Hey everyone, welcome to episode 79 of our Civil War podcast.

I'm Rich.

I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Thanks for tuning into the podcast.

On the same day that the Battle of Port Royal Sound took place, November 7, 1861, another

battle took place out west along the Mississippi River at Belmont, Missouri.

Belmont was an old fairy landing occupied by a small confederate garrison. It lay on the

west side of the Mississippi directly across the river from the key rebel fortified position

at Columbus, Kentucky. The Union force that set out to strike the confederates at Belmont

consisted of five infantry regiments, two cavalry companies, and a single battery of artillery,

about 3,000 men and all. The officer in command of the operation was an obscure 39-year-old

Brigadier General of volunteers named Ulysses S. Grant.

Belmont was Grant's first battle of the Civil War, and although it was no model of sound

planning and was characterized by sloppiness of execution, it was bold and audacious and

brought Grant to the attention of Abraham Lincoln. It was the first notice that anyone

of importance in Washington had taken of him, but from then on the president would pay

special attention to General Grant. Not because Grant was a political ally or old friend,

but because in Lincoln's short but famous explanation, he fights. At Belmont, after Grant's

small command had landed and initially broke the enemy line, confederate reinforcements

arrived from across the river and threatened to surround the Union force and capture

the lot of them. When one of his subordinates counseled surrender, Grant simply noted that

they had cut their way in and they could cut their way out just as well, and they proceeded

to do just that. Before that, six weeks before the Civil

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