Civil War Corinth is the digital home of ongoing research projects exploring aspects of Corinth, Mississippi’s rich wartime and post-war history. The essays, maps, and data presented here explore the military, political, socio-cultural, environmental, and contested commemorative history of the Civil War in Mississippi’s most famous railroad town.
My name is Chris Slocombe, and I’m an independent scholar based in Omaha, Nebraska. I obtained my Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Communication Studies from Marquette University and my Master of Science in History from the University of Edinburgh. When I’m not doing admissions work at Creighton University or dancing badly with my kids, I spend much of my time reading and researching about the Civil War and its memory in northeast Mississippi. Anyone interested in talking about Corinth or sharing sources or stories, please feel free to reach out at christopherslocombe@gmail.com.
Civil War Corinth aims to bring the town’s Civil War history alive using digital tools. Parts of this site, particularly those relating to the environmental history of the Siege of Corinth, will go live before my conference presentation at the Mississippi Historical Society’s annual meeting on March 2-3 in Jackson. Other pages will be built as I take HIS 316: Introduction to Digital Humanities at Creighton this spring semester 2023.
The final project for HIS 316 will serve as the “second wave” of this site’s development. Potential projects for this assignment include:
- Online Exhibit of Corinth Civil War Commemoration. This project would feature pictures, documents, and essays exploring the contested and troubled commemorative history of the Civil War in town. Locations featured include the Corinth National Cemetery (formerly Union National Cemetery), Confederate Park, Battery Robinett, the Contraband Camp, Confederate memorial organizations like Corinth’s Chapter 333 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Johnston Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and, finally, the town’s various and politically significant war monuments and historic markers.
- Mapping Illness during the Siege of Corinth. This project would map both the hospitals created by the U.S. Army during the siege as well as document the flow of some 12,000 ill soldiers sent away from Corinth via hospital steamers to established and new hospitals in the wartime North. The goal of this project would be twofold: create a visual history of the massive logistical effort to get these sick men to northern hospitals and provide insights into how modern medical structures and processes formed amidst severe trial.