Confederate Army of West Tennessee The Army of West Tennessee was a short - lived Confederate army led by Maj . Gen . Earl Van Dorn , which fought principally in the Second Battle of Corinth . The army was organized from elements of the Army of the West on September 28 , 1862 , with Earl Van Dorn its first and only commander . On November 24 , 1862 , adjutant general Samuel Cooper issued a ruling that the army ' s name and function were " improper " and on December 9 , 1862 , the units of the Army of West Tennessee were merged into the Army of Mississippi under Lt . Gen . John C . Pemberton . History . As part of his preparations for the Perryville offensive , General Braxton Bragg divided Mississippi into several commands : Major General Earl Van Dorn was given command of the District of the Mississippi , centered in Vicksburg , and Major General Sterling Price was given the District of the Tennessee , covering northwestern Mississippi and northeastern Alabama . Bragg expected Price to prevent the Union forces of Ulysses S . Grant and William Rosecrans in western Tennessee from reinforceing the Union forces in Kentucky , and expected Van Dorn to cooperate with Price . Price interpreted Bragg ' s orders as to mean that he was to attack the Union forces . Van Dorn , however , choose to move against the Union forces threatening Vicksburg and launched an attack on Baton Rouge , Louisiana , which failed ; he then proposed a joint attack with Price on Corinth . Price by this time had decided not to wait for Van Dorn but moved against Iuka , capturing the town on September 14 . Two Union columns , commanded by Grant and Rosecrans , converged on Iuka on September 19 ; Price attacked Rosecrans ' force and due to poor communications and an acoustic shadow Grant failed to attack in concert . When he discovered that Grant was approaching from the northwest , Price decided to retreat before he was surrounded . Price united with Van Dorn at Ripley , Mississippi , on September 28 and placed himself under his command . Price ' s army was redesignated as Price ' s Corps ; the other parts of Van Dorn ' s army were the forces of his District of the Mississippi , Mansfield Lovell ' s infantry division and a small cavalry brigade commanded by Colonel W . H . Jackson ( this force reported directly to Van Dorn ) . Van Dorn then laid out a planned offensive against Corinth : the Confederates would first march to Pocahontas , northwest of Corinth , to confuse Grant and Rosecrans , then they would attack Corinth before the Union forces could concentrate . Although several officers , including Price and Lovell , were opposed to the plan , they still followed Van Dorn ' s orders . The march began on September 29 and the Confederates arrived outside Corinth on October 3 . The two - day Battle of Corinth began on October 3 , with Confederate attacks overrunning the first line of Union entrenchments north of Corinth . Much of the fighting was done by Price ' s corps on the Confederate left ; Lovell on the Confederate right overran the initial Union positions and then halted , perhaps due to his objections to the campaign . Price had to halt his attacks close to dusk due to increasing disorganization in his divisions and to Lovell ' s inactivity . The next day , Van Dorn planned another series of attacks , starting at daylight with Louis Hebert ' s division of Price ' s corps on the left flank , with the remaining units continuing the attack . However , the attack was delayed when Hebert reported himself sick and his successor had to be informed of the attack plan and move his division into position . Price ' s two divisions were able to capture several parts of the Union second line of fortifications , with some units entering the town of Corinth itself , but Union counterattacks forced the Confederates back . Lovell failed to attack at all . Following the repulse of Price ' s attacks , Van Dorn decide to retreat towards the Davis Bridge over the Hatchie River that evening , with Price ' s corps in front and Lovell ' s division serving as rear guard ; he briefly considered attacking Corinth again from the southwest but was talked out of it by Price . The next day , the Confederates learned that another Union force commanded by Stephen A . Hurlbut was approaching from the west towards the Davis Bridge , thus cutting off the Confederate line of retreat . One of Price ' s divisions was assigned to delay Hurlbut until the rest of the army reached another crossing six miles to the south ; during the resulting engagement , the Confederates were able to delay Hurlbut sufficiently to enable their escape . Van Dorn reached Ripley on October 7 , but due to the poor condition of his army and a shortage of supplies at Ripley he decided to continue onto Holly Springs . During the Corinth campaign , Price lost over 3 , 700 casualties out of 13 , 800 men , nearly 35 percent of his force ; Lovell by contrast lost only 570 out of 7 , 000 men . Both Lovell and Van Dorn were blamed for the Confederate defeat , with Lovell especially criticized by Price ' s troops . In December , Van Dorn ' s command was abolished and merged with Price ' s command into a new Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana commanded by John C . Pemberton ; Van Dorn himself was reassigned to a cavalry corps .