Battle of Iuka

Battle of Iuka, Miss., September 19, 1862.

Date	September 19, 1862 (1862-09-19)
Location	Tishomingo County, near Iuka, Mississippi
Result	Union victory

Belligerents

United States (Union)

Confederate States of America

Commanders and leaders

William S. Rosecrans

Sterling Price

Units involved

Army of the Mississippi

Army of the West

Strength

∼ 4,500

3,179

Casualties and losses

790 total

(144 killed;
598 wounded;
40 captured/missing)

1,516 total

(263 killed;
692 wounded;
561 captured/missing)


Iuka Battlefield
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Part of the field, viewed in 2014
Location	N of MS 72, W of MS 25, Iuka, Mississippi
Area	70 acres (28 ha)
Built	1862 (1862)
NRHP Reference #	07001184
Added to NRHP	November 14, 2007

The Battle of Iuka was fought on September 19, 1862, in Iuka, Mississippi, during the American Civil War. In the opening battle of the Iuka-Corinth Campaign, Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans stopped the advance of the Confederate Army of the West commanded by Maj. Gen. Sterling Price.

Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant brought two armies to confront Price in a double envelopment: Rosecrans's Army of the Mississippi, approaching Iuka from the southwest, and three divisions of his own Army of the Tennessee under Maj. Gen. Edward O. C. Ord, approaching from the northwest. Although Grant and Ord planned to attack in conjunction with Rosecrans when they heard the sound of battle, an acoustic shadow suppressed the sound and prevented them from realizing that the battle had begun. After an afternoon of fighting, entirely by Rosecrans's men, the Confederates withdrew from Iuka on a road that had not been blocked by the Union army, marching to rendezvous with Confederate Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn, with whom they would soon fight the Second Battle of Corinth against Rosecrans.

After the Siege of Corinth in May 1862, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck was promoted to be general in chief of the Union Army and Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant replaced him in command at Corinth, Mississippi. This command was smaller than Halleck's, however, because the Army of the Ohio under Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell now operated as a separate command, leaving Grant command of only his own Army of the Tennessee and Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans's Army of the Mississippi, together about 100,000 men. Since the Confederates had evacuated Corinth that summer, Grant's forces had been engaged in protecting supply lines in western Tennessee and northern Mississippi, with Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's division in Memphis, Maj. Gen. Edward O. C. Ord's division guarding the Union supply battle at Corinth, and Rosecrans's army holding the railroad from Corinth east to Iuka. As Confederate General Braxton Bragg moved north from Tennessee into Kentucky in September 1862, Buell pursued him from Nashville. The Confederates needed to prevent Buell from being reinforced by Grant's command.

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Wikipedia