Have you ever heard of or tasted a slugburger? You will if you go to Corinth, Mississippi. I ate my first slugburger at Borroum’s Drug Store. Despite their yucky sounding name, they’re delicious. Some locals eat them every day. As a matter of fact, it the slugburger is so popular that Corinth pays homage to it every July with a Slugburger Festival.
The slugburger has a simple history that dates to the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Times were hard; every scrap of food was used. A woman by the name of Mrs. Weeks, needing to make meat stretch for the family’s hamburger stand started adding an extender, flour or soybean meal and spices to ground beef, nowadays pork is used.
The slugburger patties were deep fried and served on a hamburger bun with mustard, pickles and onions, the same as they are nowadays. They sold for five cents each. Back then a nickel was called a slug, hence the name slugburger
Corinth, founded in 1856, is a small town that exudes Americana. The neatness of it is amazing, streets are laid out on a grid and 90% of the downtown buildings are no higher than two stories. Locally owned shops and restaurants line the streets cheek by jowl. One of them, Sanctuary Antiques and Gifts, housed in an Episcopal church, is an antique collectors haven.
Other Things to Check Out in Corinth
Over 100 years ago the first bottling company for Coca-Cola was opened in Corinth, Mississippi. Within the Coca-Cola Museum are an old-fashioned soda fountain, models of the first delivery trucks and hundreds of Coca-Cola artifacts.
Inside Lake Hill Motors and Marine you’ll find the Motorcycle Museum. Owner Dwayne McLemore has been collecting bikes since 1980. On display are 150 motorcycles dating from 1913 to BMW World War II German sidecar models to national championship bikes.
Borroum,’s Drug Store ca. 1865 has, along with slugburgers and ice cream sodas, glass cases filled with 19thcentury medicine bottles, and Native American and Civil War artifacts.
The Crossroads Museum and Historic Corinth Depot has interesting exhibits and maps depicting the town as a railroad hub.
The Greek Revival Verandah – Curlee House ca.1857, was the home of Hamilton Mask, a founder of Corinth. On tours of the house guides tell how it was here that Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston planned the battle of Shiloh.
Civil War Sites of Corinth, Mississippi
In 1862 two of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War were fought in or near Corinth; the Battle of Shiloh on April 6th& 7th, and the Battle of Corinth on October 3rd& 4th.
What made Corinth, Mississippi so important during the war that two armies fought for control of it…. railroads, necessary for transporting troops and supplies. Two major rail lines, the Memphis and Charleston and the Mobile and Ohio ran through Corinth.
Start your Civil War history tour at the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center. Dwarfing the entrance is a bronze relief of Confederate soldiers at the quick step as if marching in to battle. Inside are three halls with interactive exhibits such as a touch screen showing what America looked like in 1860, a railroad boxcar loaded with supplies, maps with Confederate and Union fortifications and a multimedia theater showing a video explaining the battles of Shiloh and Corinth.
An impressive water feature dominates the courtyard. The rippling stream in the center begins narrow at the top and widens at the bottom representing a divided nation. Carved into granite blocks are the names of major campaigns.
An Impressive Military Park
In the visitors center at Shiloh National Military Park you can view an explanatory video and pick up a map detailing the battle sites and memorials.
This solemn and beautiful place was the scene of bloody slaughter during the Battle of Shiloh (Pittsburgh Landing), on April 6th& 7th, 1862. Here General Grant’s 40,000 Union troops engaged General Johnston’s 44,000 Confederates. On the second day of fighting General Johnston’s men were forced to retreat. Those two days of carnage resulted in 23,746 casualties. The Union Army under the command of General Grenville M. Dodge, gained control of Corinth from May 1862 to December 1863.
As in other Union occupied southern towns Corinth had a contraband camp that provided a temporary home for escaped slaves. The camp held 6,000 African Americans who started farms, built homes, a church, schools and a hospital. Today, dispersed on the camp grounds, are life size bronze statues of people at their daily activities; a laundress, a teacher, a farmer and so on.
All images courtesy of Visit Corinth.
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