_Wherein Captain Galligasken describes the Battle of Belmont, and
further illustrates the military Qualities of the illustrious
Soldier, as exhibited in that fierce Fight._
With such a man as Smith at Paducah, placed there, and kept there, by
General Grant, the outlets of those great rivers, the Tennessee and
the Cumberland, which led down into the very heart of the Rebellion,
were safe. We looked to Grant--we, within the narrow sphere he then
occupied--for another movement, for some brilliant and well-conceived
operation, which would gladden the hearts and strengthen the arms of
the men of the loyal cause; but we looked in vain, for he was not the
commander of a department, and was held back by General Fremont. But
Grant was busy, and not a moment of his precious time was lost, however
it may have been turned aside from its highest usefulness. The hardy
and enthusiastic volunteers from the North-west were poured in upon him
until he had about twenty thousand. He employed himself in perfecting
their organization and improving their discipline.
Columbus, which had been fortified and held by Polk and Pillow, was
every day increasing its strength and importance. It had closed the
Mississippi, and every point in Grant's district was continually
menaced by it. He desired to "wipe it out," and applied to Fremont for
permission to do so, declaring that, with a little addition to his
present force, he would take the place. His application was not even
noticed, and the rebels were permitted to strengthen their works, and
afford all the aid they could to the turbulent hosts in Missouri.
In the mean time the rebel General Price had captured Lexington, but
abandoned his prize at the approach of Fremont, and retreated to the
south-western part of the state, where he remained, confronted by a
small force of national troops, gathering strength for another hostile
movement towards the north. Polk, who was in command of Columbus,
occasionally sent troops over the river to Belmont, on the opposite
bank, from which they marched to re-enforce Price. The safety of the
Union army before him required that this channel of communication
should be closed, or at least that the enemy in Missouri should be
prevented for a time from receiving further assistance.
General Grant was therefore ordered to make a movement which should
threaten Columbus, and thus compel Polk to retain his force.
Accordingly, he sent Colonel Oglesby towards the point he was to
menace, and also directed General Smith at Paducah to march towards
Columbus, and demonstrate in the rear of that place. The point to
be gained was simply to prevent reënforcements from being sent over
the river, for Grant was prohibited from making an attack upon the
threatened point.
Belmont was partially fortified. It was a camp for rebel troops, from
which they could conveniently be sent to coöperate with Price or Jeff.
Thompson, and a depot of supplies gathered up in Missouri and Arkansas,
where they could be readily sent over to Columbus. On the evening of
November 6, Grant started down the river with a fleet of steamers,
under the convoy of two gunboats, to demonstrate on a larger scale
against the enemy's stronghold. He had with him a force of thirty-one
hundred men, comprising five regiments of infantry, two squadrons of
cavalry, and a section of artillery. The movement was not intended
as an attack, even upon Belmont, at the beginning. His troops were
exceedingly raw, some of them having received their arms only two days
before.
The fleet continued down the river about ten miles, and Grant made a
feint of landing on the Kentucky side, remaining at the shore till the
next morning, to give color to the idea that, with Smith, he intended
to attack Columbus. But during the night he ascertained that Polk was
crossing large bodies of troops to Belmont, with the evident intention
of pursuing Oglesby. Then the intrepid general decided to "clean out"
the camp at Belmont. This was literally what he intended to do, and as
every man's success ought to be measured by his intentions, it is very
important that this fact should be fully comprehended. It is absurd to
suppose that a military man of Grant's experience proposed to take and
hold the place. He had every reason to believe the enemy had double
his force, and he knew that they were well provided with steamers and
gunboats, and could send over reënforcements rapidly; and he was also
aware that Belmont was covered by the guns of Columbus. Against this
odds, and under these circumstances, he could not for a moment have
entertained the idea of securing a permanent advantage. He contemplated
only a bold dash, which was sufficient to accomplish the object of the
expedition.
