{
 "slug": "second-corinth",
 "title": "Second Battle of Corinth",
 "status": "draft",
 "era": "1850–1900",
 "date_text": "3–4 October 1862",
 "start": "1862-10-03",
 "end": "1862-10-04",
 "war": "American Civil War",
 "cdb90_war": "AMERICAN CIVIL WAR",
 "place": {
  "name": "Corinth, Alcorn County, Mississippi, United States",
  "lat": 34.9406,
  "lon": -88.5306,
  "wikidata": "Q233360"
 },
 "lede": "On 3–4 October 1862 Earl Van Dorn threw his Confederate army at Rosecrans's entrenchments around Corinth, Mississippi, a vital rail junction. After a day of fighting in the heat and a second day of failed assaults on the inner works, he retreated with heavy losses.",
 "result": "Union victory; Van Dorn's army retreated",
 "result_cdb90": "attacker loss",
 "belligerents": [
  {
   "role": "attacker",
   "name": "Union Army of the Mississippi",
   "commanders": [
    "Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans",
    "Brig. Gen. David S. Stanley",
    "Brig. Gen. Charles S. Hamilton",
    "Brig. Gen. Thomas A. Davies",
    "Brig. Gen. Thomas J. McKean"
   ],
   "strength": {
    "value": 23000,
    "low": 18000,
    "high": 23000,
    "source": "s3"
   },
   "casualties": {
    "value": 2520,
    "low": 2350,
    "high": 2520,
    "source": "s3"
   }
  },
  {
   "role": "defender",
   "name": "Confederate Army of West Tennessee",
   "commanders": [
    "Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn",
    "Maj. Gen. Sterling Price",
    "Maj. Gen. Mansfield Lovell",
    "Brig. Gen. Louis Hébert",
    "Brig. Gen. Dabney H. Maury"
   ],
   "strength": {
    "value": 22000,
    "low": 21147,
    "high": 22000,
    "source": "s3"
   },
   "casualties": {
    "value": 4233,
    "low": 4000,
    "high": 4838,
    "source": "s3"
   }
  }
 ],
 "sections": {
  "background": "In September 1862 Confederate Major General Sterling Price occupied Iuka, in northern Mississippi, and was beaten there on 19 September by a force under Grant's overall command. Rosecrans, tactically in charge, pursued ineffectually. Price then joined Earl Van Dorn at Ripley on 28 September, and Van Dorn took command of about 22,000 men.\n\nCorinth was the target. The town was a key railway junction, and Beauregard's abandoned works lay about two miles out, too extensive for the 23,000 men Rosecrans could muster. Van Dorn marched toward Pocahontas on 1 October and bivouacked at Chewalla the next night. Grant had his headquarters at Jackson, Tennessee, with Ord's three divisions at Bolivar alongside Hurlbut, 7,000 men under Sherman at Memphis and 6,000 held in reserve at Jackson. He concluded that Corinth was the target and warned Rosecrans, who doubted that Van Dorn would attack a fortified town.\n\nRosecrans, with Grant's approval, concentrated on the inner Halleck Line near the town, with named works on College Hill: Batteries Robinett, Williams, Phillips, Tannrath and Lothrop. Trees near Battery Robinett were felled to form an abatis. His plan was to meet the advance with a skirmish line and fight the real battle on the Halleck Line, and he called in two divisions of the Army of the Tennessee.",
  "forces": "Rosecrans's Army of the Mississippi comprised Stanley's and Hamilton's divisions and Mizner's cavalry, with two divisions on loan from Grant's army: Davies's and McKean's. The brigades were Fuller's and Mower's in Stanley's division, Buford's and Sullivan's in Hamilton's, Hackleman's, Oglesby's and Baldwin's in Davies's, and McArthur's, Oliver's and Crocker's in McKean's. Sources differ on its size: Eicher and Kennedy give about 23,000, Woodworth and Lamers 18,000 in four divisions. Its main strength was its position and its artillery, notably three 20-pounder Parrott rifles in Battery Robinett under Lieutenant Henry Robinett.\n\nVan Dorn's army was a combination of two forces. Price's Corps contained Hébert's division (Green, Gates, Colbert, Martin) and Maury's division (Moore, Cabell, Phifer). Lovell's 1st Division of the District of the Mississippi contained the brigades of Rust, Villepigue and Bowen, Jackson's cavalry and Dupiere's Louisiana Zouaves.\n\nThe armies fought in October heat that reached 94 degrees Fahrenheit, with little water. Rosecrans stood on the defensive, and reinforcements from Grant's army were on their way.",
