The Battle of Perryville and the Fate of Kentucky
On October 8, 1862, detachments from two armies bumped into each other in the darkness during the wee hours of the morning. They started shooting each other. What followed was the largest and bloodiest battle known to be fought in Kentucky. When the fighting was done, over thirteen hundred were dead, over five thousand wounded, and nearly eight hundred were captured or recorded missing.
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Kentucky was in a tough place at the start of the war. It was a slave state but remained loyal to the Union. It was also the birthplace of both President Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Lincoln famously said, “I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game.” Rightfully so. Kentucky was a wealth of resources that could feed vast armies and fill their ranks with hard fighting men and horses.
[image error]US President Abraham Lincoln and CSA President Jefferson Davis
The Kentuckians were well aware of how attractive they were to both sides. They also knew that being a border state meant that either side would have to march through their land to attack the other. Large armies would forage as they marched, meaning they’d be stripping farms of food and horses. If those armies met, the fight would tear up the land and destroy cities.
To save Kentucky from being the battleground of the West, they declared neutrality in the ever-expanding War Between the States. It did not last long. The Confederacy was the first to break the neutrality when General Gideon Pillow occupied the city of Columbus. General Ulysses S. Grant of the Federal Army countered by taking Paducah, and the chess match in Kentucky was on.
[image error]Gideon Pillow, CSA, and Ulysses S. Grant, US
By mid-1862, the Federals had most of Kentucky under control. Still, the Confederacy dreamed of adding the state to their newly declared nation. So much so that they added two more stars to the Confederate battle flag to represent Kentucky and Missouri, slave states that they believed would inevitably be part of a nation that guaranteed the right to own slaves in their constitution forever.
[image error]Confederate Battle Flag
With that dream in mind, Generals Edmund Kirby Smith and Braxton Bragg tore into the Bluegrass State late in the summer of ’62. Their goal was to install their own Governor and force Kentucky into the Confederacy. They believed that once they proved they were on the winning side, tens of thousands of Kentucky men would flock to their banners, and if not, Confederate conscription laws would force them into their armies. Kentucky would give them the resources and the manpower they needed to turn the tide of the war.
[image error]CSA Generals Edmund Kirby Smith and Braxton Bragg
It was a smashing success. Smith brought his forces north from Knoxville, easily taking Richmond, Lexington, and the capital city of Frankfort. The pro-Union government was on the run and the Confederates held the keys to the state.
Bragg was a little late to the party. Smith was supposed to seize the Cumberland Gap, the passage through the Appalachian Mountains that connected Kentucky and Tennessee to Virginia and the Eastern Theater. Then he would link up with Bragg’s army. Bragg would take control of both forces. Together, they would drive forward into Kentucky.
But the Gap was too well defended, so Smith changed the plan and started the invasion on his own. Bragg had to play catch up. He drove his army north from Chattanooga. They took the city of Munfordville, holding it briefly as a means to block Union General Don Carlos Buell from reaching Louisville. But without Smith’s forces, Bragg knew he couldn’t hold Munfordville alone, so he moved his army to Bardstown. He left them there under the command of General Leonidas Polk and traveled north to Frankfort with the leader of the Confederate Kentucky State Government in exile, Richard Hawes. They had an inauguration to get to.
[image error]Richard Hawes, CSA Governor of Kentucky
Hawes had already been inaugurated as the Confederate Governor of Kentucky in Corinth, Mississippi, hundreds of miles away from the Kentucky state border. It was an empty and meaningless gesture for a state firmly in the hands of the Federals. But now that the Confederates held the capital, it was time to show the world who was boss.
General Don Carlos Buell was also late to the party. He had been on a slow, methodical drive to Chattanooga, hoping to crush Bragg’s army there, when suddenly, Bragg up and left for Kentucky. The race to Kentucky was on. Buell eventually brought his exhausted army to Louisville to reequip, reorganize, and take in thousands of new recruits.
[image error]General Don Carlos Buell, US
Once ready, Buell left Louisville with 55,000 men organized into three corps. Each corps took a separate route to attack the Confederates at Bardstown. He also sent a diversionary force of 20,000 men towards the Capitol of Frankfort.
