducah, an important strategical point at the junction of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers. Next day the Confederate General Polk, advancing from below, took possession of Columbus on the Mississippi. With both hostile armies thus encamped on her soil, Kentucky could no longer be neutral. Her decision was quickly taken. The Legislature demanded of President Davis to withdraw Polk's forces, at the same time calling upon General Anderson, the hero of Sumter, who had been placed in charge of the Department of the Cumberland, to take active measures for the defence of this his native State. The mountain portion of Virginia belonged to the West rather than to the South. It contained only 18,000 slaves, against nearly 500,000 in Eastern Virginia. Union sentiment was therefore strong, and when the old State seceded from the Union, Western Virginia proceeded to secede from the State. General Lee sent troops to hold it for the Confederacy. Thereupon General McClellan, commanding the Department of the Ohio, threw several regiments across the river into Virginia, and defeated the foe in minor engagements at Philippi, Rich Mountain, and Carrick's Ford. By the middle of July he was able to report, "Secession is killed in this country." Later in the year the Confederates renewed their attempts, but were finally driven out. West Virginia organized a separate government, and was subsequently admitted to the Union as a State by itself. [Illustration: Map.] Bull Run--the Field of Strategy.