Battle of Belmont

Battle of Belmont
Part of the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War
Charleston defenses, Belmont battlefield by Julius Bien & Co., Lith., N.Y.
Date November 7, 1861 (1861-11-07) Location Belmont, Mississippi County, Missouri 36°45′57″N 89°07′26″W / 36.7657°N 89.1240°W / 36.7657; -89.1240 Result Inconclusive
Belligerents
United States (Union)	CSA (Confederacy)
Commanders and leaders
Ulysses S. Grant	Leonidas Polk
Strength
3,114	5,000
Casualties and losses
607 (120 killed; 383 wounded; 104 captured/missing)	641 (105 killed; 419 wounded; 117 captured/missing)

The Battle of Belmont was fought on November 7, 1861, in Mississippi County, Missouri. It was the first combat test in the American Civil War for Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, the future Union Army general in chief and eventual U.S. president, who was fighting Major General Leonidas Polk. Grant's troops in this battle were the "nucleus" of what would become the Union Army of the Tennessee.^[1]

On November 6, Grant moved by riverboat from Cairo, Illinois, to attack the Confederacy's small outpost near Belmont, Missouri across the Mississippi River from the Confederate stronghold at Columbus, Kentucky. He landed his men on the Missouri side and marched to Belmont. Grant's troops overran the surprised Confederate camp and destroyed it. However, the scattered Confederate forces quickly reorganized and were reinforced from Columbus. They counterattacked, supported by heavy artillery fire from across the river. Grant retreated to his riverboats and took his men to Paducah, Kentucky. The battle was relatively unimportant, but with little happening elsewhere at the time, it received considerable attention in the press.^[2]