It was of the highest importance that these places should be held, and Grant placed General Charles F. Smith in command of the position, with a brigade of the most reliable troops. This man was his _beau idéal_ of a soldier, and the regular army officers regarded him as one of its most able and accomplished veterans. It is said that he had incurred the displeasure of General Scott, who neither forgave nor forgot; otherwise he might have been assigned to the position taken by McClellan. He was a stern and unyielding disciplinarian, with little or none of the tact which had characterized Grant's treatment of this difficult problem, and his severity soon embroiled him with the volunteers. Politicians and newspapers cried him down, and his sins were blazoned at the War Department. He was in imminent peril of being sent in disgrace into the shade before he had fought a single battle. But Grant understood him, and saved him; and "Paducah Smith" at Fort Donelson, leading the fiercest charge, bareheaded and inspired, justified himself and his steadfast friend. Grumblers and slanderers were shamed and silenced. Grant's wonderfully correct estimate of men has proved to be one of the secrets of his success; and here, in the first year of the Rebellion, and before he had been a week in command of this district, he began to demonstrate in this direction not only his fidelity to a friend, but his firmness in the good cause. CHAPTER XI. _Wherein Captain Galligasken describes the Battle of Belmont, and further illustrates the military Qualities of the illustrious Soldier, as exhibited in that fierce Fight._ With such a man as Smith at Paducah, placed there, and kept there, by General Grant, the outlets of those great rivers, the Tennessee and the Cumberland, which led down into the very heart of the Rebellion, were safe. We looked to Grant--we, within the narrow sphere he then occupied--for another movement, for some brilliant and well-conceived operation, which would gladden the hearts and strengthen the arms of the men of the loyal cause; but we looked in vain, for he was not the commander of a department, and was held back by General Fremont. But Grant was busy, and not a moment of his precious time was lost, however it may have been turned aside from its highest usefulness. The hardy and enthusiastic volunteers from the North-west were poured in upon him until he had about twenty thousand. He employed himself in perfecting their organization and improving their discipline.