Battle of Iuka
| Battle of Iuka | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the American Civil War | |||||||
Battle of Iuka, Miss., September 19, 1862 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| United States (Union) | Confederate States | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Ulysses S. Grant William Rosecrans Edward O. C. Ord |
Braxton Bragg Sterling Price Earl Van Dorn | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
|
Army of the Mississippi Army of the Tennessee | 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) | ||||||
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 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' 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. 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. Gen. Earl Van Dorn, with whom they would soon fight the Second Battle of Corinth against Rosecrans.