SHAKO: Road Trip to Arkansas-2 (Part II)

SECOND STOP: Surprising Corinth, Mississippi (Part II).

One of the many historic homes near downtown Corinth, Mississippi. (4GWAR photo by John M. Doyle, Copyright 2024 Sonoma Road Strategies) Click on photo to enlarge the image.

After the shooting stopped on the second Day of Shiloh (April 7, 1862) Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard withdrew his battered Army some 20 miles south to the railroad hub of Corinth, Mississippi.The Union Army did not pursue the rebel army for nearly a month. As horrible as the carnage was on the Tennessee battlefield, what awaited the Confederates in the small Mississippi town was, in many ways even worse, according to the National Park Service’s Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center, which we toured the day after our visit to Shiloh.

A Month of Hell.

Beauregard knew he had to hold the crucial base at Corinth, writing to headquarters in Richmond, Virginia “if defeated here we lose the Mississippi Valley, and probably our cause.” But he had just lost thousands of men and officers at Shiloh. Many of the survivors were wounded. A small town of approximately 1,200 inhabitants, Corinth had no hospital, just five churches and three hotels that were converted to care for the wounded, sick and dying. Calls went out to surrounding communities for doctors and medical supplies. Most of the women in Corinth served as volunteer nurses.

An 1862 poster seeking assistance for the wounded of Shiloh displayed at the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center. (4GWar Photo by John M. Doyle, Copyright 2024 Sonoma Road Strategies.) Click on photo to enlarge image.

The arrival of reinforcements from elsewhere in the South increased the number of troops camped in and around the town to 75,000, taxing the water supply. Food and medicines were scarce. A constant rain made conditions muddy and miserable. Attempts to dig new wells, eight to ten feet down in the boggy soil produced foul, milky-looking water that horses refused, but desperately thirsty men drank, causing waves of dysentery and typhoid, according to the National Park Service.

“In Corinth, the same number of men died from disease in the seven weeks following Shiloh as perished in the battle itself.” — from a display in the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center.

Meanwhile, Northern newspapers and politicians excoriated then-Major General Ulysses S. Grant for being caught by a surprise attack and the ensuing  slaughter at Shiloh. He was accused of everything from drunkenness to incompetence. His superior, Major General Henry Halleck, commander of Union forces in the Western Theater of Operations, replaced Grant as commander of the force marching on Corinth. A brilliant strategist, Halleck was an inexperienced and overly cautious field commander. It took him nearly a month to reach Corinth while the Confederates had time to dig an impressive seven miles of defense works. By late May Halleck’s 100,000 troops were entrenched within cannon range of the rebel fortifications, forcing Beauregard to abandon the Confederacy’s crucial rail link.

Bloodstained Confederate officer’s jacket and flag of the Corinth Rifles at the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center. (4GWAR photo by Deborah Zabarenko, Copyright 2024 Sonoma Road Strategies.) Cl ick on photo to enlarge image.

His army slipped out of town unnoticed. On May 29th, trains began to evacuate the sick, wounded, and equipment. To deceive his foe, Beauregard told his men to cheer every time an empty train came into the city to make it seem like the Confederate army was receiving reinforcements. By the morning of the 30th, the Union army discovered the city was abandoned.

Halleck was promoted to General-in-Chief of all Union forces and called back to Washington, while Grant got his old command back. But in late summer 1862, Confederate leaders launched a series of counter offensives in three states, including an attempt to recapture Corinth. Confederate troops under Major General Earl Van Dorn managed to break through the Union line and there was street fighting — one of the few incidents of urban warfare during the Civil War –in Corinth but eventually the rebels were driven back with heavy losses. Van Dorn ordered a retreat to the West.

Site of street fighting for the the crucial railroad crossing during the second battle of Corinth, Miss. in October 1862. (4GWAR blog photo by John M. Doyle, Copyright 2024 Sonoma Road Strategies) Click on the photo to enlarge the image.

Human Contraband.

Confederate Monument in Corinth, Miss. (4GWAR Photo by John M. Doyle, Copyright 2024 Sonoma Road Strategies) Click on photo to enlarge image.

