In September of 1862, the Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by Gen. Braxton Bragg, was moving north from Tennessee to Kentucky with Maj. Gen. Carlos Buell pursuing him with the Union Army of the Ohio. The confederates needed to prevent Maj. Gen Grant and his Army of the Tennessee, which was located in Mississippi and protected supply lines in northern Mississippi and western Tennessee, from reinforcing Buell's army. To further these ends, Maj. Gen. Sterling Price moved his Army of the West from Tupelo to Iuka, a small supply depot and the furthest east of Grant’s outposts. Col. Murphy, the union commander, retreated with his 2,000 troops to Corinth, Mississippi.

the War
Between
the States

Iuka

September 19^th, 1862

Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans marched the Union Army of the Mississippi north from Jacinto and fielded approximately 4,500 troops to Iuka where Gen. Price waited with almost 3,200 men and the arrival of Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn’s Army of West Tennessee with 7,000 men.

Hébert's brigade of five regiments supported by cavalry was located on this ridge in Iuka and on the third assault upon reaching the battery of the Eleventh Ohio Artillery captured the six guns. The Ohio battery lost 46 or the 54 gunners and 3 of 4 officers. Brig. Gen. David Stanley’s’ Second Division of the Union army was put into battle and the confederates were repulsed.

This marker commemorates the 263 confederate soldiers killed during the battle of Iuka.