War in a Railroad Town

War in a Railroad Town. . For six months in 1862, the fight to control Corinth’s crucial railroad crossover made the young town second only to Richmond in military importance., Noting her location at the junction of the two longest railroads in the South, General Ulysses S. Grant called Corinth “the great strategic point in the West.”, Confederate Secretary of War Leroy P. Walker concurred with this assessment, arguing the rail line through Corinth “must be defended at all hazards. These roads constitute the vertebrae of the Confederacy.”, In the weeks following the battle of Shiloh, five armies and over 200,000 men struggled here to possess the vital railroad junction., During the siege, General P.G.T. Beauregard, commander of all Confederate forces in Corinth, established his headquarters in the Duncan House. Beauregard understood the stakes, predicting “If defeated here we lose the Mississippi Valley and probably our cause.” However, on May 30, 1862, advancing Federals forced the southern leader to vacate the city., In January 1864, when Union forces also abandoned the city, the prosperity promised four years earlier with the arrival of the Memphis and Charleston and Mobile and Ohio railroads had been replaced by war’s death and desolation., Corinth’s place in Civil War history had been secured, but at a terrible cost…, (captions) , The Corinth railroad depot and the Tishomingo Hotel. (Image shows residents of the Corinth Contraband Camp awaiting transfer to a new camp near Memphis, December, 1836. Collection of Van Hedges, Background image: The Corinth railroad depot and the Tishomingo Hotel. Note the photography studios on the left of the hotel. Collection of Van Hedges, View of Battery Williams and Battery Robinette. Collection of Van Hedges, General Pierre G.T. Beauregard organized and led the defense of Corinth in May, 1862. Photo: Library of Congress.