corinth, mississippi. two of the south's longest trunk railroads cross the at corinth, the east-west road, the memphis and charleston. the only complete rail line in the confederacy to link the mississippi river with the atlantic seaboard and the north-south mobile and ohio, linking the ohio river valley to the gulf of mexico. corinth was quite simply that spring the lynchpin containing the confederacy's efforts to hold the mississippi. after ascending the river a national army under general ulysses s. grant at pittsburg landing its front encompassing shiloh church. while western confederate forces led by general albert sidney johnston concentrated by rail to corinth to rendezvous for the offensive johnston plan to lead against grant. the military issues confronting these combatants proved not to be the mere possession of the field or even the vital cross-roads but involved the defeat of their respective major armies and the ultimate possession of the mississippi valley. grant's mission, sever the western

railroad crossover at corinth. the union high command, given that the war in the west sense january of 1862 had really played out to their advantage. everything was reeling in the west for the confederates. and the union high command had this feeling of impending victory. that they were on the verge of perhaps ending the war in the west. the primary mission was to repossess the mississippi valley. that's the whole purpose. and command had now been organized under a central leader in the west, henry w. halleck who commanded from saint louis. and he had four field armies maneuvering against the western confederate forces under the supreme western commander in the west for the confederacy, albert sidney johnston. johnston had the enexamp pd now disembarked at pittsburg landing in close proximity to the railroads and corinth junction, but he had three additional union armies pressuring his defenses. he had one in arkansas, he had pope on the river, had just taken new madrid and the force here and buell in the ohio and

companies of infantry at 3:00 in the morning on april the 6th started marching to the south, southwest to corinth road. by 4:55 a.m., three shots rang out. they had hit, apparently confederate calvary. they were mounted who road away from the federals after they fired at them. the combat control was under the command of major james powell who threw the men into a skirmish form mags towards the lotion where we're now standing. when the elements of the skirmish line broke out here, they encountered infantry picket posts, seven man details who fired off shots at the federals and retired. just the gray light of dawn breaking, very quiet morning except for the sudden eruption of the few muskets being fired, a few shouts being heard across the landscape, federal officers giving orders and what all, when in the far distance, the union troops would have picked up in the darkness, darker forms here at the junction of the woods. and those darker forms were the main picket front of hardee's corps, they were standing there in formation. the federals slowly advance and hardcastle unleashes a massive volley up

we know that corinth was tries as far north to south from pittsburg landing than it was from east to west. that little terrain perspective, confederates are marching from the west, slightly north, but generally eastward, led the confederate high command into assuming the army faced west. retreat to the river. you would not, you would not logically, if you knew the federal army faced south, deploy with your army facing east, if your primary mission was to turn the union left first. that misunderstanding has a great deal to do with our understanding of why it's fought the way it is. and why troops maneuver the way they do. and why johnston brought so much of the weight of his army to bear against this point, is because he believes in the initial contact that he has struck the union left. he believes in the initial maneuver that he has turned that left. and by 9:00 when his troops are entering this union camp, that mass having driven prentiss's 5,400 men out of it, that he has indeed cut grant's retreat to the tennessee river. because, having brought half the army to bear here, he still

they had issued rations before they left corinth. most of the men cooked and ate their food before they ever got on the road so many of them have been without food now. remember, the battle was supposed to have been fought on the 4th. now it's being fought on the 6th. they have not eaten for two days or more. and then they hit this union camp, and of course later on union troops will claim that they weren't surprised. confederate veterans will comment, well, maybe they weren't surprised but they did have the most devoted cooks in the world because the food on the fires when they entered the camps. it had been a typical sunday morning in camp. not a lot of action was planned for a typical sunday morning in camp. there's, of course, going to be church services. there will probably be parades or reviews, but not a great deal of activities usually in a camp that's on a stand-down. so it's a typical morning. confederates hit this union camp and it was like a treasure trove of luxuries. they have canned seafood, fresh bread, real coffee. t

