Analysis of The Battle at Belmont Book by Greg Schroeder - Essay Example

On November 5, 1861, the commander of the Department of Missouri Major General John C. Fremont ordered Grant who was the Brigadier general of the U.S, and Brigadier general C. F. Smith, the commander of the union forces at Paducah staged a demonstration against Leonidas Polk Confederate general to stop the undertaking of strengthening from Polk to Sterling price and Thompson in Missouri (Hughes, 1991). On the evening of the sixth, Grant boarded two brigades summing to 3114 men on Cairo’s river transport and Bird’s point and proceeded down the river a distance of about 8 miles. Later that night Grant received information about Confederates crossing at Columbus with the intended plans to censor off Colonel Oglesby’s stake, when asked about that, the excuse was given that Ogleby’s had left just to try to play Jeff Thompsons' rebel force and got to be around Indian Ford on St.Francis. This book also explains how the gunboats opened the battle and explain the involvement of Colonel James C.

Tappan who was a democrat and served as a judge in 1861, Augustus C. Watsons, a wealthy planter who organized an artillery company in New Orleans, and Major general Polk who found Tappan at the riverbank looking for a boat to transport him back across the river (Hughes, 1991). Later after the gunboat's actions with the battery’s parrot guns burst which executed two and hurt three, Tappan and Beltzhoover deployed their minor forces in defense of the two streets which were approaching the Belmont landing, and Grant was shown as under cover of the gunboats.

It also explains the actions of the Confederates left, Brigadier General Pillow reached the front line of Tappan’s on the Belmont claiming that he didn’t get sufficient time to deploy his line before being assailed by the Federals. Though the Pillows deployment is explained to have been awkward. The actions of the Confederate right progressed no good, however, are better displayed from the position of both terrain and intersection. The Tappan regime was later overtaken by the Polk regime and ordered back to the river (Hughes, 1991). The book also explains how the Confederates counterattacked. Pillow commanded Marks to attack the enemy’s flank with Colonel Russell’s giving a backup. This led to a burning firefight for approximately one and a half hours which lastly resulted in the breaking off of the bluecoats. Cheatham commanded to cross the river but determined to postpone the overpass until the battery could be muzzled as they cross the steamboat.