{"id":2640,"date":"2010-07-04T15:50:34","date_gmt":"2010-07-04T20:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/?p=2640"},"modified":"2010-07-09T19:12:05","modified_gmt":"2010-07-10T00:12:05","slug":"the-siege-and-battle-of-corinth-may-and-october-1862","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/2010\/07\/04\/the-siege-and-battle-of-corinth-may-and-october-1862\/","title":{"rendered":"The Siege and Battle of Corinth, May and October 1862"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Corinth, Mississippi<\/a>, founded in 1854, became an important site for Union and Confederate troops following the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard <\/a>of the Confederate army set his troops in Corinth in April 1862 until a much larger force led by Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck<\/a> followed and began to encroach on the Confederate stronghold. On the evening of May 29, after sustaining Union bombardments, the Confederates\u00a0set up several convincing tricks to mask their retreat and convey the arrival of reinforcements.\u00a0They cheered when trains arrived and set up deceiving cannon-like log imitations called \u201cquaker guns<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The actual Battle of Corinth<\/a> did not take place until October 3 and October 4, 1862. Confederate forces led by Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn<\/a> sought to return Corinth to Confederate control, for since the siege from five months before Union fortifications had strengthened in the small town. Though some Confederate soldiers did break the Union\u2019s barriers around the city, the approaching Confederates retreated from Corinth as Union forces followed them across Tennessee.<\/p>\n

The siege and battle at Corinth illustrate important shifts in the early part of the Civil War. Corinth became a key battlefront in 1862 despite being developed less than a decade prior. The \u201cfighting, occupation, and carnage,\u201d as noted by Timothy B. Smith in his article<\/a> published by the Mississippi Historical Society,\u00a0\u00a0that occurred in this small town show the true scale\u00a0of the Civil War. Battles did not always take place on the battlefield. Several recent efforts have been made to recognize Corinth in the Civil War, including several landmarks within Corinth<\/a>. Corinth\u2019s Crossroads Museum<\/a> and the National Park Service\u2019s Corinth Interpretive Center<\/a> <\/strong>commemorate the impact of the Civil War felt in the town. Teachers may find useful other photos<\/a> of Corinth and the park taken by Michael Noirot as part of a photo contest for Corinth on his blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Manning Ferguson Force\u2019s From Fort Henry to Corinth<\/a><\/span> <\/em><\/strong>provides a summary<\/a> of the battle from a nineteenth-century perspective. For more modern scholarship on the siege and battle see the National Park Service\u2019s summaries and lessons<\/a> of the conflict. Michael Ballard dedicates a chapter<\/a> in Civil War Mississippi: A Guide <\/a><\/em>to the Battle of Corinth and focuses on mistakes made by Van Dorn as the Confederate force sought to regain control in Corinth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Corinth, Mississippi, founded in 1854, became an important site for Union and Confederate troops following the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard of the Confederate army set his troops in Corinth in April 1862 until a much larger force led by Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck followed and began to encroach on the Confederate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,82,47],"tags":[161],"class_list":["post-2640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-war-1861-1865","category-lesson-plans","category-places-to-visit","tag-battles-soldiers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2640"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2671,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640\/revisions\/2671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/blogdivided\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}