New Corinth Interpretive Center Has Symbolic Water Feature
By Kathryn Jorgensen
July 2004 CORINTH, Miss.

Woody Harrell, superintendent of Shiloh National Military Park and its Corinth Unit, is busy shepherding completion of the new Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center which opens July 24 (see page 1 story). Its symbolism won't be lost on visitors.

The $9.5 million center is at Battery Robinett, the 22-acre National Park Service (NPS) site that highlights the 1862 Siege and Battle of Corinth and Corinth's impact on the Western Theater. The United Daughters of the Confederacy donated their two-acre memorial park in the center of the site and the city gave its surrounding park land for the Corinth Unit.

The interpretive center sits on a hill and overlooks the city and railroad junction. The Federals' earthen redoubt guarded western approaches to Corinth and was the site of major fighting on Oct. 4, 1862. The earthworks were destroyed after the war and it wasn't until 1999 that the fort's outlines were determined.

Visitors will park at the bottom of the west side of the hill and walk up through what Harrell describes as an interesting and unusual walk through an area "that will look like a manicured city park, making the connection that this is hallowed ground and was in 1862 a killing field."

Along the walk will be strewn bronze replicas of "detritus of war," objects that would be found in the wake of battle, including a broken sword, bent bayonet and knapsack spilling its contents.

The center will help interpret the large Contraband Camp, which was disbanded in 1864 and demolished after the war. On July 24 the Siege and Battle of Corinth Commission will dedicate a commemorative park it is creating on 20 acres of camp land.

The Corinth interpretive center will include what Harrell calls a "historian's laboratory," a public library reference room for computer and book research. The center's auditorium will seat 75 people and about 5,000 square feet will be given to exhibits.

The center's highlight is the unique courtyard water feature. It will tell "in a somewhat symbolic way 100 years of American history from 1770-1870," through a striking arrangement of waterfalls, pools and granite blocks.

Harrell describes how it begins with a small fountain and a large black obelisk at the north end that is inscribed with quotations from the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution. The American ideal of freedom and liberty cascade over a 13-tiered wall, representing the original states.

The water flows through a course in which every 3.5 inches represents a year. It widens as new states join the union, slaveholding and free states on separate sides. Small waterfalls represent the compromises of 1820 and 1850. The water volume increases and falls into a second level of turbulent water representing the Civil War in 1860.

The water divides into two streams, as the nation did, Harrell notes. Stone blocks represent 56 of the most significant battles, their size proportional to the number of casualties. They carry the Confederate and Union battle names. Harrell describes the "randomness and chaotic quality" of the war that the scene represents as turbulent water surges around the blocks.

The streams rejoin at Appomattox, and then the turbulence is stilled by three stones representing the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments.

"You can stand there and read about abolition, of slavery and due process and look back over the battles of the Civil War to the promise of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that couldn't be realized until the nation went through the bloodiest event in its history," explains Harrell.

The courtyard display ends at a reflecting pool representing the nation today. "We hope people will contemplate the meaning of war in our lives today and what they have seen in the interpretive center," says Harrell. Thirty-six bronze leaves from the state trees of the states in the union during the Civil War symbolize their loss and sacrifice.