Battle of Belmont

This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.

If you were ever an enlisted man or woman, you certainly made your share of wise cracks at the expense of the Second Lieutenant fresh from R.O.T.C. who tried to run your unit by the book.

That was the situation that faced Colonel Napoleon Buford of Rock Island on August 10^th, 1861, when he was given command of the 27^th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Colonel Buford graduated from West Point in 1927, but his only military action had been a two-year stint as a West Point professor from 1833-35. Since moving to Rock Island in 1843, he had become a banker and railroad president.

Putting the 27^th Infantry in fighting trim would have been a challenge, even for a seasoned sergeant. The volunteers were greenhorns, eager to shoot Confederates, but with no training or discipline. "A children's crusade," is how one historian described the 27^th.

Buford prepared his men for combat by incessant drill, drill in the morning and again in the afternoon. Drill, drill. It had worked at West Point, but West Point was not Springfield. By November, there were discipline problems as the men grew eager to fight. But there could be no fight until the men were disciplined.

Finally, their commander, General Ulysses S. Grant, hit upon a compromise. He sent the 27^th and two other units of Illinois volunteers against a small outpost of Confederates stationed by themselves at Belmont, across the Mississippi from Columbus, Kentucky. It would give Colonel Buford a chance to test his book learning out, and the men a chance to fire weapons in a small practice battle.

And it worked. The 27^th Infantry led the charge into the Confederate camp. Even though the Illinois soldiers were eventually forced to retreat, the Battle of Belmont gave them the chance to bring theory and practice together.

Had it not been for the fact that the wounds and the deaths were as real as in actual combat, we might call the Battle of Belmont by its currently popular name: an internship.

Rock Island Lines is underwritten by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and Augustana College, Rock Island.