The settlement of Iuka,
named for the ailing Chickasaw chief who found comfort in its mineral
springs, was strategically valuable during the War Between the States for
two reasons: First, it lay on the important east-west Memphis and
Charleston Railroad and second, the Tennessee River landing at Eastport
was only 8 miles to the northeast. Eastport lay at the head of all weather
navigation on the Tennessee.
Eastport and Iuka also
assumed importance because of their proximity to the Memphis and
Charleston Bridge over Bear Creek. The 240-foot long railroad bridge was
anchored on stone piers and abutments, and was in two-spans.
The Battle of Iuka is worthy of study for a number of reasons; perhaps the
most intriguing is that this battle, like others, was a vicious fight,
even by Civil War standards. Iuka stands as a textbook example of a
meeting engagement gone tragically awry. A Federal and a Confederate
brigade collided in march column, and the ensuing three-hour struggle was
over before either army commander understood what had happened. Nearly
1,000 of 3,000 Southerners engaged, and some 800 of 3,000 Northerners fell
fighting for a single ridge. Perhaps a quarter of the Union losses
were caused by the fire of other frightened Federals, a pointed reminder
of the hazards of exposing raw troops to battle without the support of
veterans.
Merchants flocked to Iuka with the
tourists, and by 1860 the permanent population of Iuka was nearly 1,500.
Besides the railroad four good wagon roads served the town. The
Eastport and Fulton Stage Route entered Iuka from the northeast. The Iuka
and Corinth Stage Route entered Iuka from the northeast. The Iuka and
Corinth Stage Route connected Iuka and Corinth from the west. Two
roads led into town from the south: the Jacinto road, and running parallel
to a mile and a half to the east, the Fulton road. Like that
surrounding Corinth, the country around Iuka consisted of vast swamps,
rolling hills, sharp ravines, indifferently plowed fields, bottomland
pastures, and forests of oak and pine.
Iuka demonstrated the
difficulty, given the uncertain communications of the time, of
coordinating a joint tactical operation of two forces separated by more
than a few miles. Grant tried and failed to crush Price between the
jaws of a pincer made of Edward O.C. Ord's and William Starke Rosecrans
commands. Price's escape from Rosecrans front occasioned a
falling-out between Grant and Rosecrans that ultimately wrecked the
military career of the latter.
Soldiers of both armies
agreed on the merits of Iuka, Mississippi. It was "a pretty little
village," recalled a Missourian. A member of the Eighth Wisconsin
remembered Iuka as "the first place we had seen in the South that looked
anything like a business town. Wealth, affluence, and southern
grandeur were plainly visible. Houses built in the most improved
style, gardens beautifully arranged and blooming; it seemed a pity to see
such a beautiful village become the prey of contending armies."
Still uneasy about an
attack on Corinth, General Grant proceeded to move a position of his force
cautiously toward Iuka.
Sources: Iuka's
River Port by Ben E. Kitchens. The Darkest Days of the War, The Battles Of
Iuka & Corinth, Peter Cozzens, The University of North Carolina Press. The
History of Iuka/Dudley’s Battle.
