This Day In History | Civil War May 30 1862 Confederates evacuate Corinth, Mississippi

historychannel.com ^ | 5/30/05 | historychannel.com

[mainepatsfan]

This Day In History | Civil War May 30 1862 Confederates evacuate Corinth, Mississippi

On this day, the Confederates abandon the city of Corinth. After the epic struggle at Shiloh in April 1862, the Confederate army, under the command of P.T. Beauregard, concentrated at Corinth, while the Union army, under Henry Halleck, began a slow advance from the Shiloh battlefield toward the rail center at Corinth. Halleck had no intention of taking on Beauregard's army directly; he was more concerned with controlling the railroad junction.

Beauregard was in a difficult position. Halleck, the commander of Union forces in the West, had at his disposal Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee, Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio, and John Pope's Army of the Mississippi. With these forces, he had a more than two-to-one advantage over Beauregard.

Nearly a week before the evacuation, Beauregard assessed his situation with his lieutenants. Although he considered the city to be vital to the Confederacy, he also worried that his entire command could be captured or cut to pieces if a retreat was delayed. So he crafted a clever withdrawal from Corinth: His troops deployed a number of logs painted black ("Quaker guns") along his front lines to fool the Yankees into thinking they were facing substantial artillery. Meanwhile, he had his troops cook extra rations and cheer the arrival of empty boxcars to lead the Union troops to believe the Confederates were preparing for battle and receiving reinforcements.

On the night of May 29, Beauregard began slipping his forces out of Corinth. On May 30, the remainder of the army left the city and burned any remaining supplies. Halleck's men entered a deserted Corinth later that day. Although an important city had been forfeited to the Union army, Beauregard's army remained intact and, with it, Confederate hopes in the West.

[smug]

Halleck, McClellan, Pope, Burnside, were Union Officers and Valuable assets to the Confederate Armies.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

Halleck, McClellan, Pope, Burnside, were Union Officers and Valuable assets to the Confederate Armies

No more than General Hood was an asset to the Union cause.

[mainepatsfan]

That frontal assault at Franklin was well thought out. /sarcasm

[AntiBurr]

Halleck's relegation of Grant to "second in command" effectively isolating him from the army nearly resulted in Grant resigning. Sherman talked Grant into staying and that only hours before he would have left. Linclon did the only possible thing with Halleck, he kicked him upstairs and let Grant and Sherman get on with the war.
Years after the war, Halleck told General Thomas that Grant had sent Logan to relieve him at Nashville because Thomas was so slow to attack. Grant did not know that there had been an ice storm which immobilized the army for several days. Thomas attacked when conditions allowed and the Battle of Nashville was the only one of the war that effectively destroyed an army..Hood's.
Thomas died of a heart attack while writing a letter to Grant defending himself over the battle. Grant felt that "Old Brains" had effectively killed Thomas.

[smug]

Y'all have a good point there.