Captain Joseph A. Brickhouse, a Confederate veteran, said, “We fought in the open prairie, bringing on the attack with four small pieces of artillery and less than 300 infantry, poorly armed, attacking in the open prairie two such boats as the Granite City and Wave - Union gunboats - and capturing them after an action of less than two hours and 40 minutes duration.” He described his own forces (Confederate) as unprepared, and he stated that they still had an easy battle that was short in duration. The Confederate forces in this battle were split up into five battalions.