The Battle of Corinth, 1862

While my great grandfather, Nathan Oakes, was soon to fight in the great Battle of Perryville on October 8, back home in Northern Mississippi the (Second) Battle of Corinth, was fought on today's date through the 4th, in 1862. For the second time in the Iuka-Corinth Campaign, Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans will defeat a Confederate army.

Following defeat in the Battle of Iuka, on September 19th, Confederate Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn moved his army to Corinth, a critical rail junction in northern Mississippi, that had slipped into Union hands after Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard evacuated the city on May 30th. Van Dorn was hoping to cut the Union lines of communications there and and then sweep into Middle Tennessee. The fighting began on this date, as the Confederates pushed the Federal army from the rifle pits that were originally constructed by the Confederates for the Siege of Corinth.

On the second day of battle, the Confederates met heavy artillery fire while storming the Federal inner fortifications. The fight devolved into vicious hand-to-hand fighting. The Confederate advance was repulsed, and Van Dorn was forced to order a general retreat. Thankfully for the Confederates, Rosecrans did not pursue immediately, so the Confederate army escaped destruction.

News of the defeat of Corinth must have had a demoralizing effect on troops from the Corinth area who were fighting with General Braxton Bragg's army in Kentucky. It certainly affected Bragg, who counted on support from Van Dorn's army. Ultimately, the defeat at Corinth will influence Bragg's decision to retreat from his Kentucky campaign.

Sources: Wikipedia; Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle, Kenneth W. Noe

Evacuation of Corinth, May 29-30, 1862

On the 29th and 30th of 1862, the 32nd Mississippi Infantry Regiment was withdrawn from Corinth with the Confederate Army south to Baldwyn, where it stayed through June. One of the men of my great grandfather’s regiment recalled: “Many boys passed their homes on the retreat.” Indeed, Great Grandfather Oakes was one of those who passed within sight of his family’s farm in Kossuth on that march south.

Col. Lowrey reported of his 32nd Mississippi that many of the men were sick and recuperating at home in communities around Corinth. When the army evacuated, those too sick to march with the army were cut off when enemy captured the city. Many of these later were able to make their way to rejoin their units.

At daylight on the 30th, Union Gen. Halleck becomes aware of the Confederate evacuation and vainly sends troops in pursuit. Alas, his one real opportunity for destroying Bragg's army slips through his fingers.

Sources:  Corinth Herald, May 17, 1902; 32nd Mississippi Regimental Return, June 1862

The haven of Corona College, 1862

Established in 1857, Corona College was once an elegant girls school located on the outskirts of the small town of Corinth, Mississippi. But in 1862, its grounds were used as a point of assembly for many of the 45,000 soldiers who were mustered here in the defense of Northeastern Mississippi and the South. Great Grandfather Nathan Oakes was posted there with his company in March through May of 1862, just up the road a few miles from his tiny village home of Kossuth. One of his comrades in Co. A, Allen Epps, recalls that while the 32nd Regiment was being organized, it camped on the college grounds, filling the area (pictured) with “white shacks or tents.”

Corinth, Mississippi, 1862, by Conrad Wise Chapman

Life in camp was far from pleasant or even safe in the spring of 1862, as the Army under Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston was being readied for the inevitable battle to come. In his book, The Third Battalion Mississippi Infantry and the 45th Mississippi Regiment, David Williamson points out: “[W]hen the rain stopped and hot weather set in, drinkable water became scarce and, in the poor sanitary conditions, disease, especially chronic diarrhea, spread through the camps as neither town nor the Confederate Army were able to handle the large number of sick and wounded.” Of the 45,000 troops assembled here, by mid-May 18,000 were hospitalized. Many perished from camp-related disease not far from their homes, including at least one from my great grandfather's Company D. No doubt numerous poor souls found aid and comfort within the haven of the Corona College hospital.

Photo by Mark Dolan, 2007

The Site of Corona Girls College

The college remained in that service until it was burned by the Union occupiers abandoning the town in January 1864. The only reminder of it and its importance to the war effort is a small marker on the Civil War Corinth Tour. But somewhere among the specter of the little white shacks and tents is that spot that billeted 16-year old Great Grandfather Oakes and his comrades of the 32nd Mississippi Infantry Regiment. It was a poignant experience for me a few years ago, to amble up and around that haunting little hill.

