Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[539] Cairo, by sending a regiment of Missouri volunteers, under Colonel Shuttner, to occupy and fortify Bird's Point opposite.¹ That point is a few feet higher than Cairo, and a battery upon it perfectly commanded the entire ground

Camp of the Missouri Volunteers on Bird's Point.

occupied by the National troops at the latter place. Captain Benham, of the Engineers,² who constructed the works there, called attention early to the importance of occupying that point, for its possession by the insurgents would make Cairo untenable. Shuttner so strongly fortified his camp, that he was in no fear of any force the insurgents were likely to assail it with. But he was there none too early, and cast up his fortifications none too soon, for General Pillow, who was collecting a large force in Western Tennessee for the capture of Cairo, made Bird's Point the most important objective in his plan.

Pillow worked diligently for the accomplishment of his purpose, efficiently aided by B. F. Cheatham, a more accomplished soldier of Tennessee, who served with distinction under General Patterson in the war in Mexico. He was among the first of his class in Tennessee to join the insurgents, and was now holding the commission of a brigadier-general in the service of the conspirators. Pillow was superseded in command by Leonidas Polk, a graduate of the Military Academy at West Point, and Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Louisiana. Early in July, Polk accepted the commission of major-general in the “Provisional Army of the Confederate States of America,” and was appointed to the command of a department, which extended from the mouth of the Arkansas River, on each side of the Mississippi as far as the northern boundary of the

Benjamin F. Cheatham.

“ Confederacy.” He made his Headquarters at Memphis, in Tennessee; and, in his first general order, issued on the 13th of July, he showed great bitterness of feeling. He declared that the “invasion ”