General Grant's First Test Under Fire

 

General Ulysses S. Grant’s baptism under fire occurred at the battle of Belmont, Missouri.

Towards the end of October, General John Charles Fremont set off in pursuit of Confederate General Sterling Price. At the beginning of November, he ordered Grant to make a move on Columbus with the object of keeping the troops there from reinforcing General Price.

Grant planned a three-pronged attack. He didn’t need to win, just distract Pillow and Polk long enough for Fremont to make his move. He ordered General Charles F. Smith to march his men from Paducah towards Columbus, but to stop a few miles short of the fortifications. He dispatched Colonel Robert Oglesby to meet a force of enemy troops on the St. Francis River. They were later reinforced with a regiment from Bird’s Point under the command of Colonel W. H. L. Wallace.

Grant led the primary force towards Belmont, a small town opposite Columbus. Again, no one expected a battle. If anything, Grant expected some minor skirmishing. The Chicago Daily Tribune reported, “no one thought of holding Belmont even for an hour. Such a thought would have been madness…A hundred thousand men could not have held it for twelve hours.”

Anyone could see that. The fortifications at Columbus sat on a high bluff that overlooked Belmont. Belmont rested in a low, open land cut with sloughs near the river. It was surrounded by cornfields and vast stands of timber. The problem was the rebels on the bluffs in Columbus had a perfect view of the landing at Belmont, and their heavy artillery could tear apart any troops stationed there.

On the evening of November 6, Grant loaded his men on four steamboats escorted by two gunboats, the Tyler and the Lexington. He had 2800 infantry with him, along with 250-cavalry and six sixty-four pounders manned by Captain Ezra Taylor’s artillery battery. Grant planned to make the forty-five-mile trip to Belmont before dawn the next morning, but because they got a late start, the flotilla did not arrive near Belmont until 8 o’clock.

That should have been as far as things went. When he left Cairo, Grant had no intention of attacking the Confederates, but the men were so eager to fight. “I didn’t know how I could maintain discipline or retain the confidence of my command if we should return to Cairo without an effort to do something.”

Grant said he knew there was a small camp of rebels at Belmont, so he decided to drop down and capture it and pull out.

It almost worked, except Grant got greedy and tried to cover more territory. Then his undisciplined troops stopped to plunder the rebel camp instead of pulling out when the getting was good.

It was a lesson they would take to heart in future battles.