Corinth's Confederate Siege Line

Address: Between 3101 North Polk Street and 3015 North Polk Street

Hours Open: Sunset to Sunrise, Daily

Construction of the Confederate earthworks, commonly known as the “Beauregard Line,” began in the weeks preceding the Battle of Shiloh (fought April 6-7, 1862). The earthwork project was accelerated when the Confederate army returned to Corinth in defeat and prepared to defend the city against the United States Army, which had seized the initiative and was preparing to advance upon the town.

Captain Samuel Lockett, a West Point-educated engineer, laid out the location of the line with the assistance of Private Thomas Duncan, a teenage Corinth resident who had, “learned the faces of these hills and woods as one comes to know the kindly countenances of loving friends.” General Pierre G. T. Beauregard himself took a hand in placing several positions along the northern portion of the works.

The earthworks stretched in a semi-circle for seven miles, from the northwest side of the city to the southeast, so configured to confront an enemy coming from the US Army camps along the Tennessee River. To the north, the works stood two miles from the city while to the east the distance was a mere one mile from the strategic railroad crossroads.

In the early stages of construction, the labor was accomplished by enslaved workers pressed from local plantations and supervised by army officers. Eventually the Southern soldiers were given picks and shovels as well.

Camps were established well back from the line where units alternated their time between digging earthworks, standing picket, and serving as a ready reserve in the event of an attack.

The works went without being tested during the Siege of Corinth. On May 29-30, 1862, the Confederate army abandoned Corinth without the expected climactic battle, and a twenty-month long Union occupation commenced. The test would come four months later, a period of time in which the works had been allowed to fall into disrepair as the occupying Federal army constructed its own defensive earthworks around the town.

Federal troops made use of the “Beauregard Line” during the first day of the Battle of Corinth, October 3, 1862, but their numbers were too few to mount an effective resistance. A spirited defense was punctured when Confederate troops found an undefended gap in the line and forced the Federals from the works to take a secondary position closer to the city.