A fearsome general is born.The battle of Belmont was the first battle in the western theater of the Civil War and, more important, the first battle of the war fought by Ulysses S. Grant. At first successful, the Federals were eventually driven from the field and withdrew up the Mississippi to safety. The battle cost some twenty percent of Grant's troops, but as a result of this engagement he became known as an audacious fighting general. Nat Hughes provides the only full-length tactical study of the battle that catapulted Grant into prominence. Throughout the narrative, Hughes draws sketches of the lives and fates of individual soldiers who fought on both sides, especially of the colorful and enormously dissimilar principal actors, Grant and Polk.
- ISBN13 9780807858967
- Publish Date 1 February 2008 (first published 1 September 1991)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 5 June 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint The University of North Carolina Press
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback
- Pages 310
- Language English