"Battle of Corinth." from the October 25, 1862 Door County Advocate
Battle of Corinth.
——————
The following letter was received from Lieut. Kinzie Bates. of the 1st U.S. Infantry—son of Hon. Geo. C. Bates, of Chicago—Lieut. Bates was in the Corinth fight and he gives a good account o£ it:
CORINTH, Miss., Oct. 6.
DEAR FATHER: The telegraph has already told you of the desperate and bloody conflict of day before yesterday. We have again defeated the enemy in the most desperate engagement of the West. All say that Shiloh was nowhere to the fight of October 4th. I can hardly give you a description of the fight.— We had two batteries overlooking the town of Corinth, one on one side the, railroad cut, and another on the other about 200 yards apart. "They were common field redoubts, one mounting three 20-pound Parrotts, the other which I was in mounted four 30-pound Parrotts, one 8-inch howitzer, and supported on the flanks by a field battery of the 2d Regular Artillery, of six guns. The 1st day's fighting the enemy drove our troops back on our fortifications that joined a semi-circle around the town. On the morning of the 4th, at 3½ o'clock they opened upon us with a rifle battery of eight guns, which they boldly placed within 500 yards of our two works that were manned by our men, and to us they devoted their entire attention during the day. The other works not being able to do much, we soon dismounted and silenced their battery in front of us, and after taking one gun from the enemy retired to consolidate their forces for the purpose of storming our works. Near noon on they came, in solid column, sweeping in a semi-circle from the railroad cut to the left of the town.
Rushing down at a ran, they came on with a gallantry worthy a better cause. We opened a most terrific fire; shell, bullets and every missile fell like hail. We completely enfiladed their line, but on they came; our troops fell back; a brigade of rebels led by a Texas Colonel rushed up to Lieut. Roffinett's redoubt; the support falls back; he doubleshotted his guns with canister, but on they come and the Texas Colonel places the rebel flag on the redoubt. They crowd through the embrasures; our men abandon their guns and take to their muskets. The volunteers rally—we turn once again on the redoubt, and the enemy are driven back, leaving some twenty persons inside the redoubt and 500 in front of it. The Texas Colonel, his Adjutant, and 70 dead lay in the ditch in front of the battery. This is a fact, for last night I buried them with a party of our own men. I gave the gallant Colonel a decent burial on the spot where he lost his life, but buried his men in one trench.
In the meantime where was I, I suppose you want to know. Commanding two guns that commanded their line leading into town. I kept hard at work. At time the 30 pounder shell would make gaps 300 feet long In their ranks, but in spite of the tremendous resistance, the fire of our batteries and twenty fieldpieces they reached the town and some are killed in the yard of Gen. Rosencrans' headquarters. We work with desperate energy. Our guns are so hot you can hardly touch them.—The battery resounds with the voices of the officers encouraging the men. I yelled till I was hoarse. The rebels cannot stand the fire, and retreat to the woods leaving their dead and wounded on the field and 1000 prisoners. I cannot say how many were killed. I went over the field yesterday, and I saw 2,000 dead rebels, killed mostly by artillery. We lost five men killed and one officer (Lieut. Roffinett), and nine men wounded. Our loss altogether must be 1,500 wounded and killed.
Rosencrans is in hot pursuit. Gen. Ord is in their rear. We hear his heavy guns now. Reinforcements are pouring in. They are sending in oceans of prisoners from the front, in fact the rebel army is annihilated and destroyed.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
Articles relating to the Civil War
https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/civil-war