Tag: District of Southeast Missouri

Wikipedia says: In September 1861, Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, then subordinate to Maj. Gen. John Fremont in the Union’s Western Department, assumed command of the District of Southeast Missouri; Grant established his headquarters at Cairo, Illinois. One of Grant’s wartime aides, John A. Rawlins, later stated that “[f]rom this time… commenced the growth and organization of the Army of the Tennessee.” Just days later, prompted by Confederate occupation of Columbus, Kentucky, on the Mississippi River, Grant led a small force to seize Paducah, Kentucky, where the Tennessee River joins the Ohio River; Grant thus forestalled a Confederate effort to occupy the strategically important town. Paducah promptly became a separate Union command under Brig. Gen. Charles F. Smith, who soon occupied Smithland, Kentucky, at the junction of the Cumberland River and the Ohio.

Wikipedia says: …According to Rawlins, the “first affair dignified by the name of a battle” for any of Grant’s forces occurred at Fredericktown, Missouri, where some of Grant’s troops helped defeat Confederate forces under M. Jeff Thompson. Grant’s own first engagement came on November 7 at Belmont, Missouri, a Mississippi River landing opposite Columbus, Kentucky. Grant, accompanied by Brig. Gen. John A. McClernand, moved a force of approximately 3,000 to Belmont by water, cut his way into the Confederate camps there, and then had to fight his way back out to regain his transports. Grant’s casualties in this first battle totaled about 500; Confederate casualties were similar. While Grant had suffered a repulse, he won favorable press coverage. This battle, reports Rawlins, “confirmed General Grant in his views” that he should “give battle” whenever “he had what he thought a sufficient number of men.” Also in November, John Fremont lost his command at St. Louis, to be replaced by Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, whose command was designated the Department of the Missouri.