Battle of Iuka 1862
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 19 September 1862 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1862 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | United States | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | North America | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | American Civil War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Army of the Mississippi, Army of the West | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 34.7936, -88.2101 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
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 Brigadier General William S. Rosecrans stopped the advance of the Confederate Army of the West commanded by Maj. Gen. Sterling Price.
Union Major General Ulysses S. Grant brought two armies to confront Price in a pincer movement: a double envelopment, with Rosecrans' Army of the Mississippi approaching Iuka from the southwest, and three divisions of their own Army of the Tennessee, under Maj. Gen. Edward Ord, approaching from the northwest. Such a movement was difficult to pull off during the Civil War, especially in bad terrain such as at Iuka, because it required that both jaws of the pincer reach the enemy at the same time, and in the early days of the war, before telegraph communications had been become sufficiently sophisticated, other methods of coordination needed to be used, in this case, the sound of the battle starting. 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' men, the Confederates withdrew from Iuka on a road that had not been blocked by the Union army, marching to rendezvous with Confederate Maj.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Iuka (revision 1380330186), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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All 498 battles of the American Civil War →
Browse more: battles in United States · North America · 19th century battles