CORINTH, Advance on (30 May 1862), and Battle of (3-4 Oct. 1862). Corinth, Miss., an important strategical point, was early occupied by the Confederates. It was the objective point of General Halleck's cam paign, for which, early in April 1862, he was concentrating Grant's and Buell's armies at Pittsburg Landing, on the Tennessee River. On 3 April Gen. A. Sidney Johnston marched from Corinth with 40,000 men to strike and crush Grant before Buell could join him; sur prised him on the morning of the sixth, at Shiloh; and after a severe fight drove him back to the river, where he was joine4 by Buell's advance division. Johnston was killed during the battle, and was succeeded by General Bean regard. Grant and Buell renewed the battle on the seventh; Beauregard was defeated, and led his army back to Corinth, having lost 10,000 men. General Halleck joined the army at Shiloh, 11 April, assumed command, drew rein forcements 'from every direction, and at the end of the month had 110,000 men. Grant was second in command. On 30 April the movement began on Corinth, 27 miles distant, held by Beauregard with about 50,000 men, his army having been reinforced. Early in May Halleck began to throw up elaborate works. It was a siege from start to finish, the army entrenching from the Tennessee River to Corinth. On 9 May occurred an ,engagement in which the Union loss was about 180 killed and wounded; the Confederate loss about 160. Hallecic con tinued his slow approaches, gradually gaining ground, and 28 May he was within a mile of Beauregard's main line. On the morning of the 30th it was discovered that Beau regard had made a clean retreat. At Baldwyn, 31 miles from Corinth, he remained until 7 June, when he fell back to Tupelo, 52 miles from Corinth. Halleck occupied Corinth on 30 May, and Gen. Gordon Granger's cavalry, sup ported by 50,000 infantry, followed Beauregard as far as Baldwyn and Guntown, and here the campaign for Corinth ended. The loss of Corinth was followed by the fall of Fort Pillow and Memphis and the opening of the Mississippi down to Vicksburg.
On 1 Oct. 1862, General Grant, in command of the Union army operating in West Tetmessee and northern Mississippi, had about 48,000 effective men. Gen. Earl Van Dorn, command ing the Confederates in Mississippi, believing that a successful attack on C,orinth would expel Grant from West Tennessee, concentrated Lovell's division of his own amiy, with the two divisions of Gen. Sterling Price's army at Rip
ley, 30 miles southwest of Corinth, 28 Septem ber. Next day he marched north, and arrived at 10 o'clocic on the morning of 3 October, three miles northwest of Corinth, where he formed his army for attack. He had about 22,000 men. Rosecrans had been warned, and had made dis positions for the attack. In a severe action that day Van Dorn g-ained two miles of ground and captured two guns. The main works defending the town were close to it, and consisted of a series of heavily armed redoubts, connected by rifle-pits or breastworks. By 9 o'clock that night Rosecrans had formed his lines for the next morning's battle. It was after 9 o'clock of a still, intensely hot day, before Van Dorn attacked. The battle, which was fought with fury on both sides, did not exceed an hour in duration, and by noon Van Dorn's army, Lovell's division covering the rear, was in full retreat, from one of the most sanguinary fields of the war. Gen. Sterling Price, in his report, says: “The history of this war contains no bloodier page, perhaps, than that which will record this fiercely contested battle.° At night Van Dorn halted at Chewalla, six miles from the field, next morning hastening his march for Pocahontas to retire by the way he had come. After fighting at Davis' Bridge over Hatchie River, in which he inflicted upon the Federals a loss of 539 lcilled and wounded, and himself lost 127 killed and wounded, 420 prisoners, and four guns, Van Dorn crossed the Hatchie at Crum's Mill, six miles south, and took the road to Ripley, thence to Holly Springs.
The Union loss at Corinth was 355 killed, 1,841 wounded and 324 missing; an aggregate of 2,520. Rosecrans says he buried 1,423 Con federates, but the Confederate reports show a loss of 505 killed, 2,150 wounded and 2,183 miss ing; an aggregate of 4,838. Deducting the loss at Davis' Bridge (127 killed and wounded, and 420 prisoners), the Confederate loss at Corinth was 2,528 killed and wounded and 1,763 missing. Consult 'Official Records) (Vols. X and XVII) ; Grant, (Personal Memoirs); Shertnan, (Memoirs' ; Greene, (The Mississippi); (Bat tles and Leaders of the Civil War) (Vol. II); Roman, 'Military Operations of General Beau regard) (Vol. It); Force, (From Fort Henry to Corinth.)