  "course": "**Outer works (3 October, morning)** Three Union divisions advanced into the old Confederate rifle pits: McKean on the left, Davies in the centre and Hamilton on the right. Stanley held reserve south of the town. At about 10 a.m. Lovell attacked McArthur's brigade on McKean's left from three sides. Van Dorn had planned a double envelopment, with Price's main assault against the Union right.\n\n**The gap (about 1:30 p.m.)** Maury opened on Davies's left as Lovell engaged Oliver's brigade. McArthur shifted four regiments to support Oliver, which left a gap between Davies and McKean. About 1:30 the Confederates forced through, and the Union line fell back about half a mile, losing two guns. Brigadier General Pleasant Hackleman was killed and Richard Oglesby was seriously wounded. By about 1 p.m. Rosecrans had pulled his men back to the inner line.\n\n**Hamilton's lost chance (about 3 p.m.)** Hamilton was ordered to strike the Confederate left. A misunderstanding and an unmasked force on Buford's front cost time, and sunset came before the movement could be completed. Both commanders believed one more hour of daylight might have decided the day. The Confederates bedded down within 600 yards of the Union works, and Van Dorn dropped the double envelopment for direct frontal attacks.\n\n**Battery Powell (4 October, morning)** A six-gun Confederate battery shelled the inner line from 4:30 a.m. Hébert, who was to attack at first light, reported himself too ill at 7 a.m., and Martin Green took over. About 8 a.m., four hours late, Green attacked with four brigades. Gates's and McLain's brigades captured Battery Powell. Hamilton repulsed the attack on his line, and Davies's men with reinforcements drove the Confederates out and recaptured the guns.\n\n**Battery Robinett and the town (about 11 a.m.)** Maury's division moved towards the town about 11 a.m. and met stubborn resistance at Battery Robinett. Hand-to-hand fighting followed, and Maury retired with heavy losses after three attempts. Colonel William Rogers of the 2nd Texas and Colonel John Daly of the 18th Arkansas were killed; Colonel Lawrence Sullivan Ross of the 6th Texas was thrown from his horse and mistakenly reported dead with Rogers. Phifer's brigade on the Confederate left drove back Davies's left flank and entered the town. Sullivan's brigade counter-attacked in the streets, and the Confederates fell back under cross-fire from batteries on both flanks. Cabell's brigade, sent to retake Battery Powell, was also beaten back.\n\n**The end** Lovell skirmished near Battery Phillips and was ordered to cover the army's retreat. The battle had effectively ended about 1 p.m.; McPherson arrived from Jackson with reinforcements at 4 p.m. CDB90's single engagement 'CORINTH' (3 October 10:00 to 4 October 13:00) covers both days; the pursuit of 5 October and the fight at Hatchie's Bridge fall outside it.",
  "aftermath": "The Union lost 2,520 by Eicher's count, the Confederates 4,233, with other sources placing Confederate losses between about 4,000 and 4,838. Van Dorn's army retreated, and he escaped. Grant ordered Rosecrans to pursue at once, but Rosecrans did not start until the morning of 5 October, citing exhausted troops and difficult thicket country. Union troops sent by Grant engaged Van Dorn at the Battle of Hatchie's Bridge on 5 October. He then marched to Holly Springs, Mississippi. Grant later wrote that a few hours' pursuit on 4 October would have been worth more than any pursuit begun the next day.\n\nRosecrans returned to Corinth as a hero in the Northern press and was soon sent to Cincinnati to command the army that became the Army of the Cumberland, replacing Don Carlos Buell. Van Dorn was replaced immediately by John C. Pemberton and was widely criticised in the South for the casualties. He blamed Hébert for the delay on the second day and asked for a court of inquiry on charges of drunkenness on duty and neglect of wounded men, which cleared him unanimously.\n\nHistorians argue about Rosecrans. Woodworth criticises his failure to anticipate the attack, his use of only about half his troops and his confusing orders; Lamers gives a heroic account; Cozzens says his presence was 'hardly inspiring'. The American Battlefield Trust and its partners have preserved more than 820 acres.",