as we've heard, we cannot divorce corinth from shiloh. they're both one and the same in terms of this campaign. so the effort at building the interpretive center at corinth and taking in some of those areas down there is very impressive and i think the veterans of the 1890s would be very impressed with what's been preserved and what's going on at corinth. now, there's a little bit of a side component to this preservation. and i want to talk about that for just a second, and then we could all go get lunch and visit the facilities and all that. part of the preservation movement is the fostering of the official story of what we know about any given place. normally it falls to the people who preserve a place to interpret and educate about the place. and the park service does a wonderful example, or job of preserving -- not only preserving the areas but also interpreting and educating. i have to hand it to the civil war trust. they do a very good job of interpreting to their members and to the public what they are preserving. how many of you h

it's a crossroads of the corinth road with the hamburg purdy road. hamburg purdy road is the most significant lateral line. when i say lateral, if you think the battle starts on the south end of the plateau and ends up on the north end, so it's that lateral west to east line of communication, line of logistics that exists with inside the union encampment. we've come up from the churches because this is where sherman's division retires to. he's retiring back upon his initial report and that's mclaren's division. it's due south of our position here. down there, you know, the union front's facing south, southwest against the oncoming confederate attack. as we stand here with north being in this direction, look at the orientation then of this federal line of defense that the monuments delineate. the line i want you to look at is from this battery here. the 14th ohio through these illinois regiments stacked up to the far illinois battery you see here to the southwest. and look where their guns are playing. not towards shiloh church and the center of union

corinth remain irreventantly linked in time and space. it's a shared significance forged by war, helping to define the most violent and socially important crossroads in the american experience. thank you. >> good afternoon. i fully understand that i'm the last speaker between you and lunch, so i will be brief. what i want to talk about, though, is what paul harvey would call the rest of the story. we've heard a lot about the battle itself. the two-day battle. we've had our panel discussion and stacy taking us through the maps. but there's a lot more to the history of shiloh than two days of battle. now, granted, those are the most important parts of the story of shiloh. but there's a lot actually prior to the battle. many of you probably have visited the indian mounds. there's a whole civilization there prior to the white man coming. and then the settlement. the civilians of shiloh. it's a very interesting, fascinating story. of course, the two days of battle itself, the most fascinating of all, the most interesting, the most pivotal in t

it's owned by a man in corinth, mississippi. we have it here until we can design the proper exhibit for it. it's kind of unique and it's pretty fragile because at some point in time it was torn before it came to us is a photograph reportedly found in the grave of an unknown soldier lying in the national chemistry so there's wartime grade that had this image. i think the image has been remounted on this backing, but the specific remain in which this was recovered, whose site it is unknown, is grave 757 in the national cemetery. so this would be an image of his sweetheart, maybe wife, of that individual who died here, unfortunately, remains were not identified, either at the time of burial or upon exhumation, and so simply another question mark who was the unknown soldier and who is the sweetheart. i guess you could say god only knows, so kind of a unique item to come up with the dead. you saw the jackknifes and some of the other personal items like pipes and things, and to see -- to see an image, a photograph come out. let's see,

we just passed up the eastern corinth road from confederate markers which note the farthest advance of the organization's attacking the hornet's nest to the union front that ran parallel to an old wagon cut. what's amazing is nobody in either army really mentions the existence of this road. on april 6, 1862. there's not a letter, a battle report, or a diary entry that selects on the fact that there's an old wagon cut here. there are 6200 federal troops positioned on this wagon cut and not one of them in april 1862 mentions its existence. now we know it exists but they don't select upon it and that's important because this wagon cut later on becomes an iconic sunken road and it was nowhere near being sunken. a couple. walgon ruts, six to eight inches deep, here as it crossed the top of the ridge in 1862 and we know that's about it. we know that's about it because in the initial descriptions of it when they begin to reflect on the fact that, hey, yeah, there was a road there, that's the initial descriptions. and somebody applied the bar partially sunken and the word stuck. from that poin

in fact, they arrived at corinth about the same time the demoralized, defeated confederate army fell back from shiloh. the troops van doran brought to mississippi were certainly welcomed at the blood-letting at at shiloh, but to give you an t shiloh was, van doran's entire army did not even come close to making up for the losses incurred in that battle. as they say on tv, but wait, there's more. van dorn did not merely transfer himself in the army of the west from one side of the mississippi river to the other side of the mississippi river. he abandoned arkansas, missouri, northern louisiana, and the indian territory. he abandoned all of that to the enemy. he acted entirely on his own without permission from anyone in richmond. in fact, he did not even inform the confederate government in richmond about what he was going to do. he not only took his army across the river -- you have to think of it in larger terms. he took the entire confederate war effort in the trans mississippi with him. took all the troops, all the animals he could lay his hands on, all the wagons and carts, all th

