tirely commanded by the guns from Columbus, it was manifest that the ground thus gained could not be held, and therefore Grant fired the encampment, burning tents, blankets, and stores, and began his return movement with captured artillery, prisoners, and horses. But the end of our success on the field had been attained. Major-General Polk, who was now quite alive to the situation, directed his heaviest guns from Colum.bus upon our troops. He had already sent over three* regiments in one body, under Generál Pillow; these were supported by three others, under General Cheatham, which landed some distance above, between our soldiers and the boats. Further to crush Grant's small force, the bishop, although sadly afraid of an attack on his rear at Columbus, took over two additional regiments in person to aid Pillow's panicstricken force. But by this time Grant was in retreat to his boats, and only faced to the right and rear to punish Cheatham's flankers, and a portion of Pillow's under Colonel Marks, who had marched up the river-bank, and endeavored to prevent his return to the boats. In that retreat we suffered very severely, our troops being hard pressed by overpowering numbers. One battalion had been posted in the morning to guard the transports. In the hurried retreat, Grant went back with one officer to withdraw it, and was almost captured. At the last moment he rode his horse upon a plank placed from the boat to the shore. At five in the afternoon Grant's force had re-embarked, and were on their way to Cairo, while the rebels were checked by the fire of our gunboats. We had left two caissons, but had brought off two of the enemy's guns. We had eighty-five killed, three hundred and one (many slightly) wounded, and about ninety-nine missing. The Confederate loss was six hundred and fortytwo.t Both parties claimed a victory, but on the recovery of the field and the pursuit of our retiring columns the rebels base their claims to a success, which we need not dispute. * Pollard says four regiments, but we give the rebels the benefit of clergy, as the bishop says three. t Pollard, "First Year of the War." Although, in comparison with subsequent engagements, Belmont seems a small affair, it has an importance peculiarly its own. I. It was a coup d'essai of our new general. While others of his rank were playing quite subordinate parts in large armies, Grant was making an independent expedition in command, outwitting the enemy, burning, his camp, retreating successfully when overpowered, and effecting his purpose in a most soldierly manner. II. Again, it was a trial of our new troops in the West, and they acquitted themselves so as to elicit the hearty praise of their commander and the country. They fought well in the attack, from colonels to privates,* in the retreat, and in cutting their way through Cheatham's force, and were never for a moment discouraged. III. The objects of the expedition,-to prevent the enemy from sending a force to Missouri to cut off our detachments which were pressing Thompson, and to prevent his re-enforcing Price,-were fully accomplished. Grant had given him a blow which kept him concentrated, lest another might soon follow. IV. It demonstrated the weakness of the enemy. It led to the victories of Forts Henry and Donelson, and the piercing of the rebels' line, which threw it back almost upon the Gulf. Of the personal prowess of General Grant, as evinced in this battle, it is now needless to speak; it was of the highest order. He, as well as General McClernand, had a horse shot under him, and amid the crashing projectiles of heavy guns from Columbus and Belmont, and the fatal storm of musketry, "the gallant conduct of his troops was stimulated by his presence and inspired by his example."+ * In a letter to his father (November 8th) Grant says, "I can say with gratification, that every colonel, without a single exception, set an example to their commands," etc. + General McClernand's “Official Report." McClernand had three horses shot under him. NOTE.-June 26, 1865, General Grant submitted to the Secretary of War a fresh report, to take the place of the old one. CHAPTER V. LIBRAR : UNIVERSITY : CALIFORNI FORT HENRY. HALLECK'S DEPARTMENT OF MISSOURI.-GRANT'S RECONNOISSANCE INTO KENTUCKY. THE "District of Cairo," to the command of which General Grant had been assigned, began now to assume more importance, as the immediate field of war in the West blazed from new points almost daily, and the thunder-bursts were answered by echoing guns all over the country. On the 12th of November, 1861, General Henry Wager Halleck, of the regular army, and second on the list of major-generals, was sent to take command of the "Department of Missouri." He had formerly been an officer of engineers in our army, but had been for some time out of service, as a successful lawyer in San Francisco. He was well known as a diligent military student, and as a writer upon the military art. His department included the States of Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Arkansas, and that portion of Kentucky west of the Cumberland River. This territory he at once divided into 'districts. Of this department, the District of Cairo was the most inportant part; and it was on the 20th of December enlarged, so as to include all the southern part of Illinois, all that part of Kentucky west of the Cumberland River, and the southern counties of Missouri south of Cape Girardeau. Confirmed in this large command, General Grant at once began to organize, under the direction of General Halleck, for a new movement. Cairo was the point of departure, rather than a point d'appui. Grant posted his troops at numerous prominent points for defence, for convenience of supplies, and for facilities of reconnoissance, and also to deceive the enemy temporarily, with reference to his strength. On the 10th of January he sent General McClernand, with an expeditionary force of five thousand Illinois Volunteers, to penetrate into the interior of Kentucky, in the neighborhood of Columbus, and towards Mayfield and Camp Beauregard. This reconnoissance into Kentucky was made by order of Major-General Halleck, and, as it is believed, at the request of General Buell, with a view to prevent the enemy, who had established his line, from detaching forces from Columbus and the adjacent country to re-enforce the garrisons of Bowling Green, against which General Buell was then preparing to move. To aid McClernand, General Grant sent down detached regiments from time to time to join him; and, on the 14th, he sent the entire divisions of Generals Payne and C. F. Smith to act in concert with him. General Payne moved from Bird's Point, with the column from Cairo, and then, holding Fort Jefferson with a portion of his command, supported McClernand in the reconnoissance. General Smith moved from Smithland: Grant himself accompanied the column from Cairo. The weather was cold, the roads slippery and muddy, and the river filled with floating ice. McClernand occupied Fort Jefferson, marched through Blandville, and to within the distance of a mile from the defences of Columbus. He was recalled on the 20th, having discovered new roads and obtained much valuable information for a future advance in force. Indeed, the results of this rapid and vigorous movement, especially so far as the column from Cairo was concerned, was a minute. acquaintance with the roads, streams, and general topography of the country, which would have been of incalculable value had we been compelled to operate directly against Columbus. Two of our gunboats had gone down the river at the same time, and driven three rebel armed vessels back under the shelter of the guns of Columbus. Before attempting to present the succeeding movements, based upon the information obtained from this and other reconnoissances, let us glance for a moment at the rebel position. Columbus, twenty miles below the mouth of the Ohio, with its bluffs two hundred feet high, was strongly fortified by heavy batteries which swept the Mississippi above and below. The landward defences, at first weak, were being daily strengthened; and the rebel press, calling it the Gibraltar of America, declared that it would seal the great river, until all nations should acknowledge the independence of the Southern Confederacy. To extend their line eastward, covering Nashville in that direction, they had, beginning in August, 1861, fortified Bowling Green, a small place on the Big Barren River, but naturally well adapted to defence, and of strategic importance as being on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. The Big Barren River is at certain seasons navigable for small vessels, by the Ohio and Green rivers, from Louisville. The river is very winding in its vicinity, and in all the bends are steep hills |