Union Gen. U.S. Grant occupied Paducah on Sept. 6, 1861, and built a pontoon bridge across the Ohio River to the Illinois shore. Ft. Anderson was built and named for Kentuckian and Ft. Sumter commander Maj. Robert Anderson. The fort was attacked on March 25 and April 14, 1864, and was successfully defended by white and black troops commanded by Col. Stephen G. Hicks of Illinois. The gunboat U.S.S. TYLER patrolled off Paducah in 1862. In the spring of 1864, African-Americans were recruited in Kentucky for federal service as U.S. Colored Volunteers, and the 8th Colored Artillery (Heavy) was raised almost exclusively in Paducah along with elements of five other black regiments. On March 25, 1864, Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest raided Paducah to disrupt communications and destroy or carry off Union military supplies. The Confederate assault on Ft. Anderson was led by Paducahan Col. A.P. Thompson, who was killed within sight of his home, while burning military stores stood in the distance and the Union gunboats PEOSTA and PAW-PAW gave supporting fire from the river. Kentucky was a slave state but overwhelmingly pro-Union, while Paducah was strongly pro-Confederacy. Paducah resident Gen Lloyd Tilghman left in the summer of 1861 to raise the 3rd Kentucky Regt., Conf. States Army, and he was killed in action during the 1863 Vicksburg Campaign.