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Johnston, perhaps, next to Lee, the best known Southern general. Coupled with his death was the loss of Corinth, a strategic rail center on the Confederacy?s only through east-west lines of communication and the vital north-south Mobile & Ohio.
Another blow to the Rebel cause came with the fall of New Orleans in late April and the advance of an ocean-going Union naval squadron and a supporting brigade of infantry up river to Vicksburg. In late July the Rebels turned back this Federal thrust. By the time of the exchange the South controlled only the reaches of the Mississippi between Port Hudson and Vicksburg. This still allowed some traffic east and west, but north-south movement on the river (the only remaining avenue) was gone. The Confederacy was now denied (at leat partially) the men and productivity of the trans-Mississippi.
Between the time Pvt. Baxter arrived in Clinton and the last week in September, Col. Daniel R. Russell was well on his way to reorganize the 20th Mississippi Regiment into a useful operating military unit. It was not up to the strength it showed at Iuka in the summer of 1861; it had not mustered all the casuals absent when the regiment was surrendered at Fort Donelson. But it likely numbered at least 500 officers and men, perhaps a few more; and it had been resupplied and rearmed.
While the 20th Mississippi was preparing to take the field again, Confederate forces under Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn were attacking Gen. Rosecrans? Federals at Corinth. Heavy fighting occurred on October 3 and 4, but the Southerners failed to retake this vital rail center and were forced to fall back. Rosecrans mounted an ineffective pursuit, and Van Dorn escaped to Holly Springs. There he set up headquarters and began regrouping his forces.
Baxter?s regiment, ready in early October for action, was assigned to Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman?s Brigade, now a part of Maj. Gen. William Loring?s Division. Pvt. Baxter knew about Loring from the western Virginia campaign, and in the months to come, he would know more about Tilghman. He would develop a continuing admiration and affection for the 46-year-old general, whose competence and bravery set him apart from the purely politically appointed officers. Later in the postwar years,
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