  "wargaming": "Corinth is a defence-in-depth problem, and it is attractive for that reason. The first day is an open fight in old Confederate rifle pits; the second is an assault on a prepared line of batteries and breastworks, the Halleck Line, with an abatis in front of Battery Robinett. At regimental scale, with one gun model per section, a single table can cover the fighting around Batteries Powell and Robinett and the town. A brigade-scale game suits the whole two days.\n\nThe design issues are timing and fatigue. The Confederates have one day of manoeuvre, in which the gap between Davies and McKean can be exploited, and a second in which the late start (Hébert's illness) should cost them. Heat, thirst and exhaustion can be modelled as a morale or movement penalty for both sides, and Union reinforcements arriving at 4 p.m. give a hard deadline. Command friction suits the Confederate side: Van Dorn's two groups under Price and Lovell attack at different times.\n\nThe 'what ifs' are well documented. Hamilton's counter-attack on 3 October, abandoned at sunset, might have struck the Confederate flank and rear; Van Dorn argued that one more hour of daylight would have won the battle. On the second day, a dawn attack by Hébert rather than one at 8 a.m. would have fallen on a Union line that was still being reorganised. And a pursuit by Rosecrans on 4 October might have destroyed Van Dorn's army, which is a good optional victory condition."
 },
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   "file": "File:Corinth October 3 1862.png",
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   "caption": "The first day of the Second Battle of Corinth, 3 October 1862.",
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   "file": "File:Corinth October 4 1862.png",
   "kind": "map",
   "caption": "The second day of the Second Battle of Corinth, 4 October 1862.",
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  {
   "file": "File:Battle map of Corinth.jpg",
   "kind": "map",
   "caption": "A period battle map of Corinth, from a United States publication of 1892.",
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   "artist": "This image is available from the United States Library of Congress 's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3701sm.gcw0098000 . This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing .",
   "credit": "Library of Congress",
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   "file": "File:Defense of Battery Robinett.jpg",
   "kind": "illustration",
   "caption": "The defence of Battery Robinett during the Second Battle of Corinth.",
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   "artist": "Frank H. Schell (artist) and E. C. Held (engraver). A list of artists and engravers can be found on p. 23 of the PDF .",
   "credit": "This file is from the Mechanical Curator collection , a set of over 1 million images scanned from out-of-copyright books and released to Flickr Commons by the British Library in London, England. View image on Flickr View all images from book View catalogue entry for book .",
   "width": 1585
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  {
   "file": "File:GenWmSRosecrans.jpg",
   "kind": "portrait",
   "caption": "Major General William S. Rosecrans, Union commander.",
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   "width": 4387
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  {
   "file": "File:Earl Van Dorn.jpg",
   "kind": "portrait",
   "caption": "Major General Earl Van Dorn, Confederate commander.",
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 "sources": [
  {
   "id": "s1",
   "title": "Second Battle of Corinth (Wikipedia)",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Corinth",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s2",
   "title": "Corinth (American Battlefield Trust)",
   "url": "https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/corinth",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s3",
   "title": "David J. Eicher, The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War (Simon & Schuster, 2001)",
   "url": null,
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s4",
   "title": "Steven E. Woodworth, Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861–1865 (Knopf, 2005)",
   "url": null,
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s5",
   "title": "Frances H. Kennedy (ed.), The Civil War Battlefield Guide (Houghton Mifflin, 1998)",
   "url": null,
   "kind": "book"
  }
 ],
 "cdb90": [
  192
 ],
 "order": 117,
 "url": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/second-corinth/",
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