On April 8, 1862, Maj. Gen. John Pope, supported by Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote's gunboat flotilla, accepted surrender of the Confederate garrison at Tiptonville, Tennessee, and Island No. 10 on the Mississippi. Within two weeks, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, who arrived at Pittsburg Landing on April 11, transported Pope's army to the Tennessee River to join operations against Corinth. Maj. Gen Ulysses S. Grant, designated second-in-command of the operation, relinquished leadership of his army to Maj. Gen George H. Thomas.

Reinforced by Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn's Confederate Trans-Mississippi army, which crossed the Mississippi at Memphis, Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard directed the construction of 7 miles of field fortifications to defend the eastern and northern approaches into Corinth.

On April 29, Halleck advanced 120,000 men, in three armies, south on parallel roads. Pope, on the left, marched southwest from Hamburg along a ridge road and by May 3 reached Farmington, 4 miles east of Corinth. Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, in the Union center, fell behind schedule, delayed for days rebuilding bridges and corduroying roads across numerous flooded creek bottoms. Beauregard, taking advantage of the terrain and Pope's isolation, hurled Van Dorn against Pope's Farmington outpost on May9. Although the attack failed, Halleck ordered Pope to retire above Seven Mile Creek and forbade him to venture south again until Buell caught up.

Made cautious by the staggering losses at Shiloh, Halleck embarked on a tedious campaign of offensive entrenchment, fortifying after each advance. These tactics were quite pronounced on the Federal right because Halleck feared Beauregard might move north on the Mobile & Ohio and attack eastward, cutting Union communications to the Tennessee. Therefore, beginning May 4, Thomas' right wing, led by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, prepared seven separate entrenched lines during a two-week, eight-mile approach on Corinth.

On May 17, all three Union armies lunged south. On the left, Pope again occupied Farmington. Buell, on Pope's right, advanced on a broad front, his center seizing high ground at the Driver House. Thomas, on the right, drove back a strong rebel outpost under Brig. Gen. James Chalmers at the Russell House and captured high ground along the headwaters of Phillips and Bridge creeks. These new positions, located within 4 miles of Corinth and only 2 miles outside Confederate fortifications, were entrenched.

In response, Beauregard redeployed his forces and began a counteroffensive on May 22. The attempt failed, and the defense of Corinth approached a crisis. The Confederates numbered only 53,000 effectives, Beauregard's eastern supply line, the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, had been cut twice by Federals in northern Alabama on April 11 and 13. The Confederate garrison lacked food, medicines, and other critical supplies. Halleck added to the garrison's difficulties by dispatching raids to cut communications south of town on May 28 and once again advanced all three Federal armies, seizing ground 1,000 yards from the Confederate fortifications. In a flurry of activity, Halleck's veterans felled trees, dug trenches, and erected batteries for heavy siege cannon to use against Corinth.

Faced with annihilation, Beauregard evacuated Corinth and retired south along the Mobile & Ohio toward Baldwyn and ultimately to Tupelo. The withdrawal was conducted with great skill during the night of May 29. The Federal generals only learned of the evacuation after dawn on May 30 when Union patrols discovered the Confederate trenches empty. Although Halleck took uncontested possession of the strategic rail crossroads, thus enabling the Federals to consolidate their position in northern Mississsippi, he allowed Beauregard to escape. With Corinth abandoned, Fort Pillow and Memphis, both on the Mississippi River, soon fell to Union forces.

In 1993, the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission designated the Siege of Corinth as one of the Civil War's 384 principal battlefields. The Siege of Corinth is nationally significant, because the resultant Confederate abandonment of this strategic transportation center in northern Mississippi quickly led to the Southern evacuation of Fort Pillow and surrender of Memphis on the Mississippi River in southwestern Tennessee as the Federals continued their quest to control the Mississippi River Valley. Thus, the Siege of Corinth not only consisted of a month-long series of military operations that had a direct, observable impact on the outcome of the Vicksburg campaign, but it also had a direct, observable impact on the direction, duration, and final outcome of the Civil War.

The Friends of the Siege and Battle have acquired many properties in and around Corinth that contain remnant earthworks, fortifications and other evidence of the events associated with the Siege of Corinth. Their intent was to acquire the properties for eventual transfer to the National Park Service. These resources would constitute the Corinth unit of Shiloh National Park and be managed for resource preservation and visitor use. The Siege properties would have been developed to accomodate visitors with modest parking, trails and waysides.