The Battle and Siege of Corinth, MSMay 23, 2012
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Heading up the walkway of the Corinth CW Interpretive Center
A haversack and it's contents - all in bronze
Simulated Battery Robinett built as part of the Interpretive Center
Mon 5/21
OK – time to head to Corinth! We drove the 40 or so miles west on 72 from the Rose Trail campground in Cherokee, AL. Our first stop was the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center (the National Battlefield visitors center). The Center is new and they have done a great job with it. It is very unique having many bronze plates containing bullets, cap and cartridge boxes, etc., parts and pieces of Civil War guns, forage caps, haversacks, canteens, cups, knapsacks – all made of bronze and embedded in the sidewalk or on the ground as if discarded or torn from the owner. On the outside of the building is a bronze panel showing CW soldiers marching at the double quick. A reproduction of earthworks, such as would have been found at the adjoining Battery Robinett, and two bronze guns are integrated into the building. The interpretation is very good with good descriptive accounts of the battles and siege here. They have some nice relevant artifacts but not many of them. I don’t know if they have more and are not displaying or they just don’t have many. I have noticed this at the new visitors center in Gettysburg. The Center is great but they don’t have nearly as many artifacts on display as they did in the old, much smaller, building.
Anyway, I will save you MOST of the details. Before our touring started in earnest, we had lunch (as was suggested by Clint) at the White Trolley Café. We had the famous “slugburger”. Bet you haven’t had one of these Tom!! It is a blend of ingredients. It was interesting – I’ll let you search it out if you are interested! We visited many sites in and around the city. While doing so we patronized the Borroum Drug Store (and soda fountain) - the oldest drug store in MS. It was opened in 1865 by Dr. A. J. Borroum who was a surgeon in the War.
We saw some fine preserved examples of earthworks, including Battery F. We had thunderstorms off and on so that curtailed some of the hikes out to distant earthworks (I still managed to transport two ticks home). Corinth was deemed vital by both sides early in the War. Some say that in 1862, the intersection of the Memphis & Charleston and the Mobile & Ohio railroads in town was the most important 16 square feet of real estate in the Confederacy. Since there were few roads in this "wilderness", both sides relied upon the river roads and railroads for transporting troops, munitions and RATIONS! The rivers were already being heavily contested. Closely following the Rebel defeat at Antietam, Corinth was another early, huge loss for the Confederacy.
As they always are, the visit to the National Cemetery was one of the most moving. It is the final resting place for 1,793 known and 3,895 unknown Civil War soldiers of 273 regiments from 15 states. It is always an honor to pay tribute to our fallen heroes.
