Battle of Corinth

After the battle of Shiloh at Pittsburg Landing, the Confederate army withdrew to its base at Corinth, a strategic railroad center in northern Mississippi.

Against this fortified position, Major General Henry Halleck, who had taken command of Grant’s army, a much superior force, advanced cautiously, taking a month to march only 21 miles.

Meanwhile, Beauregard’s Confederate army was daily losing strength through sickness and, on May 30, 1862, he evacuated the town by a skillful ruse.

Although the Union army heard the rumbling of the railroad cars that carried the Confederate troops during the night to Tupelo, they were fooled into believing that Beauregard was receiving reinforcements by the fact that the Confederates gave a rousing cheer whenever an empty train arrived.

While the occupation of Corinth effectively disrupted the east-west track of the Confederacy connecting Charleston on the seacoast with Memphis on the Mississippi, Beauregard’s escape made it a hollow, and perhaps even a humiliating victory for General Halleck.

It is not known if any casualties occurred.