Crossroads in history: Corinth, MS, March 1862

For my great grandfather, 16-year old Nathan Oakes, and the 45,000 Confederate troops assembled there, the little town of Corinth, Mississippi in 1862, was in many ways a crossroads. Strategically, the little town of 1,200 in Northeastern Mississippi held little significance, except for the railroads that crossed there, that is. And that gave it ultimate military significance. Two major railroads, the Memphis & Charleston, running east and west, and the Mobile & Ohio, running north and south, crossed in its downtown. These 2 railroads were perhaps the most important in the South because they joined nearly the entire height and width of the Confederacy. When the war came, some of the fighting took place around and within the city limits. When the siege and later battle occurred, the damage brought on the town was severe.

Photo by Mark Dolan, 2007

This is why Corinth was vital.

Even before its eventual fall, the little village was called upon to set up hospitals in churches, hotels, and even private homes. Most of its townsfolk were only too willing to do their part in repelling the Northern invaders. The aftermath of the siege and fighting took a tremendous toll on the citizens it left behind. Many of its inhabitants and others in surrounding villages were called upon to care for the wounded and bury the dead, further taxing the little community's depleted resources.

But Corinth was key to the defense of the South. Union Major General Henry W. Halleck, commander of Union forces in the Western Theater, reported to Washington that “Richmond and Corinth are now the great strategical points of war, and our success at these points should be insured at all hazards.” Likewise, Confederate General 
P.G.T. Beauregard wrote to Richmond, “If defeated at Corinth, we lose the Mississippi Valley and probably our cause.”

Many Southern towns and cities would face a similar fate, and other battlefields would come into prominence for their sheer horror and numbers of casualties as the war dragged on for 3 more years.  But Corinth was the first town of major importance to fall. According to author Timothy B. Smith, its overthrow in May of 1862 opened the way to the defeat of Vicksburg and spelled the ultimate defeat of the South. But as the month of March, 1862, drew to a close, this town was doing all it could to aid in "The Lost Cause."

It was a crossroads for Great Grandfather Oakes, too. The struggle at Corinth will thrust him into a war that will take him far from home and to the great battlefields of Perryville, Chickamauga, Ringgold Gap, Atlanta, Franklin, and the Carolinas.

Corinth prepares for war

As the Army of Mississippi (later known as the Army of Tennessee) was being organized in the small town of Corinth, in Northeast Mississippi in the spring of 1862, there was a lot to do in a town soon to be under siege. Corinth, a town of about 1,200 citizens, was a mobilization center and a key railway crossroads—a vital artery for supplying the South and a key military objective for both sides. Fortifications were being built, and daily drills for the newly formed regiments were the norm. During the months of March and early April, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston’s army of nearly 45,000 mostly “green” troops, was preparing for the inevitable battle to come.

Photo by Mark Dolan, 2007

Corinth citizens took in the grand martial display unfolding before them. One of these observers, Mrs. F.A. Inge, later wrote in a letter to the editor of the Confederate Veteran, Vol. 17, of what she saw going on: “Daily drilling was witnessed by citizens and visitors, and much interest was taken in the proficiency of the troops.  As many as ten regiments were sometimes drilling on the field at one time. The social feature, the brighter side of life, had attention. Many entertainments were given the troops. There might have been some married men, but no tales were told.”

She provides many fascinating details about daily life, but none more compelling or uplifting than her observation of the Christian faith among the troops: “May it be said,” she wrote, “of the chaplains and of the religious element among the troops that preaching and prayer service were never omitted, dying soldiers were never neglected. In camp singing dear old familiar songs of Zion was a great joy to the men. ‘Jesus, Lover of My Soul’ and ‘How Firm a Foundation’ would be sung in ringing notes at almost every service.”

How very different from service in the 21st century military, in which my son serves, where God-fearing chaplains are in short supply and practice of the Christian faith is marginalized or forbidden altogether.