The Confederate soldiers peered out from their trenches, dug deep into the bluffs 150 feet above the Mississippi River at Columbus, Kentucky. The early light of dawn had cut through the morning mists, revealing the great river–the dividing line at that point between Kentucky and Missouri–twisting its way through marshlands, dense forests and untamed countryside speckled with farmhouses and cornfields. Looking north, the Southerners could make out in the distance two Federal gunboats, Tyler and Lexington, coming down the river.
During the last two months, the woodenclads had made several brief but harmless forays to test the strength and range of the 140 Confederate guns placed along the bluffs. But on November 7, 1861, the soldiers' pulses quickened as they watched the fully armed steamers bearing down on them. Cavalry scouts had sent word that Federal transports were debarking a force of 3,000 men three miles upriver on the opposite shore, at a point concealed by the sharp bend in the river and the heavy woods on the bank. Their target was the Confederate garrison at Belmont, Mo., directly across the river from the fortified bluffs.
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