[4V50 Gary]

At the Battle of Belmont, while advancing through the thick woods with reinforcements, Confederate Gen. Benjamin Frank Cheatham took the lead and encountered 50 troops. Trouble is, they were Union troops. Thankfully, as it was early in the war, there was plenty of confusion on both sides. He boldly rides up and asks, "What cavalry is that?" "Illinois cavalry, sir," came the reply. "Oh, Illinois cavalry!" Cheatham bluffed, sighting two Union regiments arrayed behind them. "All right, just stand where you are." He rode off, deployed his men, and attacked. Soon the bodies of Federal soldiers lay "as thick as stumps in a new field," commented one Confederate, and another thought they lay thicker "than ever I had seen pumpkins in a cornfield."

Cheatham was later a Corps Commander with the ill-fated Army of Tennessee.