Siege of Corinth

Military situation Following the Union Army victory at the Battle of Shiloh on April 6–7, Major General Henry W. Halleck amassed three Union armies —the Army of the Tennessee, the Army of the Ohio, and the Army of the Mississippi— for an advance on the vital rail center of Corinth, Mississippi. Made cautious by the staggering losses at Shiloh, Halleck embarked on a tedious campaign of offensive entrenchment, fortifying after each advance. By May 25, 1862, after moving five miles in three weeks, Halleck was in position to lay siege to the town. Confederate morale was low and Beauregard was outnumbered two to one. The water was bad. Typhoid and dysentery had felled thousands of his men. At a council of war, the Confederate officers concluded that they could not hold the railroad crossover. Sickness had claimed the lives of as many men as the Confederacy had lost at Shiloh. ==Opposing forces==

Union The Department of the Mississippi, commanded by Henry W. Halleck, was divided into three wings. Each wing corresponded to one of the three armies under his command. It totaled 120,172 men present for duty. • The Army of the Mississippi, designated the left wing, commanded by Major General John Pope, totaled 21,510 men. • The Army of the Ohio, designated the center wing, commanded by Major General Don Carlos Buell, totaled 48,108 men. • The Army of the Tennessee, designated the right wing, commanded by Major General George H. Thomas, totaled 50,554 men. Confederate The Army of Mississippi, commanded by General P. G. T. Beauregard, who also held overall command of all Confederate forces at Corinth, consisted of 45,440 men on April 30. It was divided into four corps: • I Corps, commanded by Major General Leonidas Polk, • II Corps, commanded by Major General Braxton Bragg, included the divisions of Major General Benjamin F. Cheatham and Major General Jones M. Withers. • III Corps, commanded by Major General William J. Hardee, included the brigades of Colonel Robert G. Shaver, Brigadier General Patrick Cleburne, Brigadier General S. A. M. Wood, and Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke. • The Reserve Corps, commanded by Brigadier General John C. Breckinridge. The Army of the West, commanded by Major General Earl Van Dorn, consisted of 12,901 men under the divisions of Major General Samuel Jones, Major General Sterling Price, and Major General John P. McCown. ==Battle==

