Corinth, Mississippi: A place to explore the riches of the past & present.

The Corinth Siege was in the early stage of the Civil War and the remaining earthworks are rare surviving examples of Civil War fortifications and part of a developing technology later applied extensively at Vicksburg, Northern Virginia, Petersburg and Atlanta. They were studied by foreign armies prior to World War I and this technology evolved into the trench warfare system of World War I.

In terms of aggregate numbers of troops involved, the Siege of Corinth was the largest in the history of the Western Hemisphere.

Two of the most important trunk railroads in the Confederacy passed through Corinth, Miss. The Memphis & Charleston and the Mobile & Ohio railroads gave Corinth a strategic significance that made it the most strategic transportation hub in the western Confederacy.

The Battle of Corinth was one of the fiercest and bloodiest of the war. Analysts consider it the beginning of the end of the War in the West. More than 200 generals and 300,000 soldiers were in the Corinth area from 1861-1865.

Corona College, established in 1857 by the Rev. L.B. Gaston, was an elegant girls school. It was used as a hospital during 1862-1864 by Confederate and later Union Armies. In January 1864, it was burned when Federal forces abandoned Corinth.

CORINTH FACTS

Jacinto Courthouse once served the largest county in the State of Mississippi. Jacinto, the land which became Tishomingo County, was first occupied by the Chickasaw Indian tribe. Jacinto also served as home for Eli S. Mitchell, one of the early explorers of the far west. Jacinto's 4th of July annual festival every 4th year is the 2nd largest political rally in the state.

The first coast-to-coast, non-stop passenger flight in the U.S. was made by Captain Roscoe Turner, a native of Corinth. Turner landed his plane in New York after 19½ hours long flight from Los Angeles. Turner also set an east-to-west transcontinental flight record of 12 hours and 33 minutes, a feat for which this aviation pioneer received the coveted Harmon Trophy for “Outstanding Achievement in Aviation,” on November 11, 1932. He is the only Mississippian in the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio. Turner is the only three-time winner of the Thompson Trophy Race. He also established the cross-country airplane speed record in 1925. One of Turner’s planes is featured in the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institute.

December 7, 1874, three to four members of the Jesse James-Cole Younger gang rode into Corinth, hitched their horses and carried out a seamless plan to rob the Tishomingo Savings Institution. Refusing to cooperate, the bank owner, Alonzo Taylor, allegedly told them “I’d rather be in hell than in Corinth without money.” The outlaws escaped with $15,000.

During the 1940’s and continuing through the 1960’s, Corinth gained a reputation for being the hide-away for several Chicago mob affiliates and home to a notorious group from Alabama that became known as the “State Line Mob.” Quickly being nicknamed “Little Chicago,” Corinth’s nightlife became one filled with many “questionable” activities. In 1964, Bufford Pusser pinned on the badge of McNairy County Tennessee Sheriff and immediately pursued avenues to rid the Mississippi - Tennessee State Line Area of criminal activities. Now this tranquil stretch of by-passed highway holds only memories of Corinth’s colorful, yet checkered, past.

During the early 1930’s through 1950’s, Corinth was known as a marriage capital. Hundreds of couples came to Corinth to purchase a license and to locate a minister or a Justice of the Peace who would marry them within minutes without the standard 3-day “waiting period.”