and they're going to grandly march on corinth. and he does tell grant, look, i don't want you starting any fights, as the film -- as the film points out. but grant is not afraid of anybody, truth be told. but there is this difference of attitude or opinion about how war ought to be fought. halleck is old school. grant is the new military, the new army. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. >> i have a question -- >> one question. >> please. well, we did want -- before we answer -- >> i won't take a lot of time here, but what i did to present -- and anybody's welcome to come up and take a look at it, is in speaking of grant, this is my shall we say ugly duckling here letter written by grant. it's a personal letter that he wrote on february 13th, 1862, in the middle of the fort donaldson fighting. he wrote it to a commander walk, who was the commander walk, who was the commander of the carondelet gunboat. and he's telling him there's four more gunboats coming and not to get involved in any more fighting until they got there. but why is t

he is going take command of the army and they are going to grandly march on corinth. he does tell grant, look. i don't want you starting any fights as the film points out. grant is not afraid of anybody truth be hold but there is difference of attitude or opinion about how war ought to be fought. hallek is old school and grant is in the you military, the new army. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. >> i have a question. >> one second. >> yeah. please. before we -- >> what i did to present and anybody is welcome to come up and take a look at it. speaking of grant. this is my, shall we say, ugly duckling here letter of -- written by grant. it's a personal letter that he wrote on february 13th, 1862, in the middle of the fort donaldson fighting. he wrote it to a commander walk, who was the commander of the carondelet gun boat and he's telling him there's four more gun boats coming, so as not to get involved in any more fighting until they get there. why was this an ugly duckling? this was a letter overwritten by walk who kept it in his papers in 1894 before he sent copes t

the confederate army falls back to corinth and both sides are in the same positions they were when the battle began, but grant had not been defeated. buel made the juncture and the railroads lay waiting for the next union strike. >> you can watch this or other american history tv programs on the civil war at any time by visiting our website c-span.org/history. >> as commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the civil war continues, join us every saturday at 6 and 10 p.m. and sundays at 11 a.m. for programs featuring the civil war. for more information about american history tv on c-span 3 including our complete schedule, go to c-span.org/history. to keep up with us during the we can or send us questions and comments follow us on twitter. we're at twitter.com/cspanhistory. >>> each week american history tv sits in on a lecture with one of the nation's college professors. you can watch the classes here every saturday at 8 p.m. and midnight eastern and sundays at 1 p.m. this week former general counsel to the republican national committee david norcross looks at edmond burke and the origi

>> reporter: hundreds of bikers drove the country roads to darden, tennessee, then stopped at the corinthreturn for the safe return of holly bobo. >> why give up? you just can't, can't do that, not in a situation like this. >> reporter: inside the church, holly's parents spoke on the anniversary of their daughter's disappearance. >> it has been a year since our daughter, holly, was taken from us. >> we know a year seems like a long time to each of you, but for us, holly's family, each day seems like an eternity without holly. >> reporter: holly bobo was reportedly last seen being taken from outside her rural home into the woods by an unidentified man wearing camouflage. police theorize the abductor was from the area. >> looks like he was a resident of this community, and this is a very tight-knitted community where people know each other. >> reporter: widespread searches by volunteers and police turned up some physical evidence, including holly's lunch box. >> the person who owns this property back here, he found a lunch pal down in this area. >> reporter: but the searchers and a reward,

thor i corinth , >>george: we are tracking a hot spot on the nimitz in oakland and it is getting worseed northbound at 29. a minor injury accident fire trucks and other medical personnel on scene. >>darya: the number of tips received by sheriff's investigators in the case of sierra lamar is close to 1000. the tips range from possible sightings of the teenager to other information regarding her whereabouts. >> every tip and information is followed up with investigators. every case is different. some cases have more information from the beginning or, you have suspect's description or a vehicle description. unfortunately, we did not have those leads. we continue to not have a person of interest. the community has been helping out. we want to again remind the committee to call in or e- mail with any tips or information on this case. >>darya: the department's search and rescue unit will resume looking for sierra possibly by the end of the week. >>mark: a quick break on the kron4 and is. here's a quick look on the bay bridge, the western span with traffic moving smoothly into san francisco.