Second battle for Corinth
Second Battle of Corinth, October 4, 1862
| date | 3rd to 4th October 1862 |
|---|---|
| place | Alcorn County , Mississippi, USA |
| output | Union victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
|
~ 23,000
|
~ 22,000
|
| losses | |
|
2,520 killed
: 355 wounded: 1,841 missing: 324 |
4,838 killed
: 505 wounded: 2,150 missing / captured: 2,183 |
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The Second Battle of Corinth took place on October 3rd and 4th, 1862 around the strategically important city of Corinth , Mississippi because of its location at a railway junction , during the Iuka-Corinth campaign. The Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Mississippi Army , Major General William Starke Rosecrans , defeated the West Tennessee Confederate Army under Major General Earl Van Dorns .
background
When Confederate General Braxton Bragg advanced north of Tennessee into Kentucky in September 1862 , Major General Don Carlos Buell and his Army of the Ohio pursued him from Nashville , Tennessee. The Confederates had to prevent Buell from being reinforced by Major General Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee . Since the first Battle of Corinth that summer, Grant's army had been busy securing supply lines in western Tennessee and northern Mississippi. In the battle at Iuka on September 19, Major General Sterling Price's West Confederate Army was defeated by Mississippi Army troops formally under Grant's command but tactically under Rosecrans. Price had hoped to unite his small army with Major General Earl Van Dorn's Army of Tennessee to disrupt Grant's intelligence, but Grant and Rosecrans struck first, causing Price to withdraw from Iuka.
After Iuka, Grant set up his headquarters in Jackson , Tennessee, a central location to keep in touch with his troops in Corinth and Memphis . Rosecrans, meanwhile, returned to Corinth to meet Major General Edward Ord , whose three Divisions of Grants Army of the Tennessee had fortunately remained undamaged at Iuka, and then moved to Bolivar , Tennessee, northwest of Corinth, to join forces with Major General Stephen A. Hurlbut . In this way Grant had his troops in the immediate vicinity: 12,000 men in Bolivar, Rosecrans 23,000 at Corinth, Major General William T. Shermans 7,000 at Memphis and another 6,000 as a continuous reserve at Jackson.
Price's army marched to Ripley , Mississippi, where it united with Van Dorn's army on September 28. Since Van Dorn was the senior, he took command of the combined troops, an estimated 22,000 men. They then marched to Pocahontas , Tennessee, where they arrived on October 1st on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad . From this point on, they had several opportunities for further moves, so Grant was unsure of their intentions. However, when they stayed outdoors at Chewalla on October 2nd, Grant had the assurance that Corinth was their destination. The Confederates hoped to attack Corinth from an unexpected direction, isolate Rosecrans from reinforcements, and then turn them into central Tennessee. Grant sent a message to Rosecrans meanwhile to prepare for an attack, and at the same time Hurlbut was to keep an eye on the enemy so he could flank if the opportunity arose. But Rosecrans was already prepared.
Along the north and east sides of Corinth, a good two miles outside the city, rampart lines extended from Chewalla Road in the northwest to Mobile and Ohio Railroad and from there to the south. They were erected by the army of Confederate General PGT Beauregard in May just before he evacuated the city. Moreover, these lines were too extensive for Rosecran's 23,000 men to be defended, so he changed the lines with Grant's approval and attached great importance to the defense of the city. He also moved the ammunition magazines near the intersection of the two railway lines. The inner rampart line, called Halleck Line, was moved closer to the city and reinforced. A number of impressively named batteries were set up in the solid earthwork defenses that were part of the inner line: the Robinett, Williams, Phillips, Tannrath and Lothrop batteries in the area known as College Hill. They were connected by field jumps and were reinforced during the last four days in September. Furthermore, the trees in the neighborhood had been felled by the Robinett battery, which was placed in the middle, in order to erect a tree fence (wall made of tree trunks with tips of branches). Rosecran's plan was to tie the expected Confederate advances with a battle line at the old Confederate redoubts and then hit the bulk of the Confederate assault with his main force along the Halleck Line, which was over a mile from the city center. His last resistance would then be near the batteries on College Hill. His men were provided with three daily rations and 100 rounds. Van Dorn had not been warned of the strength of his opponent, but had prudently called two divisions from the Army of the Tennessee as reinforcements, foreseeing the difficulties that would arise from the assault on the prepared positions.
battle
October 3
On the morning of October 3, three of Rosecrans' divisions advanced into the old Confederate rifle pits north and northwest of town: McKean on the left, Davies in the center, and Hamilton on the right. Stanley's division was held as a reserve south of the city. Van Dorn began his attack at 10 a.m. with Lovell's division, which attacked McArthur's Brigade (McKean's division on the Union's left) from three sides. Van Dorn's plan was a twofold embrace in which Lovell would open the battle in the hopes that Rosecrans would weaken his right flank to McKean's reinforcements, and that at the same time Price would launch the main attack on the right flank. Lovell made a single-minded attack on Oliver, and as soon as he was busy, Maury opened the battle on Davies' left flank. McArthur quickly dispatched four regiments to support Oliver, and at the same time Davies shifted his line to the redoubts. These movements left a void between Davies and McKean which Confederate forces pushed through at 1:30 p.m. The entire Union line receded within half a mile of the redoubt, with two guns falling into the hands of the Confederates.
