GENERAL POLK AND THE BATTLE OF BELMONT.

349

PORTRAITS OF CONFEDERATE PRIVATES OF THE WEST.—I.

mm*

From ambrotypes found at the close of the war in the dead-letter office, Richmond. Letters accompanying' the por-traits suggest that the warlike attitude was a favorite pose for pictures intended for sisters and sweethearts.

inferior to that which was about to attack him. Anxious, however, to give Pil-low all the men that he deemed necessary, Polk moved over another regiment(five hundred men), which landed on the Missouri shore just as the battlebegan (10:30 a. m.) Thus in all fairness it must be stated, that when the bat-tle of Belmont commenced the opposing forces were virtually equal. Theengagement became general a few minutes before 11 o’clock. With his linewell extended Grant bore down upon the Confederate position, and, thoughstubbornly resisted, he gradually fought his way forward, driving the Con-federates to the river bank and capturing the camp.

Polk had been deterred from sending in the first instance a larger force tomeet Grant’s attack by the reports which his scouts made of the movementsof the transports upon the river, and of the position and numbers of thecolumns from Fort Holt and Paducah, — all tending to show that the landingupon the opposite side of the river was a mere feint, while the real designwas an attack upon Columbus. In spite of this, however, as we have seen,he placed at Belmont a force fully equal to that with which Grant was acting.Finding now that this force was being defeated, and learning at the sametime that there was no enemy upon the Kentucky shore near enough tothreaten seriously his position, he promptly moved over to Belmont additionalreenforcements. Striking Grant upon the flank and rear, he drove him from

PORTRAITS OF CONFEDERATE PRIVATES OF THE WEST.—II.