Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

---

[358] charge. He occupied Cape Girardeau, Commerce, and Bird's Point, on the right bank of the Mississippi. His base of operations was at Cairo, in Illinois. After the neutrality of Kentucky had been violated he had taken possession of the following points in that State: Fort Holt, opposite Cairo, at the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi; Paducah, at the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio; and Smithland, at the confluence of the last-named river and the Cumberland. He thus commanded the mouths of the three river lines which penetrated into the South. A certain number of wooden gunboats, old merchant-vessels armed in haste, and some large steamers, with several decks, turned into transports, constituted a flotilla which connected these different posts with each other. The Confederates, on their side, had closed the three navigable routes, which their adversaries had not yet any serious intention of disputing, by means of well-armed works, of which Columbus was then the most important.

On receiving the last instructions from Fremont, Grant immediately sent an additional regiment to Oglesby, with orders to fall back upon New Madrid, a little below Belmont, so as to threaten that position, against which he was himself preparing to operate directly. The attack was fixed for the 7th of November. On the 6th, Grant embarked upon three transport-ships, with five regiments of infantry, one of cavalry, and a section of artillery, three thousand one hundred and fourteen men in all, forming two small brigades, under General McClernand and Colonel Dougherty. In the mean while, demonstrations were made upon both sides of the river, one from Bird's Point and the other from Fort Holt, but they were undertaken by such small parties, obliged to stop at a distance so remote from the enemy, that they were without results.

Pursuing his course on the Mississippi, Grant left his adversaries in a state of uncertainty as to which side of the river he would select for landing. In order to deceive them a little longer, he stopped, the evening of the 6th, on the left bank; and on the morning of the 7th, his transport-ships were moored to the right bank at a place called Hunter's Landing, situated above Columbus, eight kilometres by water, but only five in a direct line, for between these two points the river makes an elbow to eastward,