Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in.

And episode number 219 of our Civil War Podcast. My name is Rich.

And yes, those crickets chirping where Tracy's voice would normally chime in means that sadly

she won't be with us this week. She's visiting family in Arkansas and left me to hold

down the fort here in Colorado. And part of holding down the fort is doing the podcast

while she's gone. But this will probably be a fairly short episode. The plan is that

I'll use this show to get the ball rolling as far as the battle of Corinth. And then we'll

have a longer episode for you next time after Tracy gets back.

Alright, as you guys will recall in the last episode we set the stage for the Battle of

Corinth and the end of the last show Union General William Rose Cranes had his troops

along with a good number of contraband working to strengthen the town's defenses during

the last days of September 1862 and the first days of October. Meanwhile Confederate

General Sterling Price and Earl Van Dorn had finally linked up after the Battle of

Ayuka. Van Dorn took command of the combined rebel force and pretty much immediately put

into motion his plan to retake Corinth and then perhaps he'd move on to even grander

things. So by the end of the last episode the Confederates had fainted up toward Western

Tennessee but then veered off eastward toward their true objective, Corinth aiming to recapture

the vital railroad junction from the Federals. As for the Federals, they knew the Confederate

forts were on the move but they didn't know where they were heading.

Ulysses Sess Grant, as department commander, had to cover all his bases but Rose Cranes

at Corinth was fairly certain that town would be the rebels target. As I mentioned just

a moment ago work on the college hill line had been going on at a frantic pace and work

...