Battle of Corinth

“ When we were once more in fighting trim, our lines were slowly pushed forward. General Pope had been called from the vicinity of Fort Pillow, after his capture of Island Number Ten, and his army was placed in position on the left of the line already formed. When our advance began, we mustered a hundred and ten thousand men. Exclusive of those who do not take part in a battle, we could have easily brought eighty thousand men into action. We began the siege of Corinth with every confidence in our ability to succeed. ”

“ On our side I know officers and men of the Army of the Tennessee—and I presume the same is true of those of the other commands—were disappointed at the result. They could not see how the mere occupation of places was to close the war while large and effective rebel armies existed. They believed that a well-directed attack would at least have partially destroyed the army defending Corinth. For myself I am satisfied that Corinth could have been captured in a two days' campaign commenced promptly on the arrival of reinforcements after the battle of Shiloh. ”

“ Corinth should be held, as long as that can be done with safety to the army. But Corinth itself is of little value to us, now that the railroad between here and Chattanooga is in the hands of the enemy. It is not worth the sacrifice of a hundred men.”
“What! would you give up Corinth without a struggle?” asked the officer, in surprise.
“Not if a battle offered a reasonable hope of victory,” replied Morgan. “What I mean is, that the place should not be held so long as to endanger the safety of the army. ”

“ All our officers who participated in this battle spoke in admiration of the courage displayed by the Rebels. Praise from an enemy is the greatest praise. The Rebels were not defeated on account of any lack of bravery or of recklessness. They were fully justified in retreating after the efforts they made. Our army was just as determined to hold Corinth as the Rebels were to capture it. Advantages of position turned the scale in our favor, and enabled us to repulse a force superior to our own.
Just before the battle, General Grant sent a division under General McPherson to re-enforce Corinth. ”

“ Little fear of the Union troops being caught a second time at such a disadvantage. They were established on the upper part of the Tennessee, prepared to strike blows in any direction.
EVACUATION OF CORINTH.
The withdrawal of Beauregard to Corinth made that point valuable to the Unionists, because of the large number of railroads which centre there. It was strongly fortified, and no one expected its capture without a severe battle. General Halleck, who was high in favor with the government, assumed command of the Union armies and began an advance upon Corinth. ”

“ FROM THE ATTACK ON CORINTH, OCT. 3D, 1862, UNTIL REGIMENT WAS MOUNTED. Rebels prepare to attack Corinth—Order of battle—Result of the attack on the 3d of October—New line of battle at "White House"—Line at "Battery Robinett"—Slaughter on the 4th of October—Extracts from a Rebel prisoner's journal—List of killed and wounded—Outpost duty. ”

“ All commanding points two or three miles to the south, south-east and south-west were strongly fortified. It was expected in case of necessity to connect these forts by rifle-pits. They were laid out on a scale that would have required 100,000 men to fully man them. It was probably thought that a final battle of the war would be fought at that point. These fortifications were never used. Immediately after the occupation of Corinth by the National troops, General Pope was sent in pursuit of the retreating garrison and General Buell soon followed. ”

“ The first naval battle on record was fought between Corinth and its colony Corcyra, about 657 B. C. ‘Syracuse, the ornament of Sicily, Corcyra, some time sovran of the seas, Ambracia in Epirus, and several other cities more or less flourishing, owe their origin to Corinth.’ (Travels of ♦Anacharsis, vol. III. c. 37.) Thucydides states, that the Corinthian ship-builders first produced galleys with three benches of oars. ”

“ Instead of retiring into Corinth, and 537from that stronghold making some terms with Mummius, Diaeus fled to Megalopolis, where he poisoned himself, after first killing his wife. The rest of the beaten Achaean army took refuge in Corinth, which Mummius took and fired on the third day after the battle with Diaeus. Then the commissioners were sent from Rome to settle the whole of Greece. Pausanias, 7, 16-17; Livy, Ep. 52.
13. The incidents of the capture of Corinth were melancholy. The soldiers cared nothing forThe destruction of the works of art in Corinth, September, B.C. 146. ”

