Neutrality was broken when Confederate General Leonidas Polk occupied Columbus, Kentucky, in the summer of 1861. This caused Kentucky to call for Northern aid to repel the Confederate invaders. Union General Ulysses S. Grant, who was waiting across the Ohio River in Illinois, moved to occupy Paducah and Southland, Kentucky. Polk's blunder cost the Confederacy any chance of getting Kentucky to join them. The occupied areas gave the Union a tremendous advantage in both Kentucky and Tennessee. During the war, about 35,000 men from Kentucky joined the Confederacy. Those who joined the Union army totaled about 74,000, including about 24,000 African Americans.