 Heth was under orders from his superior, Major General Edmund Kirby Smith, not to attack the city, but to instead make a "demonstration".Cincinnati's mayor George Hatch ordered all business closed, and Union Major General Lew Wallace declared martial law, seized sixteen steamboats and had them armed, and organized the citizens of Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport, Kentucky for defense.Among the groups organized were the "Black Brigade of Cincinnati", a forcibly conscripted group of free African Americans.