army, as it was recruited where many
of them lived; and I knew they would be loyal to the old flag, and
ready to defend it with their lives. But the alarm came so suddenly
that I had no time to feign sickness, or invent an excuse for being
off duty.

Tappan's Arkansas, and Russell's Tennessee regiments, with a
battalion of Mississippi cavalry, about fifteen hundred men in all,
who were stationed at Belmont, across the river, were attacked,
about seven o'clock, A.M., by General McClernand, with a little over
seven thousand men, according to Union authorities. It was a
complete surprise to us. At first we thought it was a picket
skirmish with the cavalry; but soon Frank Cheatham, our brigadier,
came galloping through the camp, bare-headed, in shirt and
pantaloons, ordering us to "fall in," saying that the "enemy were
murdering the sick men in their tents across the river." The report
thus started soon took this form: "The Yankees have bayoneted the
sick men in Russell's regiment." This regiment was composed mostly
of Irishmen, as was ours. Instantly the rage of our men was such
they could scarcely be restrained, and many of them swore they would
swim the river if necessary, to reach the enemy, and would give no
quarter.

I called the roll of the company, as was my duty, and found
seventy-nine men out of one hundred and three present,--there was a
good deal of sickness then in the army. Soon four of the company
came in from the hospital, declaring they would have a share in the
fight; and fourteen who were on guard were added, making the company
nearly full.

Two steamboats soon had steam up, and by nine A.M., General Pillow,
with his brigade of three thousand five hundred men, was across the
river and in the fight.

Up to this time, the Federal force had driven the Confederates back
from their camps, and threatened their annihilation, but Pillow's
arrival stayed the retreat. By ten A.M., Cheatham's brigade of 2500
men, in which was my regiment, were also coming into the engagement.
By eleven A.M., both armies were fully employed. In the mean time
some of the guns on the fortifications at Columbus were trying their
range upon the Federal gunboats, which lay about three miles
distant, and replied fiercely to their challenges. But little
execution on either side was done by this firing. The carelessness
of the officers in our brigade nearly lost the day, early in the
contest. The men had but ten rounds of ammunition,