TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

On the Water Because the Mississippi River separated the opposing forces from the battlefield water transportation was critical. The Union forces needed to move troops across the river under the guns of the Confederate stronghold at Columbus. The threat of these guns forced Grant to make his landings several miles from his objective. The time […]

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Counterattack The first to arrive was BG B. F. Cheatham and staff who gathered the remnants of the 13th Arkansas, 22nd Tennessee, and 13th Tennessee and marched north for a strike against the Union transports. Further north the brigade of COL Preston Smith, with Polk along, landed and moved south against the Federal forces at […]

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The Attack Begins The decision to change the demonstration at Columbus to an attack at Belmont was taken without authorization from Fremont. In fact, it was directly opposed to his order that the operation should be confined to a demonstration and no attack should be made at any point. Nevertheless, Grant felt that the reported […]

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Early Developments The opening weeks of the standoff in western Kentucky were dominated by the powerful misconceptions about the opposing commander’s intent. MG John Fremont believed that the Confederate presence at Columbus posed a serious threat to the Union positions in both Kentucky and Missouri. He directed his subordinate commander, BG Grant, to secure Paducah […]

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Introduction In the fall of 1861, while much of the national attention was focused on events in the east, a tense political and military situation was also developing in the west. The border states were particularly sensitive. In Kentucky the election of Abraham Lincoln brought the politically diverse population into turmoil. In the southern and […]

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