Tuesday, June 18, 2013

April 28, 1862---Halleck keeps crawling toward Corinth



APRIL 28, 1862:         

The Siege of Corinth (The First Battle of Corinth).  

After entrenching every night for almost a month against a possible Confederate strike, General Henry W. Halleck U.S.A. manages to have moved the veterans of Shiloh across 40 miles of open country to take Corinth, Mississippi. 

Corinth is overpopulated with the Confederate troops---many wounded, many sick, many dying, many dispirited, and all in need of rations, supplies and medicines---that were defeated at Shiloh. 

Fearing a defeat, though he has twice as many troops as his Confederate counterpart P.G.T. Beauregard, and though his troops are fed, healthy and overburdened with heavy weapons including cannons and Parrott guns, Halleck refuses to attack the town. Every Confederate feint causes him to withdraw and press another point. 

Instead of fighting he settles down into an interminable 30 day siege, like his counterpart in the East, General McClellan. 

All in all, it will take some seven weeks to capture Corinth.


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