Corinth

Battle of Corinth

Corinth, city, seat (1870) of Alcorn county, northeastern Mississippi, U.S. It is situated 85 miles (137 km) east of Memphis, Tennessee, near the Tennessee border. Founded in about 1855 as the junction of the Memphis and Charleston and the Mobile and Ohio railroads, it was called Cross City until 1857, when it was renamed Corinth, for the ancient Hellenic city. During the American Civil War, the bloody Battle of Shiloh (April 6–7, 1862) took place 20 miles (32 km) north of the city. As a strategic railroad centre, Corinth itself was the scene of a battle (October 3–4, 1862) in which General William S. Rosecrans’s Union troops repulsed a Confederate force led by generals Earl Van Dorn and Sterling Price. More than 5,500 Civil War soldiers are buried in the Corinth National Cemetery.

Economic activities include agriculture (corn [maize], soybeans, cotton, and wheat), printing, and the manufacture of electronic equipment and diesel engines. Pickwick Landing State Park in Tennessee is located 20 miles northeast of Corinth. Inc. 1856. Pop. (2000) 14,054; (2010) 14,573.