The inauguration ceremony had finished. Bragg, Governor Hawes, and the dignitaries were enjoying a luncheon when the booming of cannons interrupted their celebratory toasts. The Federals had crashed the party. The inaugural ball was canceled, and as General Bragg put it, it was, “time to skedaddle.”
Bragg was sure the main force of Union troops were at his doorstep. He wanted to withdraw to Versailles and have Polk meet him there with the rest of the army. There he would make his stand.
But Polk had his own troubles. Three Federal corps, 55,000 men were descending on his position at Bardstown. He was on the run, his rearguard fighting a constant running battle with the 2nd Michigan Cavalry, the vanguard of the Federal forces.
[image error]2nd Michigan Cavalry Trooper
On General Hardee’s advice, Polk stopped at Perryville and prepared to receive the Federal attack. Perryville was a strategic choice. It was the crossroads of six possible routes allowing flexibility if they had to run. It was a place to stop the Federals from reaching the Confederate supply depot at Bryantville. Most of all, there was water, a resource both armies were running out of during a mid-autumn drought that left the whole region dry. Polk and Hardee set up his battle lines then waited for the Federals.
[image error] Perryville Battlefield today
General Buell also had his share of problems. He injured his leg after falling off a horse. It was now nearly impossible to ride. He had planned to start the attack the next morning at 3 am October 8. III Corps would attack the center, II Corps would swing around on the right from the south, and I Corps would descend from the north on the left. But, I and II Corps were late getting into position. Buell decided late that night to postpone the attack until the 9th. Instead, he would spend the next day recovering from his fall, several miles from the front. But fate waits for no one.
The men were thirsty. The drought and long march had burned up their water supply. Doctor’s Creek lay enticingly close between the battle lines. Men of the 10th Indiana crept forward in the dark carrying canteens. The 7th Arkansas had the same idea. At 2 am they stumbled into each other. Shots rang out, and the fight began.
[image error]Doctor’s Creek today
General Sheridan’s brigade pushed the Confederates back across the creek and past their initial lines, winning new ground. With orders not to start a general engagement until the following day, Sheridan’s Corps commander ordered them to fall back.
The Confederates had different plans. Bragg arrived at 10 in the morning and took command. The Federal I Corps arrived in the early afternoon and took position on the northern flank. Bragg decided to attack. He threw regiment and regiment at the Federal flank, driving them back. The Federals fought hard, their cannons firing frantically at the advancing Rebels, littering the ground before them with mutilated bodies. Sill they came. They were too much. The Yankees kept falling back, looking over their shoulders, waiting for help to come.
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The other two Federal Corps remained mostly idle throughout the day. No orders came for them to do anything but hold the line and wait for the attack planned for the following morning.
Buell was having a pleasant day. He was staying at a farmhouse, just on the other side of some hills, a few miles from the action. He had lunch with III Corps Commander, General Gilbert, then settled into his cot to rest his leg and catch up on some letters.
A rider interrupted his peace. Buell was stunned to learn that his left flank had been heavily engaged for hours and was on the verge of collapsing. The hills had created what’s called an acoustic shadow. It blocked him from hearing that a full-scale battle was taking place. Buell ordered reinforcements to bolster I Corps’ lines. Finally, they were able to stop the Rebel advance.
As night fell, the Rebels withdrew into town. Some of the Federal units followed but pulled out once it became too dark to fight in the streets of Perryville. Buell ordered an assault on the town the next day, but by then, Confederates were gone.
Realizing that Buell had two fresh corps to throw at him the next day, Bragg withdrew his battered army from Perryville and then all the way back to Tennessee. Kentucky would stay in Union hands for the rest of the war. Buell lost his job after failing to pursue and crush Bragg’s Army of Tennessee. Bragg would later lose his job after failing to hold Chattanooga, a little more than a year later.
You can visit the Perryville Battleground today. There’s a museum and gift store as well. I spent a day there researching for my novel, The Perils of Perryville. Perryville is a quaint little town near the battlefield full of antique shops and cozy places to eat.
[image error]“General Stonewall Jackson patrols the Chaplin River Antiques Store in Perryville
Of course, if you’d like to learn more and experience what it was like to be at the battle yourself, check out my novel below.
