Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Grand Harbor Marina, MS

October 21st , 2015
Wednesday
Miles Traveled 0
Total Miles Traveled 736
Day 42

We had originally planned to leave the marina today but decided to stick to our original plan to not have a schedule.  We talked to “Firebird” this morning and they were using the courtesy car to visit the Corinth Civil War museum and asked us to join them.  We visited the Shiloh battlefield on our way to Chattanooga but didn’t take the time to visit Corinth.

During 1861, Corinth served as a mobilization center for Confederate troops.  After the fall of Tennessee Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston made the Memphis-Charleston railroad his line of defense. It was believed that if this east-west supply line were cut, the upper South would be divided and the Western Theater would probably be lost.

The Siege of Corinth was an American Civil War battle fought from April 29 to May 30, 1862.  The town was a strategic point at the junction of two vital railroad lines, the Mobile and Ohio Railroad and the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. The siege ended as the Confederates withdrew. The Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant took control and made it the base for his operations to seize control of the Mississippi River Valley, and especially the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi. At least 300,000 troops were in or around Corinth during the course of the war, making it the largest aggregate number of troops ever assembled in the Western Hemisphere.

 
This is the junction of Mobile and Ohio Railroad and the Memphis and Charleston Railroad.  The crossing of the Memphis-Charleston and the Mobile-Ohio Railroads was considered for a while in 1862 to be the 16 most important square feet in the Confederacy. Today the tracks are in the same beds.


 We have been cruising on the Tennessee River since we started the Loop September 10th.  When we arrived at Grand Harbor marina, we turned off the Tennessee River at mile marker 215.1 and entered Yellow Creek, the junction of the Tennessee and Tombigbee Rivers referred to as the Tenn-Tom Waterway. 

 

 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Should have given you our old address so you for check out where we lived in Corinth for about three months. We left out washer boards there you could have picked them up for us. Ha ha!

Vic.Arghs said...

Darn, washers on the flybridge, that would have been awesome!