Mississippi History Timeline

Corinth was an important railroad crossroads. After a slow advance following the Battle of Shiloh, Union forces took control of Corinth. The loss was a significant blow to the Confederate war effort.

Confederate forces under General Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard launch a surprise attack on Ulysses S. Grant’s army on April 6, but heavy Union reinforcements turn the tide on April 7 and force the Confederates back to Corinth.

Image:  Uniform coat of Capt. T. Otis Baker of the 10th Mississippi Infantry which fought in the Battle of Shiloh.

Union Flag Officer David G. Farragut moved his deep-water naval vessels up the Mississippi past Grand Gulf to Vicksburg.

Commanded by Lieutenant Isaac N. Brown, a Mississippian serving in the Confederate Navy, the CSS Arkansas steamed out of the Yazoo River and fought its way through the Union fleet on the Mississippi River and reached the safety of Vicksburg.

Following the bloodiest single day of fighting during the war at the Battle of Antietam, President Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22. The proclamation called on rebel states to rejoin the Union by January 1 or have their slaves freed.

Image:  Headquarters flag of General Winfield Scott Featherston of  Holly Springs who served as a brigade commander at the Battle of Antietam.  He later fought in the Battle of Franklin, in 1864, where this flag was captured.

Confederates under Major General Sterling Price were defeated by Union General William S. Rosecrans, ending a move toward Tennessee in coordination with Bragg’s invasion of Kentucky.

In an effort to regain the initiative and retake Corinth for the Confederates, Earl Van Dorn launched an attack on Rosecrans’s forces. After two days of fighting, Van Dorn fell back to Holly Springs.

Image:  Flag of the 6th Mississippi Infantry that fought in the Battle of Corinth.

Following the Battle of Corinth, Union General Ulysses S. Grant moved down the Mississippi Central Railroad in an effort to capture Vicksburg by an overland route.

The sinking of the Cairo involved the use of an electrically charged underwater mine, the first recorded use of such a device in naval history.

During Confederate General Earl Van Dorn’s raid on the Mississippi Central Railroad, the Confederates captured Holly Springs, a major supply depot for Grant’s army. The loss of Holly Springs forced Grant to fall back to Memphis.

William T. Sherman’s forces were sent down the Mississippi to assault Vicksburg while the main Confederate army was facing Grant in north Mississippi. Due to the capture of Holly Springs, Confederate reinforcements were rushed to meet Sherman at Chickasaw Bayou, where his army was repulsed.