On November 7, 1861, Ulysses S. Grant led an ordered "feint" that he accidentally on purpose turned into a sharp little fight at Belmont, Missouri, when he and 3,000 Union troops disembarked from troopships on the Mississippi to attack a forward Rebel position near the heavily fortified batteries at Columbus, Kentucky. Grant's green men ran into an enemy force of more or less equal strength and experience, forcing them back towards their camp until they eventually broke and ran. As Grant would tell it, his troops then became "demoralized by victory", breaking ranks to loot tents and the camp in defiance of their officers, in a scene that was sharply reminiscent of Rebel looting at Shiloh the following spring. While this was happening, heavy enemy reinforcements arrived, cutting Grant off from his river transports. Some officers believed they had no choice but to surrender. Grant demurred, and after hard fighting his men cut their way back out to the Mississippi, though one Illinois regiment got lost and wandered along the bank before they were finally picked up by friendlies.
Grant's first battle in command, he had a horse shot from under him, but his closest call came when he got back on the transport when the firing had supposedly stopped. He went down below and lay down for a while, and right as he stood up from his nap a bullet slammed through and hit right where his head had been minutes, if not moments, earlier.