“ Flushed with that victory and insolent with triumph, the enemy rested for the long march of invasion which he believed would lead him (unchecked, even if opposed) to easy, speedy and decisive conquest. No thought of danger to himself, disturbed these pleasant anticipations.
The suggestion that an attack from the Confederate forces at Corinth was imminent, would have been dismissed as the idlest and weakest of apprehensions. The different corps moved from their respective positions, on the railroads which enter Corinth, by the most direct roads to the point indicated for their concentration. ”

“ By the 1st of October it was fully apparent that Corinth was to be attacked with great force and determination, and that Van Dorn, Lovell, Price, Villepigue and Rust had joined their strength for this purpose. There was some skirmishing outside of Corinth with the advance of the enemy on the 3d. The rebels massed in the north-west angle of the Memphis and Charleston and the Mobile and Ohio railroads, and were thus between the troops at Corinth and all possible reinforcements. Any fresh troops for us must come by a circuitous route. ”

“ Earlier on the same day General Grant also telegraphed to General Halleck: "The main force of the enemy is at Corinth, with troops at different points east. Small garrisons are also at Bethel, Jackson, and Humboldt. The number at these places seems constantly to change. The number of the enemy at Corinth, and within supporting distance of it, cannot be far from eighty thousand men." General Halleck was preparing to leave St. Louis and come to the front to take immediate command of the combined army for the march on to Corinth. ”

“ To his surprise, the enemy’s chief redoubt was found within thirteen hundred yards of the inner line of intrenchments, but completely masked by the dense forest and undergrowth. Instead of a continuous line of intrenchments encircling Corinth, his defenses consisted of separate redoubts, connected in part by a parapet and ditch, and in part by shallow rifle-pits; the trees being felled to afford a good field of fire to and beyond the main road. ”

“ I doubted, on the march up and on the retreat, whether I was in an army of brave men fighting for their country, or merely following a band of armed marauders who are as terrible to their friends as foes. The settlements through which we passed were made to pay heavy tribute to the rapacity of our soldiers. This plunder, too, was without excuse, for rations were regularly issued every night."
Early in October the combined forces of Price and Van Dorn attempted the capture of Corinth, which had been abandoned by Beauregard in May, and from that time had been held by Grant's forces. ”

“ Did you know him?"
"Yes," said Polybius, "only too well; a more incompetent fool never ruined the affairs of a state."
"Well," said the young soldier, "he has paid for his folly. Early in this year we marched out of [327] our winter-quarters near Corinth to attack Heraclea in Thessaly, which had declared itself out of the League.61 We had just sat down before the town when news came that the Roman army was approaching. Immediately there was a scuttle. The general did not wait to hear what was the force of the enemy, but was off at once. ”

“ Beauregard had, indeed, halted at Baldwin with most of his army, but decided to fall back twenty miles further to Tupelo. Under Halleck's order, no further pursuit was attempted.
Before closing this chapter, I must refer to what was perhaps the strangest incident of the Corinth campaign. On June 4, Halleck telegraphed to Secretary Stanton:
General Pope with 40,000 is thirty miles south of Corinth, pushing the enemy hard. He already reports 10,000 prisoners and deserters from the enemy and 15,000 stands of arms captured. Thousands of the enemy are throwing away their arms. ”

“ The capture of Corinth, in 146 B.C., marks the Roman conquest of all Greece, and the art-treasures carried to Rome seem to have been as great and various as those which even Athens could have produced. No sooner had Julius Cæsar restored and rebuilt the ruined city, than it sprang at once again into importance, and among the societies addrest in the Epistles of St. Paul, none seems to have lived in greater wealth or luxury. It was, in fact, well-nigh impossible that Corinth should die. Nature had marked out her site as one of the great thoroughfares of the old world ”

