the railroad crossover at corinth. the union high command, given that the war in the west since 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. their 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 st. 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 sydney johnston. so johnston not only had this federal force encamped, now disembarked at pittsburgh landing in close proximity to his railroad and the 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. grant's force

we know that corinth was twice as far north to south from pittsburgh 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. the battle plan was to turn the union left first to cut off the 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 johnson 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 struggled with 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 5,400 men out of it, that he s has, indeed, cut grant's retreats to the tennes

it's a crossroads of the corinth road with the hamburg purdy road. apz 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. so we've come up from the churches because this is where sherman's division retires to. well, he's retearing back upon his initial support, and that's mcclernand's division. shiloh church is 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 basically delineate here. but the line i want you to look at is from this battery over 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 play

hope to get this on display at our corinth facility. it is owned by a man in corinth, mississippi. we have it here until we can design the proper exhibit 4. exhibit for it. kind of unique that -- 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 cemetery. so this war time grave, i think evidently had this image, i think the image has been mounted on the backing, but the specific grave on which this is recovered, whose site is an unknown, is grave 757 in the national cemetery. so this would be an image of a 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's the unknown soldier and who's the sweetheart? i guess you could say, god only knows. so a unique item to come up with the dead. you saw the jackknives and some of the personal items like pipes and things and then to see, to see an image, a photograph come out. let'

they will meet in the rear of the hornet's nest here at the junction of the hamburg savannah and corinth road no more than a half-mile to our north and east they will slam the door shut and trap roughly 2,250 federal defenders and capture themm en mass, and at about 5:30 this fight is over. during of the course of the late afternoon confederates used artillery to try to silence the federal guns and drive them away and a large concentration of artillery, as many as 11 to 12 batteries participate and receives a lot of writing in the reports, known as rug he will's line or concentration of artillery and serves good effect to pin down the union infantry. it does, does force the federal artillery to leave the field. one of the reasons the federal artillery is leaving the field is because they used up the available ammunition and have to retire to find more. it isolates the position, pins the union troops down and allows the two wings to envelope or circle the position. that's the demise of the hornet's nest and what crushes it from existence where as throughout the entire day the federal troo

so we just passed up the eastern corinth road from confederate markers which note the advance of the organizations 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 is no letter, battle report or a diary entry that selects on the fact that there is an old wagon cut here. 6200 federal troops are positioned here 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. that's important. because this wagon cut later on becomes an iconic sunken road. it was nowhere near being sunken. a couple of wagon ruts six to eight inches deep. maybe a foot deep here as it crossed the top of the ridge. that's about it. in 1862. 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 description. then somebody partially sunken and the word stuck. from that point on it is known as th

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

corinth a couple months after that. vicksburg was a big one in the western theater. in the east, of course, bull run, prior to this battle, but you're getting into fred ricksberg fredericksburg, et cetera. little ft. donelson in the western theater gets overshadowed by many other things. i think that is unfortunate. i think that's also changing, too. the work here at the park is helping to educate people and the interpretation of this battle is also improving. i'll get more detail of that. again, think of what is going on here in the winter of 1862. the union suffered a big defeat back in the east with the battle of bull run. first manassas. not much has really happened since that period up to the february of 1862. so, you have six, seven months with agitated public in the north. in particular, okay, guys, where are we going? let's march. on to richmond. and things aren't going that well. president lincoln is exasperated with the lack of activity. what's it take? it finally takes a brigadier general in illinois battling his superior saying, let's move. finally that w

they will meet in the rear of the hornet's nest here at the junction of the hamburg savannah and corinth road no more than a half-mile to our north and east they will slam the door shut and trap roughly 2,250 federal defenders and capture them en mass, and at about 5:30 this fight is over. during of the course of the late afternoon confederates used artillery to try to silence the federal guns and drive them away and a large concentration of