GENERAL POLK AND THE BATTLE OF BELMONT.

BY HIS SON, HE. WILLIAM M. POLK, CAPTAIN, C. S. A.

N the 1st of November, 1861, General Fremont ordered General Grant at

IT Cairo, and General C. F. Smith at Paducah , to hold their commandsin readiness for a demonstration upon Columbus, Kentucky , a strong posi-tion then occupied by about ten thousand Confederate troops under GeneralLeonidas Polk . The object of the proposed demonstration was to cover aneffort to be made to drive General Jeff. Thompson from south-east Missouri ;and at the same time to check the sending of reenforcements to Price . Inaccordance with this general plan, on the 4th and 6th Grant moved ColonelsR. J. Oglesby, W. H. L. Wallace , and J. B. Plummer in the direction of thetown of Sikeston, Mo . Next he ordered the garrison at Fort Holt oppositeCairo to advance in the direction of Columbus , and early on the morningof the 7th, with a force of about 3500 men of all arms, convoyed by the gun-boats Lexington and Tyler , he steamed down the Mississippi River toward thesame objective point. Smith meanwhile from the direction of Paducah threwforward his column of 2000 men.

The mobilization of these various commands, some 12,000 men in all, wasduly reported to Polk, and with the report came rumors of the enemy’sdesigns. Polk, however, did not believe that so extensive a movement wasdirected against Thompson, whose entire force numbered not more than 1500men, then encamped far down toward Arkansas . Nor could he think thatthe plea of preventing the sending of reenforcements to Price was genuine,as he knew that there were no troops then (nor were there likely to be any)in motion to join Price . On the other hand, having for some weeks hadevery reason to expect a determined effort on Grant’s part to dislodge him,he naturally supposed that the looked-for attack was at hand.

The force at his disposal, including the garrison of Columbus , was thenabout 10,000 men of all arms. At Belmont, opposite Columbus , Polk hadestablished a camp of observation, which was then occupied by one regimentof infantry, a battery of artillery, and a squadron of cavalry. In order tocommand the approaches to this position by the batteries on the high groundat Columbus , the trees had been felled for some distance along the west bank,and the fallen timber had been so placed as to form an abatis capable ofobstructing the advance of an enemy. This camp Grant decided to attack.

Accordingly, at about 8 o’clock on the morning of the 7th he disembarkedhis force on the Missouri shore, some five miles above Belmont, and orderedthe gun-boats to drop below and engage the batteries at Columbus . Quicklyforming his column, Grant pushed for the Confederate camp.

Polk meanwhile sent General McCown with a force of infantry and artil-lery up the east bank of the river, and, learning of the landing of the enemyon the west shore, dispatched General Pillow with four regiments to the aidof the camp, thus providing this officer with a force (2700 of all arms) but little

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