Corinth was a Civil War engagement fought in Mississippi, 1862. It was a Union victory.
After the Battle of Iuka, Maj. Gen. Sterling Price's Confederate Army of the West marched from Baldwyn to Ripley where it joined Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn's Army of West Tennessee. Van Dorn was senior officer and took command of the combined force numbering about 22,000 men. The Rebels marched to Pocahontas on October 1, and then moved southeast toward Corinth. They hoped to seize Corinth and then sweep into Middle Tennessee. Since the Siege of Corinth, in the spring, Union forces had erected various fortifications, an inner and intermediate line, to protect Corinth, an important transportation center. With the Confederate approach, the Federals, numbering about 23,000, occupied the outer line of fortifications and placed men in front of them. Van Dorn arrived within three miles of Corinth at 10:00 am on October 3, and moved into some fieldworks that the Confederates had erected for the siege of Corinth. The fighting began, and the Confederates steadily pushed the Yankees rearward. A gap occurred between two Union brigades which the Confederates exploited around 1:00 pm. The Union troops moved back in a futile effort to close the gap. Price then attacked and drove the Federals back further to their inner line. By evening, Van Dorn was sure that he could finish the Federals off during the next day. This confidence--combined with the heat, fatigue, and water shortages--persuaded him to cancel any further operations that day. Rosecrans regrouped his men in the fortifications to be ready for the attack to come the next morning. Van Dorn had planned to attack at daybreak, but Brig. Gen. Louis Hébert's sickness postponed it till 9:00 am. As the Confederates moved forward, Union artillery swept the field causing heavy casualties, but the Rebels continued on. They stormed Battery Powell and closed on Battery Robinett, where desperate hand-to-hand fighting ensued. A few Rebels fought their way into Corinth, but the Federals quickly drove them out. The Federals continued on, recapturing Battery Powell, and forcing Van Dorn into a general retreat. Rosecrans postponed any pursuit until the next day. As a result, Van Dorn was defeated, but not destroyed or captured, at Hatchie Bridge, Tennessee, on October 5.
After Union forces triumphed at Shiloh on April 6 and 7, Major General Henry W. Halleck gathered a trio of armies, the Tennessee, the Ohio, and the Mississippi, to march on Corinth, Mississippi, a crucial railway hub. The horrific toll suffered at Shiloh left him wary, so he adopted a slow, methodical approach, digging in defensively after every step forward. Three weeks of this cautious crawl carried his forces just five miles, and by May 25, 1862, he finally stood ready to besiege the town. On the Confederate side, spirits had sunk low, and Beauregard's men found themselves outnumbered by a factor of two. Poor drinking water compounded their troubles, with typhoid and dysentery cutting down thousands in the ranks. When the Confederate command gathered for a war council, they agreed the railroad junction was indefensible. Disease alone had killed as many soldiers as combat had claimed during the fighting at Shiloh.
Facing a Union force ready to besiege the town, Confederate commanders met in council and chose withdrawal over a fight. Beauregard managed to spare his troops through a clever ruse. He handed some soldiers three days of rations and instructed them to ready themselves for an offensive, counting on a deserter or two to carry that false story to the Federals, which is exactly what happened. As the opening bombardment commenced and Union troops jockeyed for advantageous ground, the actual Confederate withdrawal got underway under cover of darkness on the night of May 29. The Mobile and Ohio Railroad became the lifeline for moving out the wounded and sick, along with heavy guns and enormous quantities of supplies. Whenever a train pulled in, soldiers erupted in cheers, giving the impression that fresh reinforcements had arrived. Fake cannons, crafted from logs to resemble real artillery, lined the fortifications, while campfires burned on and musicians kept playing drums and bugles to sustain the illusion. Under this cover, the remaining soldiers quietly departed, making their way to Tupelo, Mississippi, without being noticed. By the time Union scouts made their way into Corinth on the morning of May 30, not a single Confederate soldier remained. Federal troops then occupied the town, turning it into a launching point for their campaign to dominate the Mississippi River valley, with particular ambitions toward capturing the Confederate bastion at Vicksburg, Mississippi.
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