During the first months of the war, Kentucky tried to remain neutral, but the August 1861 election sent a Unionist majority to Frankfort, where the new legislature voted to suppress the rebellion, encouraged Federal occupation, and saw United States marshals begin arresting men suspected of treason while Union troops took possession of Paducah, Louisville, and other strategic points. Confederates answered by establishing recruiting posts at Bowling Green and near Prestonsburg, and although Eastern Kentucky was politically divided, Confederate sentiment ran high enough there for Floyd County to become a sanctuary for fleeing Confederates. In late 1861, former U.S. Senator John c. Breckinridge of Lexington, fleeing arrest, passed through Prestonsburg on his way to southwestern Virginia and stopped at the Samuel May Farm north of town, where he gave a morale-boosting speech to the newly organized 5th Kentucky Infantry, C.S.A., camped in May's pasture. By early October, one thousand men were drilling at the May Farm and more were arriving daily, alarming Union authorities at Louisville and leading William T. Sherman to order Brigadier General William "Bull" Nelson to go to Maysville, take command of four newly organized Ohio regiments, march up the Pound Gap Road, and drive the Confederates from the Big Sandy Valley. After the Battle of Ivy Mountain on November 8, 1861, Nelson occupied Pikeville, forcing the 5th Kentucky and its new commander, Colonel John S. Williams, to retreat to Pound Gap, but he then withdrew his troops from the region because he believed the season and Confederate supply shortages made a counterattack unlikely. In mid-December 1861, General Humphrey Marshall moved from Wytheville, Virginia, through Pound Gap and occupied Pikeville, Prestonsburg, and Paintsville with three infantry regiments, a cavalry battalion, and a battery of artillery. When Don Carlos Buell, the Union commander in Louisville, learned of Marshall's invasion, he placed Colonel James A. Garfield in command of the 18th Brigade of the Army of the Ohio and sent him to drive the Confederates out of the Big Sandy Valley, setting the stage for the Battle of Middle Creek on January 10, 1862.