The little army was landed at Hunter's Point, three miles above the
rebel works, and just out of the range of the Columbus batteries. The
line was formed, and, with Grant in the advance with the skirmishers,
moved forward. It soon encountered the enemy, and drove them before
it. The action waxed warmer and warmer as the lines of national troops
advanced, and the contest became very severe. Grant still kept in
front, animating the soldiers by his heroic example, in utter contempt
of anything like danger. His horse was killed under him, and he was
in peril from first to last; but his gallant behavior stimulated the
civilian colonels under him, and they stood up squarely to the work
before them. Thus led, the raw soldiers from Illinois behaved like
veterans, and fought with the utmost desperation. The contest continued
for four hours, at the end of which time the Union troops had driven
the rebels foot by foot to their works; and then, charging through
the abatis which surrounded the fortifications, forced the beaten foe
to the river. Several hundred prisoners and all the rebel guns were
captured, and the camp broken up.
Grant had reached his objective point, and his success was thorough and
complete. He had accomplished all he proposed, and it only remained
for him to retire from the field, which was of course as much a part
of his original intention as was the attack. As the hour of prosperity
is often the most dangerous, so was the moment of victory the most
perilous to these gallant troops. Their success seemed to intoxicate
them, and instead of pursuing their advantage upon the rebel force,
sheltering themselves beneath the bluff of the river, they went about
plundering the deserted camp. Their colonels, no better disciplined,
indulged their vanity in making Union speeches.
General Grant discovered that the enemy was sending steamer loads
of troops across the river, to a point above the camp, to intercept
his retreat; and he was anxious to get back to his transports before
they arrived. He attempted to form his lines again, but the men were
too much disorganized to heed orders. The general then directed his
staff-officers to set fire to the camp, in order to check the plunder.
The smoke attracted the attention of the rebels at Columbus, who opened
fire upon the Unionists. Shot and shell brought them to a sense of
their duty; the line was formed, and they marched towards the steamers,
three miles distant.
The defeated rebels, under the bank of the river, having been
reënforced by the arrival of three regiments from Columbus, marched
to a point which enabled them to intercept the victorious army. An
officer, on discovering the fact, dashed furiously up to the cool
commander, and in a highly-excited tone cried, "We are surrounded!"
"Well, if that is so, we must cut our way out, as we cut our way in,"
replied Grant, apparently unmoved even by this tremendous circumstance.
His troops were brave men, but such a disaster as being surrounded
suggested to their inexperience only the alternative of surrender, and,
under many commanders, such a result must have been inevitable. What
paralyzes the soldier often produces the same effect upon the leader;
but Grant was not "demoralized." No apparent reverses could exhaust his
unconquerable pluck; he never despaired, and worked up a situation out
of which another could make nothing but defeat, until he brought forth
victory.
"We have whipped them once, and I think we can do it again," added
Grant, in the midst of the confusion which the unpleasant prospect
caused.
The troops discovered that Grant had no idea of surrendering, and
they gathered themselves up for a fresh onslaught. The confusion was
overcome, and the little army charged the enemy, who fought less
vigorously than earlier in the day, and were again forced behind the
bank of the river. But, as fresh troops were continually arriving from
Columbus, there was no time to be wasted, and Grant pressed on for
his transports. There was no unseemly haste, certainly nothing like a
rout, or even a defeat. Everything was done in as orderly a manner as
possible with undisciplined troops.
[Illustration: GRANT'S ESCAPE.--Page 123.]
Grant superintended the execution of his own orders in the embarkation
of his force; and, when most of them were on board of the steamers, he
sent out a party to pick up the wounded. In the morning he had posted
a reserve in a suitable place for the protection of the fleet, and
as soon as the main body were secure on the decks of the transports,
Grant, attended by a single member of his staff, rode out to withdraw
this force. This guard, ignorant of the requirement of good discipline,
had withdrawn themselves, and the general found himself uncovered in
the presence of the advancing foe. Riding up on a hillock, he found
himself confronting the whole rebel force, now again increased by
fresh additions from the other side of the river. It was a time for an
ordinary man to put spurs to his steed; but Grant had an utter contempt
for danger. He stood still for a moment to examine the situation,
during which he was a shining mark for rebel sharp-shooters. He wore
a private's overcoat, the day being damp and chilly; and to this
circumstance alone can his miraculous escape be attributed.
He was looking for the party he had sent out in search of the wounded,
and realized that they had been cut off by the foe. Turning his horse,
he rode slowly back to the landing, so as not to excite the attention
of his uncomfortable neighbors, who were pouring a galling fire into
the transports. The steamers suffered so much from this destructive
hail of bullets, that they had cast off their fasts, and pushed away
from the bank, leaving the general behind in the midst of the foe.
