The new National Park Service's Corinth Interpretive center, part of the larger Shiloh National Military Park, is built at the site of the Union fortification protecting Battery Robinett.
The Confederates captured Battery Robinett at great cost in killed and wounded, but could not hold it.
An excellent write-up on the battle can be found in the National Register nomination form for this historic site: (
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"Battery Robinette was constructed with an earth wall about six feet high surrounding the northwest and north sides. In front of this sheer wall was a deep ditch. The left wing was anchored on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad and was joined to Battery Williams on the south side of the railroad by protective rifle pits. On the right wing, Battery Robinette extended to Battery Powell.
Battery Robinette, called Fort Robinette or Confederate Park by some of the Corinth citizens, is presently (1971)a city park. Six Confederate color bearers are buried there and their graves are identified with neat markers. There are two very impressive monuments on the site, one to the gallant Colonel William P. Rogers, who was buried with full military honors by the order of Major General William S. Rosecrans because of his heroism, and another to Brigadier General Joseph L. Hogg, who died near the battery. Both of these men were Texans.
Confederate Park (Battery Robinette) is presently bounded by Linden Street on the north, Waldron Street on the south, East Street on the east, and by Robinette Street on the west.
Only the steep inclines from the streets up to the grounds of the park give any indication of the earthwork walls which were sheared from the sides of the mound. Streets now cover the area where the ditch in front of the wall was originally located. The surviving earthworks inside Robinette give the ground a terraced effect.
Battery Robinette was the scene of a vigorous but unsuccessful Confederate assault on Union lines in the October, 1862, Battle of Corinth. According to some Civil War authorities, the attack on Robinette, which occurred on October 4, 1862, was probably second in intensity only to Pickett's charge at Gettysburg.
The Confederate campaign against Corinth was planned Generals. Earl Van Dorn and Sterling Price, whose commands had recently been consolidated. Opposing the Confederate troops were four full divisions of Federal forces under the command of Major General William S. Rosecrans.
The Battle of Corinth'began on the morning of October 3, when the Confederates encountered Federal pickets approximately five miles west of Corinth. The Confederate forces, spearheaded by two companies of the 2nd Texas commanded by Major William C. Timmons and by two companies of the 35th Mississippi led by Captain Reuben H. Shotwell, pushed the Federal troops eastward to their last line of defense, which was comprised of Battery Robinette, Fort Powell, Battery Williams and Battery Phillips.
Battery Robinette, the strongest part of the line, was situated on a natural mound about 200 yards north of the vital Memphis and Charleston Railroad. These Federal positions were furnished with strong batteries which bristled with heavy artillery manned by regular artillerists. The Union lines were also bolstered by strong supporting infantry.
The fatigued Confederates were unable to continue their attack in the late afternoon hours of the 3rd, and the delay proved costly. About 4 a.m. on October 4, the three batteries of Lieutenant Colonel Dabney H. Maury launched a terrific fire against the Federal Lines from their elevated position fronting Battery Robinette. When the planned Confederate attack failed to materialize, General Van Dorn dispatched a staff officer to ascertain the cause of the delay. The officer learned that Brigadier General Louis Hebert, who had been designated to lead the attack, had reported ill and had asked to be relieved command. Colonel James Gordon, 2nd Mississippi Cavalry, describing the battle in an article which appeared in the 1901 Publication of the Mississippi Historical Society, stated that was actually asleep in a farm house.
Brigadier General Martin E. Green was selected to replace Hebert. Green, who was unfamiliar with the developments, took additional time in organizing and launching the attack. This lull in the action allowed the Federals to bolster their lines.
The drive against Battery Robinette was made by the Moore's brigade. Three times in deep columns they stormed the earthwork redoubt. Three times they were thrown back. On the third attempt, however, they were successful in carrying the ditch, filled with the dead and dying, and the work. The Federals were driven from their big guns, and only the high earth wall separated the grim combatants.
Several Confederates reached the top of the earthen wall, but they were killed and rolled backward down the embankment. The Federals were saved by the timely arrival of troops rushing up from the redoubt and charging to the right and to the left of the battery walls, and by shells from Battery William thrown into the mass of Confederates.
It was here at Battery Robinette that Colonel William P. Rogers of the 2nd Texas Infantry, after forming his men outside of the wooded area in plain view, rode headlong to his death in the ditch in an effort to scale the wall. His conspicuous bravery caused the Federals to bury his body upon the embankment. There are extant photographs showing the aftermath of the battle at Robinette and Colonel Rogers 1 body among the fallen dead. Today, an impressive monument to Rogers stands in recognition of the gallantry and heroism of both the Blue and the Gray.
General Price's corps had beaten the Federals, but reinforcements were badly needed. Lieutenant Colonel William S. Lovell delayed too long in committing his troops, and the push by the fatigued Confederates ground to a halt and then developed into a general withdrawal. Prompt Federal action and reinforcements along with Confederate confusion, saved the day and Corinth for the Federals."
Mama Blaster's 2nd great grandfather (Younger Blaster's 3rd GGF) Amasa Pratt Tourgee Perkins was a Private in Co. D of the 90th Texas Cavalry at Corinth. He and his brothers Sgt. Leander Franklin Perkins and Pvt. Thomas S. Perkins were all in the same unit. They all survived the war, all were paroled at the end of the war, and each returned to farm near each other in Johnson's Station, Texas.