CHAP. VII. formed so much of it as was possible. He always had an opinion, and that opinion was positive, intelligible, practical. We find therefore that his allotted tasks from the first continually rose in importance. He gained in authority and usefulness not by solicitation or intrigue, but by services rendered. He was sent to more and more difficult duties, to larger supervision, to heavier responsibilities. From guarding a station at Mexico on the North Missouri Railroad, to protecting a railroad terminus near Ironton in Southeast Missouri; from there to brief inspection duty at Jefferson City, then to the command of the military district of Southeast Missouri; finally to the command of the great military depot and rendezvous at Cairo, Illinois, with its several outlying posts and districts, and the supervision of its complicated details about troops, arms, and supplies to be collected and forwarded in all directions. Clearly it was not chance which brought him to such duties, but his fitness to perform them. It was from the vantage-ground of this enlarged command that he had checkmated the rebel occupation of Columbus by seizing Paducah and Smithland. And from Cairo he also organized and led his first command in field fighting, at what is known as the battle of Belmont.

Just before Frémont was relieved, and while he was in the field in nominal pursuit of Price, he had ordered Grant to clear Southeastern Missouri of guerrillas, with the double view of restoring local authority and preventing reënforcements to Price. Movements were progressing to this end when it became apparent that the rebel stronghold at Columbus was preparing to send out a column.

1861.

Grant organized an expedition to counteract this CHAP. VII. design, and on the evening of November 6 left Cairo with about 3000 men, on transports, under convoy of two gunboats, and steamed down the river. Upon information gained while on his route he determined to break up a rebel camp at Belmont Landing, on the Missouri shore opposite Columbus, as the best means of making his expedition effective. On the morning of the 7th he landed his troops at Hunter's Point, three miles above Belmont, and marched to a favorable place for attack back of the rebel encampment, which was situated in a large open field and was protected on the land side by a line of abatis. By the time Grant reached his position the rebel camp, originally consisting of a single regiment, had been reënforced by five regiments from Columbus under General Pillow. A deliberate battle with about equal forces ensued. Though the Confederate line courageously contested the ground, the Union line, steadily advancing, swept the rebels back, penetrating the abatis, and gaining the camp of the enemy, who in disorder took shelter under the steep river bank. Grant's troops had gained a complete and substantial victory, but they now frittered it away by a disorderly exultation. The record does not show who was responsible for the unmilitary conduct, but it quickly brought its retribution. Before the Unionists were aware of it, General Polk had sent an additional reënforcement of several regiments across the river and hurriedly marched them to cut off the Federal retreat, which instead of an orderly march from the battlefield became a hasty scramble to get out of danger.

VOL. V.-8

"From Fort Henry to Corinth," p. 23.

CHAP. VII. Grant himself, unaware that the few companies left as a guard near the landing had already embarked, remained on shore to find them, and encountered instead the advancing rebel line. Discovering his mistake he rode back to the landing, M. F. Force, where "his horse slid down the river bank on its haunches and trotted on board a transport over a plank thrust out for him." Belmont was a drawn battle; or rather it was first a victory for the Federals and then a victory for the Confederates. The courage and the loss were nearly equal: 79 killed and 289 wounded on the Union side; 105 killed and 419 wounded on the Confederate side. BrigadierGeneral McClernand, second in command in the battle of Belmont, was a fellow-townsman of the President, and to him Lincoln wrote the following letter of thanks and encouragement to the troops engaged:

Ibid.

This is not an official but a social letter. You have had a battle, and without being able to judge as to the precise measure of its value, I think it is safe to say that you, and all with you, have done honor to yourselves and the flag, and service to the country. Most gratefully do I thank you and them. In my present position, I must care for the whole nation; but I hope it will be no injustice to any other State for me to indulge a little home pride that Illinois does not disappoint us. I have just closed a long interview with Mr. Washburne, in which he has detailed the many difficulties you, and those with you, labor under. Be assured we do not forget or neglect you. Much, very much, goes undone; but it is because we have not the power to do it faster than we do. Some of your forces are without arms, but the same is true here, and at every other place where we have considerable bodies of troops. The plain matter of fact is, our good people have rushed to the rescue of the Government faster than the Government can find arms to put