Texas Memorial

During the Western Campaign of 1862, Texans from 18 different units served at Corinth and nearby. After the retreat of Southern forces from Shiloh, two Confederate armies combined to defend the strategic railroad crossing at Corinth, and Texans helped hold the city until the Confederates, heavily outnumbered, were compelled to abandon it on May 30. In mid-September, the Confederate Army of the West under Major General Sterling Price maneuvered to prevent Union reinforcements from leaving the theater of operations, and on September 19 the Battle of Iuka was fought 23 miles southeast of Corinth, where Texans in Louis Hebert's brigade made repeated charges against Union forces. The fighting there was inconclusive, allowing Price to extricate his army and rendezvous with Major General Earl Van Dorn in Ripley, Mississippi, for an effort to drive the Union army from West Tennessee by first attacking the garrison at Corinth. The Battle of Corinth, fought on October 3 and 4, culminated in three charges against this site led by Colonel William P. Rogers of the 2nd Texas Infantry; the attacks failed and Rogers was killed. Texans from Brigadier General Charles Phifer's brigade advanced southeast beyond this point and briefly captured the railroad crossroads at the heart of the city before being compelled to retire. Van Dorn's shattered army then retreated west, and the following day at Davis Bridge, Tennessee, Texans again stood out as they held back attacking Union forces until a river crossing could be secured upstream.

Corinth, Mississippi · United States