Decision at the Crossroads

Decision at the Crossroads. . On the morning of October 4, 1862, in an effort to retake Corinth's critical railroad junction, Confederate forces under Major General Earl Van Dorn launch a massive assault on Major General William Rosecrans's Union garrison. For a brief, triumphant moment, depicted here, southern troops seize the railroad cross-over, pushing past the railway depot and Tishomingo Hotel. However, Rosecrans's Federals soon rally to repel them., Initially driven south of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, Illinois troops hastily reform to spearhead the Union counterattack. Confederate brigade commander Colonel William Moore, shown here mounted in front of the depot, is shot and killed, as the Union charge hurls the Southerners back into the town square. Thousands of Union troops soon join the counterattack., Overwhelmed by the massive Federal reserves, Confederates are caught in a deadly crossfire. A Confederate staff officer sadly reported, "Our lines melted under their fire like snow in thaw.” By early afternoon, Van Dorn's army is in full retreat., For the numbers engaged, the battle is one of the Civil War's bitterest fights: Union losses totaled 2,359; Confederate losses, 4,838., This oil painting by Keith Rocco, entitled "Decision at the Crossroads,” is on display at the nearby Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center.