Inscription on Confederate Monument, Corinth, Miss. (4GWAR photo by John M. Doyle, Copyright 2024 Sonoma Road Strategies.) Click on photo to enlarge.

In Deep South towns like Corinth, one expects to see monuments like this in courthouse squares or other public spaces, recording for posterity the noble sacrifice and bravery of individuals, regiments or a whole generation of warriors for  the Lost Cause.

But in recent years, you will find more monuments dedicated to other people seldom mentioned or recognized in the first 100 years after the Civil War, largely because many — if not most — enslaved people were illiterate (it was against the law in many southern jurisdictions to teach a slave to read and write). And their enslavers often kept minimal records of the people they considered property.

Black Soldier at Contraband Camp Park in Corinth, Mississippi. (4GWARphoto by John M. Doyle, Copyright 2024 Sonoma Road Strategies.) Click on photo to enlarge.

As Union armies advanced into Confederate territory thousands of enslaved people, mostly men at first, fled farms and plantations where they were held in bondage, seeking refuge behind U.S. Army lines. As their numbers grew it posed serious logistical problems for generals fighting a war now saddled with how to feed and house hundreds of non-combatants with nowhere else to go.

Until President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, the law of the land was still the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision in 1857, which held that the enslaved were property, not people, and without civil rights. Adding to the problem, Southern slave owners were pursuing their escaped property into Union Army camps — creating security issues — and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required law enforcement, particularly U.S. Marshals, to arrest people suspected of escaping enslavement on as little evidence as a claimant’s sworn testimony of ownership. The law also subjected any person found guilty of aiding a fugitive slave to six months’ imprisonment and a $1,000 fine.

In Virginia, Union Major General Benjamin Butler came up with a novel approach to the issue. A largely ineffective commander but a clever lawyer and politician, Butler turned the definition of human slaves as property on its head. He refused to send three escaped slaves back to their master, a rebel colonel, classifying them as contraband of war. All enemy property that fell into Union hands that might be used to further Rebel war efforts — including labor, farming and manufacturing — constituted contraband and would not be returned. The “Contraband Decision,” which became federal policy on August 6, 1861 enabled thousands of enslaved people from Southern states to seek refuge behind Union lines.

Entrance to Corinth Contraband Camp Park, Mississippi. (4GWAR photo by Deborah Zabarenko, Copyright 2024 Sonoma Road Strategies) Click on photo to enlarge.

After Union forces occupied Corinth in May 1862, the flow of enslaved African Americans increased dramatically. To accommodate these refugees, Union Brigadier General Grenville M. Dodge established a camp northeast of town. What began as tent city blossomed into a thriving community by mid-1863.

The camp featured numerous homes, a church, school and hospital. The freedmen cultivated and sold cotton and vegetables in a progressive cooperative farm program. By May 1863, the camp was making a clear profit of $4,000 to $5,000 from it enterprises. By August, over 1,000 African American children and adults gained the ability to read through the efforts of various benevolent organizations. Although the camp had a modest beginning, it became a model camp and allowed for approximately 6,000 ex-slaves to establish their own individual identities.

Black soldier and stacked arms at Corinth Contraband Camp Park (4GWAR photo by John M. Doyle, Copyright 2024 Sonoma Road Strategies).

Once the Emancipation Proclamation was implemented, nearly 2,000 of the newly freed men at the Corinth Contraband Camp had their first opportunity to protect their way of life and made up a new regiment in the Union army. Since most of the men came from Alabama, the unit was named the 1st Alabama Infantry Regiment of African Descent, later re-designated the 55th United States Colored Troops

 

 

In December 1863, the camp was moved to Memphis and the freedmen resided in a more traditional refugee facility for the remainder of the war. The Corinth Contraband Camp was the first step on the road to freedom and the struggle for equality for thousands of former slaves.

Today a portion of the historic Corinth Contraband Camp is preserved to commemorate those who began their journey to freedom there in 1862-1863. This land now hosts a quarter mile walkway which exhibits six life-size bronze sculptures depicting the men, women, and children who inhabited the camp.

Statue of woman and child reading at Coronth Contraband Park. (National Park Service photo)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming Soon

THIRD STOP: Memphis.

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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.