In Washington D.C. the union army, now called the Army of the Potomac, came under George B. McClellan, an expert organizer who drilled and organized army for months. Despite having nearly 150,000 men at his disposale he waited out of caution and fear that his army was not ready. The last actions of 1861 in Virginia were anticlimatic. Robert E. Lee, considered the best solider in the army, lead an unsucessful attempt to reclaim Western Virginia, which had fallen to the north shortly before Bull Run. However the south scored a small and stunning victory at Ball's Bluff Virginia, ending the year with hope.
The rest of 1861 was a fight over the border states of Missouri and Kentucky. Missouri was strongly divided between the north and south. The Missouri state guard, was a largely prosouthern group, but its' leader, the charismatic Sterling Price was divided. J.C. Fremont, the famed exploerer, was placed in charge of operations in Missouri and Illionois and acted aggresively towards Price and the southern sympathisiers. Although St.Loius was secured; Price and nearly 6,000 Missourians formed an army with confedrates in Arkansas. Together they won battles at Wilson's Creek and Lexington, Mo. but withdrew back to Arkansas to form an army with the intention of invading Missouri in 1862. Fremont was replaced with the the more cool headed Henry Halleck who now turned his attention to Kentucky. Davis and Lincoln, both from Kentucky, understood the state's importance: Kentucky was populas and the Ohio river could act as a great defensive position for the south. Both also knew that the first to enter the state would be branded as an invader by Kentucky, which would then join the oppposing side. After months of manuvuring the south moved first and secured Columbus and Bowling Green. The state now officially supported the north, which entered Louiville, Paduach, and Frankfort. Davis placed the acclaimed Albert S.