CRGIS CONDUCTS CORINTH MAPPING AND DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

      CRGIS staff were busy again in November of 1995. For ten days survey
  crews revisited Corinth, Mississippi, to finish mapping Civil War
  features in the area, a project begun last April (reported in Battlefield
  Update, June 1995). Just as the Siege of Corinth crossed state lines in
  April and May of 1862, the CRGIS surveyors spilled into Tennessee in an
  attempt to provide comprehensive documentation of the area's resources.
  The surveyors have now mapped 7.5 miles of surviving field fortifications
  and other associated features. Sixty-nine percent (5.2 miles) of these
  Civil War trenches are located in Alcorn County, Mississippi; 16 % (1.2
  miles) in McNairy County, Tennessee, and 15 % (1.1 miles) within the city
  limits of Corinth. These resources are highly fragmented, surviving in
  more than fifty locations in the area.

      How many miles of field fortifications were originally dug by the
  armies during the Siege of Corinth? CRGIS digitized a military map from
  1862, collected GPS positions to "geo-reference" it, and then layered the
  depicted resources over a modern map, using the GIS program ArcInfo.
  Through this process, CRGIS determined that the original entrenchments
  extended 40.9 miles. Of those shown on the military map, fewer than 18%
  survive today. Only 16% of the surviving resources were rated in good
  condition. This information will be stored in a database that local
  planners and preservationists can use to monitor the area's resources.


  [Pie      CONDITION OF CORINTH'S SURVIVING
  Chart]          FIELD FORTIFICATIONS

                  TOTAL OF 7.5 MILES

               Poor   39%   2.925 miles
               Fair   45%   3.375 miles
               Good   16%   1.200 miles

      The Corinth Civil War Mapping and Documentation Project is a
  public-private partnership, involving CRGIS, the Siege and Battle of
  Corinth Commission, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History,
  Alcorn County, the City of Corinth, the Tennessee Division of Archeology,
  Shiloh National Military Park, and the ABPP.

  Source:   Battlefield Update, newsletter of the
            AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD
            PROTECTION PROGRAM
            U.S. Department of the Interior
            National Park Service
            Heritage Preservation Services
            Winter 1996, Issue No. 60, p.2&4

            P.O.Box 37127, Suite 250
            Washington, DC 20013-7127
            202-343-9534, 202-343-1836 FAX
            Tanya_gossett@nps.gov

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