402 A BICENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI FIRST TVA CITY Tupelo was the largest Mississippi community located near the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Wilson Dam in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. This hydroelectric power plant began in 1934 and created electricity by using falling water to turn generators. John E. Rankin, a Mississippi representative, lobbied to include rural electrification in the New Deal programs. He used his position in Congress to make Tupelo the first city to purchase TVA power. Tupelo officially became the “First TVA City” and the residents were able to purchase electricity at some of the lowest prices in the United States. PHOTO BY GREG CAMPBELL many men caused. The general opined that doctors all wanted to be colonels in the cavalry and refused to serve in a medical capacity. Neither the state nor the new Confederate government were capable of supplying its army or caring for their people in the terrible war. Corinth was the first town in Mississippi to experience the full horror of the Civil War in the spring of 1862, when the wounded from Shiloh inundated the town. Every building in town became a hospital. Men lay on the floors and the porches waiting their turn on the operating table. Blood ran down the steps and severed limbs lay stacked outside awaiting disposal. The few women who had not fled town tried to nurse the wounded but the horror and the stench overpowered many. Knowing that the Union army was only twenty- two miles away and would be coming to occupy Corinth’s important rail junction, the healthy soldiers dug earthworks to provide protection against what