Monterey The federal division under Stanley moved south down the road to Corinth to search for the enemy on April 29, 1862. Brigadier General Elliot with 16 companies of cavalry including the 2nd Iowa Cavalry Regiment and part of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry Regiment, made contact with Confederate pickets of Forrest's 3rd Tennessee Cavalry Regiment who retreated rapidly leaving some infantry of Patton Anderson's brigade in camp unprepared. The 2nd Iowa captured 11 men in its dash. Then 2nd Iowa entered Monterey and captured more of the enemy. The 2nd Iowa continued until it came to a bridge opposed by Washington's Louisiana Battery and Colonel Kelly's men of 3rd Tennessee Cavalry Regiment. The 2nd Iowa charged into canister fire and lost one killed and three wounded. The 2nd Iowa retired some distance away. Kelly reported one or two of his men killed and no mention of captured. Farmington Of Halleck's wing commanders Pope proved to be the most aggressive during the campaign. Pope led the army's Left Wing and was furthest away from Halleck's headquarters. On May 3 Pope moved forward and captured the town of Farmington only a few miles from Corinth. Instead of moving the center wing under Buell forward, Halleck ordered Pope to withdraw and realign with Buell. Beauregard ordered Van Dorn to attack Pope's advanced wing on May 9. Pope made a successful withdrawal and rejoined with Buell. Bragg, who also participated in the attack, had 25,000 men. The Union Army had 12,000 troops on hand. Van Dorn's corps, barely engaged, had 9 casualties. Daniel Ruggles' division of Bragg's Corp, on the other hand, which bore the brunt of the fighting, suffered casualties of 8 dead, 89 wounded and two missing or captured. The Union Army had 16 killed, 148 wounded and 14 missing or captured. The 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment was ordered to draw the enemy out as to count their numbers and they withdrew to a swamp north of town. Wisconsin 8th reported 5 killed, 14 severely wounded, and 19 slightly wounded. The eagle, Old Abe, accompanied the Wisconsin 8th Infantry. The 5th Minnesota Infantry Regiment arrived in Corinth on May 24 and reported to Pope, in the field before Corinth, Miss., and were assigned to the Second Brigade, First Division, Army of the Mississippi. The regiment had hardly time to establish its camp and realize its surroundings before it was brought into action. On the 28th of May, four days after it had reached the front, it participated in the tail end of the battle of Farmington, contributing a number of killed and wounded. Russell's House As the wings of Halleck's army group began to align themselves in front of Corinth, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman proposed a plan of attack against the Confederate brigade of Brigadier General James R. Chalmers, which had created a strong defensive position at the Russell house along the Confederate front lines. Sherman met with generals Halleck and Thomas on May 16 to discuss his plan. Sherman planned for the brigades of Colonel Morgan L. Smith and Brigadier General James W. Denver to lead the attack with Brigadier General Stephen A. Hurlbut's division lending support. On May 17 the attack commenced with Denver on the left, Smith in the center and Hurlbut's reserve to the right. Chalmers offered a stubborn resistance while some of his men fired from within the Russell house. The Confederates almost succeeded with a flank attack against Smith's right but were repulsed by Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith and the 54th Ohio Infantry. As soon as a battery from the 1st Illinois Artillery deployed the advantage was in favor of the Union forces. Chalmers retreated beyond Philips Creek near the Russell house property and Morgan Smith's brigade occupied high ground on which the house stood. Sherman's losses were 10 killed and 31 wounded all of which were from Smith's brigade. Confederate losses were unknown but Sherman reported 12 dead left on the field. That same day a division under Brigadier General Thomas W. Sherman drove off a Confederate force covering a crossing along Bridge Creek. Sedgwick moved forward from the Union trenches occupied by Brigadier General Thomas J. Wood's division and deployed the 20th Kentucky infantry at the edge of a clearing and the 1st Kentucky infantry to the left facing a densely wooded area. Shortly after deployment the Kentuckians came under fire. The Confederate resistance was so severe Sedgwick was forced to fall back. Sedgwick brought forward artillery and the 2nd Kentucky infantry while Wood lent cavalry support from his division. The Confederates attempted a flank attack against the 1st Kentucky but the Union artillery (personally supervised by Captain Alvan C. Gillem of Buell's staff) and the 31st Indiana infantry in reserve stabilized the line. The Confederates made three more attempts to turn the Union flank until retiring to a creek beyond the Surratt farm. Nelson ordered Sedgwick to hold his position until nightfall, then return to the Union camp. Surratt's Hill Confederate infantry had been using a hill in the vicinity of the Widow Surratt farm for picket outposts. With all his wings in line, Halleck ordered Buell to clear the Confederates off the Surratt farm hill. Buell chose Major General Alexander M. McCook's reserve division to seize the hill to be used as a staging point for a further attack against Corinth. On May 27 McCook organized his brigades into line of attack intending to overwhelm the Confederates by surprise and overwhelming force. The brigades of Brigadier General Lovell H. Rousseau and Brigadier General Richard W. Johnson led the advance, side by side. Colonel Frederick S. Stumbaugh's brigade followed in support of Johnson and Colonel Robert L. McCook's brigade (from Thomas W. Sherman's division) in support of Rousseau. Johnson's brigade encountered some heavy skirmishing but the hill was taken in short time. McCook's division entrenched and brought heavy artillery to the new position and immediately began to shell the Confederates. Beauregard's artillery responded with minimal effort. The engagement at the Surratt farm hill allowed Halleck to bring forward siege guns for the bombardment of Corinth. The Kentucky infantry managed to gain hold of the eastern end of the bridge while Sedgwick ordered forward the 31st Indiana infantry and Captain John Mendenhall's artillery battery. These reinforcements and artillery forced the Confederates to abandon the bridge completely. ==Retreat==

With the Federal army preparing to lay siege to the town, a Confederate council of war decided to retreat. Beauregard saved his army by a hoax. Some of the men were given three days' rations and ordered to prepare for an attack. As expected, one or two went over to the Union with that news. The preliminary bombardment began, and Union forces maneuvered for position. During the night of May 29, the Confederate army moved out. They used the Mobile and Ohio Railroad to carry the sick and wounded, the heavy artillery, and tons of supplies. When a train arrived, the troops cheered as though reinforcements were arriving. They set up dummy Quaker guns along the defensive earthworks. Camp fires were kept burning, and buglers and drummers played. The rest of the men slipped away undetected, withdrawing to Tupelo, Mississippi. When Union patrols entered Corinth on the morning of May 30, they found the Confederate troops gone. The Union forces took control and made it the base for their operations to seize control of the Mississippi River valley, and especially the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi. ==Aftermath==

Pope, whose aggressiveness exceeded his strategic capabilities, remarked in his memoirs that Halleck's cautious campaign failed to take full advantage of a glittering array of talented Union officers, including "Grant, [W.T.] Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, McPherson, Logan, Buell, Rosecrans and many others I might mention." A Confederate army led by Van Dorn attempted to retake the city in October 1862, but was defeated in the Second Battle of Corinth by a Union army under the command of Rosecrans. At times during the second battle, Confederate forces seemed to have the upper hand but failed to follow up on their successes, leading to a devastating defeat for Confederate forces in that region. Rosecrans had the opportunity to crush rebel forces during the battle but failed to follow up his victory, allowing Van Dorn to escape from destruction. Corinth ultimately led to the operations that opened the Mississippi River valley, which was considered by Halleck as, "the opening of the Mississippi River will be to us of more advantage than the capture of forty Richmonds". ==Battlefield preservation==

The American Battlefield Trust and its partners have preserved more than 820 acres of the Corinth battlefield through mid-2023. ==See also==