General Hackleman was killed and General Oglesby (the future governor of Illinois) was badly wounded by a shot through the lungs. At 3 p.m. Hamilton was ordered to change sides and attacked the Confederates on the left flank, but a misunderstanding and discovery of the troops on Buford's side had lost so much time that the sun set before the division turned on the given position arrived, so that the project was abandoned. Van Dorn said in his report: "An hour more daylight and the victory would ease the grief over the loss of the brave dead who slept on the lost but not dishonored field." But an hour more daylight would probably have led to the Hamilton's previously free brigades had rushed to the Confederate left flank and rearguard, which in all probability would have driven Van Dorn off the field, rendering the second day of the battle unnecessary.
So far the advantage has been on the Confederate side. Rosecrans had been repulsed from all his positions, and that night his entire army, except for the outposts, was inside the redoubts. Both sides were exhausted from the fighting. It had been hot (94 ° F ~ 34.5 ° C) and water scarce, and many men had nearly passed out from their exertions. During the night the Confederates slept within 600 yards of the Union works and Van Dorn straightened his lines for the attack the next day. He abandoned his ambitious plans for a twofold embrace. Historian Shelby Foote wrote, “He was excited. It was Rosecrans he was after, and he chased him in the hardest possible way. Today he will no longer rely on deception, but will complete the destruction that had begun the day before solely through the rapid cannon fire and the undisguised heroism of his infantry. "
4th of October
At 4:30 a.m. on October 4, the Confederates opened fire on the inner fortification line of the Union with a battery of six cannons and maintained their fire until after sunrise. When the cannons fell silent, the Union troops prepared to repel an attack. But the attack was a long time coming. Van Dorn had ordered Hébert to attack at daybreak, and the artillery fire was only intended to enable him to take up the attack position.
At 7 o'clock Hébert sent Van Dorn the message that he was too sick to lead the division. Brigadier General Martin E. Green was assigned to take command and advance. Almost two more hours were lost before Green and four brigades advanced in staggered positions to a position in the woods north of town. There he formed a south-facing line and made an attack on Battery Powell with the brigades of Gates and McLain (replaced Martin), while the brigades of Moore (replaced Green) and Colbert attacked Hamilton's line. The attack on the battery was successful, the cannons were captured and troops from Illinois and Iowa were dispersed . Hamilton, meanwhile, repulsed the attack on his position and then sent some of his troops to support Davies, who had meanwhile gathered his men and then drove the Confederates from the battery and retook the cannons. Maury had previously been indispensable. As soon as he heard the fire on his left, he knew Davies and Hamilton would be busy disrupting his movement, so he ordered his division to advance immediately on the city. At about 11 a.m. his right wing encountered stubborn resistance around the Battery Robinett, a three-way cannon, secured several times by a five-foot trench, which guaranteed bitter combat, so that it was forced to withdraw with heavy losses, arguably the heaviest Combat action of the previous course of the battle. Colonel William P. Rogers of the 2nd Texas, a comrade of President Jefferson Davis , was killed in the attack. It was also falsely reported that Lawrence Sullivan Ross fell with Rogers.
Phifer's brigade on the left flank had had better luck, pushing Davie's left flank back and entered town. But their joy in victory was short-lived when parts of Sullivan's brigade, held in reserve on Hamilton's left flank, attacked the Confederates and then threw them back into the narrow streets, where they were then within the reach of the batteries of both flanks of the Union army fell and were completely prostrate by the crossfire. Cabell's brigade of Maury's division was sent to the forces that captured Battery Powell, but before they got there, Davies and Hamilton had captured it again, and as Cabell advanced against it, he was hit by a murderous fire which his men took to Prompted withdrawal.
