Siege of Corinth | Apr 29 - May 30, 1862

During the early spring of 1862, Union armies in the western theater captured large swaths of land at places like Nashville and Forts Henry and Donelson. In the aftermath of the Union victory at the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, on April 6-7, 1862, Union department commander Henry W. Halleck decided to amass three Union armies operating under his command and pursue the defeated Confederate army on their way to and take the vital city. Corinth, which had only been established in the late 1850s, had two major rail lines run through the town, the Memphis and Charleston and the Mobile and Ohio, and if captured, would help the Union armies have a staging point to take Vicksburg and Chattanooga.

After a month-long siege, Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard found that Union Major General Henry W. Halleck’s army was a mere mile from the town. Faced with a lack of water, rampant disease, and the fear of being surrounded, Beauregard withdrew to Tupelo and surrendered the town without a serious battle.