Seeing how the thing was going, Grant put spurs to his horse, forcing
the steed on his haunches down the bank, just as one of the steamers
was swinging off from the shore. A plank was thrown out for him, up
which he trotted his horse, in the midst of a storm of rebel bullets.
The field being clear of national troops, the gunboats opened a fierce
fire upon the rebel ranks, now within fifty or sixty yards of the
shore, mowing them down with grape and canister in the most fearful
slaughter. The fire of the rebels was fortunately too high to inflict
any serious injury on the troops in the transports, and by five in the
afternoon they were out of range.
The next day Grant met, under a flag of truce, an old classmate from
West Point, then serving on General Polk's staff. He related his
personal experience at Belmont, stating that he had encountered the
rebel line when alone. The rebel officer expressed his surprise.
"Was that you?" exclaimed he. "We saw you. General Polk pointed you out
as a Yankee, and called upon the men to test their aim upon you; but
they were too busy in trying their skill upon the transports to heed
the suggestion."
I point with admiration to the conduct of General Grant during
that entire day. As an example of coolness and courage, he stands
unsurpassed, and even unrivalled. It was thrilling to behold him,
in the midst of the trials and discouragements of that hard-fought
field, the life and the soul of the whole affair. He was the only
trained soldier on the field, for even General McClernand, who was
daring enough to have had three horses shot under him, had no actual
experience of battle. His men, and especially his officers, were
undisciplined, and the whole affair rested upon his shoulders. But the
brave fellows followed his example, and the victory was made sure.
The material results of the battle were one hundred and seventy-five
prisoners, two guns carried off and four spiked on the field, and the
total destruction of the enemy's camp.
Of the force engaged, Grant had thirty-one hundred and fourteen men,
according to his official report. General Polk declared that, at the
beginning of the battle, Pillow had five regiments, a battery, and a
squadron of cavalry; and that five more regiments were sent across the
river during the fight. The rebel force, therefore, must have been
double that of the Unionists; and probably the disparity was still
greater.
My friend Mr. Pollard, with his usual cheerful assumption, called the
battle of Belmont a Confederate victory! Or, stating it a little more
mildly, a defeat in the beginning changed in the end to an overwhelming
victory! Did this amiable rebel ever hear of an army defeated by
an "overwhelming victory," carrying off their captured guns and
prisoners, embarking leisurely in their steamers, and retiring while
the victors were being mowed down in swaths? Grant lost four hundred
and eighty-five men in killed, wounded, and missing; while Mr. Pollard
demolishes his own "overwhelming victory" by acknowledging a rebel
loss of six hundred and forty-two, which was probably below the actual
number.
The moral results of the battle, which cannot be estimated in captured
guns and prisoners, were even more satisfactory. Belmont, as settling a
question of _prestige_, was the Bunker Hill of the Western soldiers. It
gave them confidence in themselves, and prepared the way for Donelson
and Shiloh. It prevented the forces of Jeff Thompson and Price from
being augmented.
The unmilitary conduct of some of the colonels, gallantly as they
fought, exposed them to merited rebuke. It is said that Grant himself
expected to be deprived of his command for fighting this battle, and
for not effecting his retreat more promptly, having been delayed, as
I have shown, by the want of proper support from these commanders of
regiments, who did not control, or attempt to control, the excesses
of the men. One of them, fearful that the same fate was in store for
him, waited upon Grant to ascertain the prospect. He obtained no
satisfaction, for the general thought the lesson ought to work in his
mind.
"Colonel ---- is afraid I will report his bad conduct," said Grant to
one of his friends, when the repentant and anxious officer had departed.
"Why don't you do it?" demanded the other. "He and the other colonels
are to blame for their disobedience, which had nearly involved you in a
disaster."
"These officers had never been under fire," replied the magnanimous
hero. "They did not understand how serious an affair it was, and they
will never forget the lesson they learned. I can judge from their
conduct in the action that they are made of the right stuff. It is
better that I should lose my position, if it must be, than that the
country should lose the services of five such gallant officers when
good men are scarce."
Grant did not lose his command; and the future justified the belief of
Grant, for three of the five colonels won an enviable distinction in
subsequent battles.
That was Grant! It was the imperilled nation, and not his own glory,
for which he was fighting.