Meanwhile, Lovell had gotten into a skirmish with the Union Left, which was near the Battery Phillips, in preparation for a popular advance. Before his preparations were completed, he was ordered to send a brigade to Maury's support, and soon after he received orders to place his troops so that the army's retreat would be obscured. At 4:00 p.m. Grant's reinforcements arrived from Jackson , commanded by Brigadier General James B. McPherson . But the Battle of Corinth was over by 1 p.m., and the Confederates were on the retreat.
episode
Rosecran's losses at Corinth: 355 men killed, 1841 wounded and 324 missing; Van Dorn's losses: 473 men killed, wounded in 1997, captured or missing in 1763.
Rosecran's approach immediately after the battle was lackluster. Grant gave him express orders to pursue Van Dorn without delay, but did not begin the march until the morning of October 5th. He explained this by saying that his troops needed a rest and that the thick undergrowth made the pursuit difficult during the day and impossible at night. At 1 p.m. on October 4, when the persecution was most effective, Rosecrans rode along his line to personally clear a rumor that he had been killed. Dismounted at Battery Robinett, he took off his hat and said to his soldiers: "I stand in the presence of brave men, all respect."
Grant wrote indignantly: "Two or three hours of chase on the day of the battle with what the men were wearing would have been worth more than a chase that started the next day." Rosecrans returned to Corinth for recognition to find who made him a hero, what he was for the northern press. Shortly thereafter, he was ordered to Cincinnati , Ohio , where he was given command of the Army of the Ohio (renamed Army of the Cumberland ) to replace Don Carlos Buell, who had similarly failed in the retreating Confederates should pursue after the Battle of Perryville .
Although his army had been badly battered, Van Dorn and his units evaded the Union troops sent by Grant to the Battle of Hatchie's Bridge on later October 5th and marched on Holly Springs , Mississippi. He attributed his defeat to the collapse of Hébert, which was to open the battle on the second day. Notwithstanding this, he was replaced by Major General John C. Pemberton immediately after the battle . There was widespread outcry all over the South over the senseless losses at Corinth. Van Dorn also requested a committee of inquiry to counter the charges that he was drunk while on duty with Corinth and neglected the wounded while in retreat. The committee unanimously acquitted him of all allegations.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b CWSAC Battle Summaries - Corinth : Troop strengths
- ↑ Fox's Regimental Losses , Chapter XIV: Union Losses
- ↑ Fox's Regimental Losses , Chapter XIV: Confederate Losses , Including Hatchies Bridge
- ↑ Foote, p. 723
- ↑ Eicher, p. 378
- ↑ Foote, p. 725
- ↑ Nevins, p. 374
literature
- United States War Department: The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies , Govt. Print. Off., Washington 1880-1901.
- James M. McPherson: Battle Cry of Freedom . Oxford University Press, New York 2003, ISBN 0-19-516895-X .
- James M. McPherson (Editor): The Atlas of the Civil War . Philadelphia 2005, ISBN 0-7624-2356-0 .
- Eicher, David J., The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War , Simon & Schuster, 2001, ISBN 0-684-84944-5 .
- Shelby Foote : The Civil War: A Narrative . Vol. 1 ( Fort Sumter to Perryville ), New York 1986, ISBN 0-394-74623-6 .
- Kennedy, Frances H., Ed., The Civil War Battlefield Guide , 2nd ed., Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998, ISBN 0-395-74012-6 .
- Nevins, Allan , The War for the Union, Vol. II: War Becomes Revolution 1862-1863 , Charles Scribner's Sons, 1960, ISBN 1-56852-297-5 .
- Woodworth, Steven E., Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861-1865 , Alfred A. Knopf, 2005, ISBN 0-375-41218-2 .
- The Union Army; A History of Military Affairs in the Loyal States, 1861-65 - Records of the Regiments in the Union Army - Cyclopedia of Battles - Memoirs of Commanders and Soldiers , Federal Publishing Company (Madison, Wisconsin), 1908 (reprinted by Broadfoot Publishing, 1997 ).
- Ballard, Michael B., Civil War Mississippi: A Guide , University Press of Mississippi, 2000, ISBN 1-57806-196-2 .
- Carter, Arthur B., The Tarnished Cavalier: Major General Earl Van Dorn, CSA , University of Tennessee Press, 1999, ISBN 1-57233-047-3 .
- Castel, Albert, General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West , Louisiana State University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-8071-1854-0 .
- Cozzens, Peter, The Darkest Days of the War: The Battles of Iuka and Corinth , The University of North Carolina Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8078-2320-1 .
- Dossman, Steven Nathaniel, Campaign for Corinth: Blood in Mississippi , McWhiney Foundation Press, 2006, ISBN 1-893114-51-1 .
Web links
- Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center (part of Shiloh National Military Park)
- Structure of the Mississippi Army and the West Tennessee Army ( October 19, 2003 memento in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 34 ° 58 ′ 15.4 " N , 88 ° 31 ′ 18.2" W.