EARL VAN DORN

'Earl Van Dorn' (September 17, 1820 – May 7, 1863) was a career U.S. Army officer and a Confederate major general during the American Civil War.
Born near Port Gibson, Mississippi, Van Dorn graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1842 being ranked 52 out of 56. He fought in the Mexican-American War and against the Seminoles and Comanches, and this experience led to his rapid advancement in the Confederate States Army, rising from colonel in March 1861 to major general in September. In this capacity, he commanded the Confederate forces at the Battle of Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern) in Pea Ridge, Arkansas. The Confederates' defeat at this battle enabled the Union to control the state of Missouri. His incompetence at the Battle of Corinth, Mississippi, in October 1862 led to another Union Army victory.
Van Dorn was more effective as a cavalry commander. His action destroying Union supplies at Holly Springs, Mississippi, in December 1862, seriously disrupted Ulysses S. Grant's first Vicksburg Campaign. He was also successful at Thompson's Station, Tennessee, in March 1863.
It was Van Dorn's reputation as a womanizer, not a Union bullet, that led to his death. On May 7, 1863, he was shot at his headquarters in Spring Hill, Tennessee, by Dr. George Peters, who claimed that Van Dorn had carried on an affair with his wife. Peters was later arrested by Confederate authorities, but was never tried for the killing. Van Dorn is buried at Port Gibson, Mississippi.

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See also

Further reading

See also

★ Corinth, Mississippi

Further reading

★ Carter, Arthur B., ''The Tarnished Cavalier: Major General Earl Van Dorn, C.S.A.'', University of Tennessee Press, 1999, ISBN 1572330473.

★ Hartje, Robert George, ''Van Dorn: The Life and Times of a Confederate General'', Vanderbilt University Press, 1994, ISBN 0826512542.