“ In the General Orders issued by Lieut.-General Sir John Hope (afterwards Lord Hopetoun) , congratulating the army upon the successful result of the Battle of Corunna, on the 16th of January, 1809, it is stated:—“On no occasion has the undaunted valour of British troops ever been more manifest. At the termination of a severe and harassing march, rendered necessary by the superiority which the enemy had acquired, and which had materially impaired the efficiency of the troops, many disadvantages were to be encountered. ”

“ It has woollen mills, cotton compresses, clothing, furniture, and spoke and stave factories and machine shops, and is a cotton market. Because of its situation and its importance as a railway junction, Corinth played an important part in the western campaigns of the Civil War. After the first Confederate line of defence had been broken by the capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson (February 1862) , Corinth was fortified by General P. G. T. Beauregard, and was made the centre of the new line along the Memphis & Charleston railway, “the great East and West artery of the Confederacy.” ”

“ But Corineus, in raising his shield to ward the blow, forgot not the battle-axe he held in his hand. Lifting it overhead, he smote him a buffet upon the top of his helmet that cleft him right through into two halves. After this, he straightway rusheth [223] in amongst the rest, whirling his axe, and a passing furious slaughter he maketh. Hurrying hither and thither, he avoideth receiving a single stroke, but never resteth a moment from smiting down his enemies. ”

“ It has been generally held that the Siege of Corinth was written in the second half of 1815 (Kölbing's Siege of Corinth, p. vii.) . "It appears," says John Wright (Works, 1832, x. 100) , "by the original MS., to have been begun in July, 1815;" and Moore (Life, p. 307) , who probably relied on the same authority, speaks of "both the Siege of Corinth and Parisina having been produced but a short time before the Separation" (i.e. spring, 1816) . Some words which Medwin (Conversations, 1824, p. 55) puts into Byron's mouth point to the same conclusion. ”

“ But Corinth had at this time only thirty ships of war, whereas Corcyra was able to put to sea near four times the number; being, next to Athens, the most powerful maritime state of Greece. Application for naval assistance was therefore made to the republics with which Corinth was most bound in friendship, and thus more than forty vessels were obtained. It had been the settled policy of the Corcyræans, islanders and strong at sea, to engage in no alliances. They had avoided both the Peloponnesian and the Athenian confederacy; and hitherto with this policy they had prospered. ”

“ On another stone of larger size is a more imposing piece of sculpture. A horseman fully armed is thrusting his spear into the body of his fallen foe—a hoplite. The inscription relates that the unhappy foot-soldier fell at Corinth by reason of those five words of his!—a record intelligible enough, doubtless, to his contemporaries, but sufficiently obscure and provocative of curiosity to later generations. ”

“ FROM THE REBUILDING OF THE LONG WALLS OF ATHENS TO THE PEACE OF ANTALKIDAS.
Large plans of Konon — organization of a mercenary force at Corinth. — Naval conflicts of the Corinthians and Lacedæmonians, in the Corinthian Gulf. — Land-warfare — the Lacedæmonians established at Sikyon — the anti-Spartan allies occupying the lines of Corinth from sea to sea. — Sufferings of the Corinthians from the war being carried on in their territory. Many Corinthian proprietors become averse to the war. — Growth and manifestation of the philo-Laconian party in Corinth. ”

“ In my clear judgement, if Corund be barred from this journey (as reason is, I freely embrace it, he must bide in Impland, both to harvest there his victories and to deny the road to Juss and Brandoch Daha if haply they return from the Moruna, and besides, time, as you most justly say, O King, calleth for speedy action) : if he be barred, you have no better than Corinius. A complete soldier, a tried captain, young, fierce, and resolute, and one that sitteth not down again when once he standeth up till that his will be accomplished. Send him to Demonland. ”

“ He then proclaimed, in the Forum at Corinth, the freedom and immunity of the province, while he awarded to his judges the honour of Roman citizenship, together with large presents in money. Another project ascribed to him, magnificent and useful in itself, may have had no other object in his mind than to render him famous in history; in almost any other human being we should look for some worthier motive for it. This was the cutting of the isthmus of Corinth, a measure often before proposed and attempted but never achieved. ”