Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/392

 332 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI forces, and Colonel R. J. Oglesby with some ■ijOOO or 5,000 Illinois troops to take boat at Bird's Point, disembark at Commerce, and proceed to Bloomfield to operate against Thompson. These orders were carried out, Carlin starting from Ironton on November 3rd and reaching Indian Ford, twenty-five miles south of Greenville on the St. Francois river but finding no troops, from Indian Ford he was ordered to return to Ironton as it was found to be impracticable to cross from In- dian Ford to Bloomfield with troops and a wagon train. Colonel Plummer marched from j/' Cape Girardeau to Bloomfield expecting to capture Thompson and his command, but found they had retreated. Oglesby started from Bird's Point, landed at Commerce, marched across ' ' Nigger Wool ' ' swamp where he fought a skirmish with a few Confederate soldiers, and then to Bloomfield taking posses- sion of that town. On the arrival of the Un- ion troops, Thompson fell back from Bloom- field about ten miles to Camp Jackson and later to "West Prairie in the vicinity of Clark- ton. It was his intention, if pressed, to re- treat across the Blanton plank road from Clarkton to New Jladrid. When Plummer and Oglesby found that Thompson had re- treated from Bloomfield they at first deter- mined to follow him to New Madrid. They were, however, ordered by General Grant to return. Plummer then fell back to Cape Girardeau, and Oglesby returned to Bird's Point. The battle of Belmont immediately followed these movements. General Grant had been ordered to stop the crossing of Confederate troops at Columbus and the battle was the result of this order. The battle of Belmont was a fiereelv fought and sanguinary contest. It was the purpose of General Grant to seize the Confederate post at Belmont and to hold it in order to prevent the crossing of troops from Ken- tucky. On the evening of November 5th he em- barked about 4,000 men on transports and ac- companied bj' a convoy of gunboats dropped down from Cairo toward Belmont, a distance of twenty miles. Eleven miles from Belmont he made a feint at landing and remained an- chored until daylight. Early in the morning the boats were dropped down to Hunter's farm three miles from Belmont, landed and marched against the latter place. The Con- federate forces, while inferior in numbers to the attacking army, fought with great valor and vere favored by the dense woods and marshy character of part of the ground. The fighting continued for four hours when the Confederates wei'e driven out from their camp and took shelter under the river bank. They did not surrender, however, and kept up a desultory fire from their new position. The Union forces were disorganized bj- their cap- ture of the camp and gave themselves up to pillage. Meantime the Confederates were hurrying reinforcements from Columbus on the other side of the river and soon began to press on the Federals. The camp was fired and the Confederate batteries at Columbus fired on the Union army. Finding the posi- tion untenable the Union forces fell back to- ward their transports and were attacked furi- ously by the Confederates. The Union forces suffered severely on this retreat and General Grant himself came near falling into the hands of the Confederates. He managed to reach the transport just as it pushed off. The victory remained with the Confederates though they lost in all 642 men wliile the Un- ion loss was 480.