Baltimore Opera Company

Study Guide

The Siege of Corinth

The Other Siege of Corinth

The name Corinth appears biblically in Paul's letters to the Corinthians, operatically as in Rossini's Siege of Corinth and in the realm of warfare during the American Civil War. In the northeast corner of Mississippi there is a railroad junction town named Corinth . Two railroads, the Memphis & Charleston and the Mobile & Ohio, crossed in a remote corner of Tishomingo County and created a thriving community which was incorporated as Corinth in 1858. Railroads were vital to the armies of the Civil War era to move troops and supplies because roads were mostly dirt and during rain or snow were virtually impassable. This made railroads prime military objectives for both Blue and Gray and Corinth , Mississippi became the site of the kind of attention none of the townsfolk could have anticipated or wanted.

After the 6 and 7 April 1862 battles of Shiloh, the Union armies, commanded by Gen Henry Halleck, marched south toward Corinth and pushed the Confederates into defensive positions around the town: this time frame, from 29 April to 30 May, became known as the "Siege of Corinth". Faced with food shortages, lack of medicine, bad water and lack of other critical supplies, Gen. Beauregard withdrew the Confederate forces - and Corinth was in Union hands. This was a disaster for the town which had been turned into a vast hospital for the wounded from Shiloh and the siege casualties, plus having been stripped of anything of value by the occupying forces.

It followed that the Confederates wanted Corinth back in their possession so they sent Gen. Stirling Price with 21,000 troops against Union Gen. William Rosecran's 23,000 men who were defending from prepared fortifications around the town. After two days of bitter fighting on 3 and 4 Oct 1862 the "Battle of Corinth" was over and the Confederates were repulsed. The town was again ravaged and overcome by thousands of wounded and the stench of death.

How interesting that both Rossini's Corinth and Mississippi 's Corinth are so involved with human suffering. Sadly there was no redemption by great music in Mississippi .

-John Hass

 

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