The work of organizing for defence went steadily on, and the Rebel advance was for a season checked. The Government at Washington appeared, however, to be devoting nearly all its attention to McClellan and Fremont, and to be neglecting the army in Kentucky altogether. This was Sherman's feeling at the time. But about the middle of October, Simon Cameron, the Secretary of War, accompanied by Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas and six or seven newspaper men, paid Sherman a flying visit at Louisville. Cameron asked Sherman to talk freely about the situation, assuring him that the interview was entirely confidential. Sherman accordingly spoke with his customary frankness. He complained that the new troops, as fast as they were enlisted, were sent either to McClellan or to Fremont, and that he got none of them; that his forces were utterly inadequate to cope with the enemy, and that the Rebel army under Johnston could take Louisville any day. Cameron expressed great astonishment at this, and declared that the Kentucky Senators and Representatives had assured him that they had plenty of men in Kentucky, and only needed arms. Sherman said that this was not true, that the young men were going over to the Rebels wholesale, and that the supply of arms furnished was scanty in quantity and defective in quality. Cameron was alarmed at these statements, and promised to do all in his power to help Sherman. Then Sherman unrolled a big map, and pointed out the great importance of resisting the Rebel advance along the Kentucky line. McClellan was guarding one hundred miles with one hundred thousand men, and Fremont one hundred miles with sixty thousand men, while he had only eighteen thousand men to guard over three hundred miles. He ought to have, he said, sixty thousand men at once for defensive purposes, and if he was to assume the aggressive he would need two hundred thousand. These estimates startled Cameron, and when he returned to Washington, a few days later, he spoke of them as "insane." The word was quickly taken up, and soon the whole country was ringing with the startling intelligence that the Commander of the Army of the Cumberland was a madman. Before this, however, Sherman had written as follows to Adjutant-General Thomas: