Video: '1861-29 Battle of Belmont'

(Thursday, November 7, 1861, 9:00 a.m. local time; during the Battle of Belmont, part of the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War) — Union forces led by Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, the future Union Army general in chief and eventual U.S. president, overran a Confederate camp today in Belmont, Missouri, but were forced to retreat when Confederate reinforcements arrived.

On Nov. 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.

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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.

Union losses were 607 (120 dead, 383 wounded, and 104 captured or missing). Confederate casualties were slightly higher at 641 (105 killed, 419 wounded, 106 captured, and 11 missing).