18621776 Club
Van Dorn storms Corinth; Union line bends but holds through the night
A gap between two Union divisions lets Confederates break through by early afternoon, but Rosecrans pulls his army inside the redoubts by dark.
Corinth, Mississippi sat at the junction of two vital rail lines, and in October 1862 it was the prize Confederate General Earl Van Dorn wanted back. At 10 a.m. on October 3, Van Dorn's divisions under Mansfield Lovell struck Union defenses from three sides, hitting Brig. Gen. McArthur's brigade first. By 1:30 p.m., a gap between Davies's and McKean's divisions let Confederates punch through, forcing Rosecrans's line to fall back. With temperatures near 94 degrees and water scarce, Rosecrans had withdrawn nearly his entire army, except pickets, inside Corinth's inner redoubts by nightfall…
