File:A personal history of Ulysses S. Grant, and sketch of Schuyler Colfax (1868) (14804975183).jpg

Identifier: personalhistoryo00rich (find matches)
Title: A personal history of Ulysses S. Grant, and sketch of Schuyler Colfax
Year: 1868 (1860s)
Authors: Richardson, Albert D. (Albert Deane), 1833-1869
Subjects: Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885 Colfax, Schuyler, 1823-1885
Publisher: Hartford, Conn., American Publishing Company San Francisco, Cal., R. J. Trumbull & Co.
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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officers and men all told had ever heard a hostile gun fired.
Nine miles below Cairo the boats tied up for the night at
the Kentucky shore. The head-quarters steamer was so
crowded with men, that there was no opportunity for lying
down, so the General and staff slept in their chairs in the
cabin. About midnight came a note from W. H. L. Wal-
lace, in Charleston, Missouri, announcing that the rebels
were crossing from Columbus, and had already thrown sev-
eral regiments into Belmont, apparently to intercept Oglesby
and re-enforce Price. Grant immediately said:—


198 DETERMINES TO ATTACK THE ENNEMY [1861.

" The only way now to make this expedition of any
value is, to attack. Besides a skirmish will give our men
confidence. They enlisted to fight; if we bring them back
without an engagement, they will think we are afraid to pit
them against the enemy. The rebels will think so too, for
in all our flag-of-truce meetings they have been a little
supercilious. It is time for them to find out whether we fear
them."


Text Appearing After Image:


BELMONT, FORT HENRY, DONELSON, SHILLOH, CORINTH, AND IUKA.

Early next morning, Grant landed his little force in Mis-
souri, four miles above Belmont, and at the lowest point out
of reach of the Columbus batteries. Hauling the cannon up
the steep bank, and leaving the transports under guard of
the gun-boats and a battalion of infantry, our troops moved
forward a mile and formed in line of battle.

1861] THE BATTLE OF BELMONT BEGINS. 199

Soon after nine, a. m., a mile and a half above Belmont,
the fight began, in a swampy forest. The soldiers, never
under tire before, got behind trees and blazed away quite at
random, but Grant, with his staff and Logan, rode along the
front, encouraging them and rallying them from their hiding-
places, but never roughly, remembering that habit alone
can bring discipline. When the enemy had fallen back,
Grant cried out to his adjutant:—

" Stop the men, they are wasting ammunition."
Rawlins has a stentorian voice ; but as he tried to repeat
this order to the colonels, it was lost in " the thunder of the

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