Battle of Perryville

As

Presented by

MSG DANNY MCKINNEY

Overview:

• The Battle of Perryville was an important but largely neglected encounter in the American Civil War. It was fought on October 8, 1862 in the Chaplin Hills west of Perryville, Kentucky. The Battle began with a middle-of-the-night skirmish over a source of precious drinking water, and ended more or less by default with the onset of darkness and the retreat of the tactical victor, the Confederates. It marked the end of the Kentucky Campaign of Confederate Generals Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith and, like the campaign, was marked not only by fierce fighting and heroic achievement, but also by indecision, confusion, and futility on both sides:

The Personnel:

It involved one Confederate General Braxton Bragg whose charges would not initially carry out his orders to attack, and another, Union Major General Don Carlos Buell, who did not intend to fight until the following day.

Unaware that the Battle had begun until it was nearly over, Buell kept more than half his troops aside while the rest fought for their lives.

General Braxton Bragg

Union Major General Don Carlos Buell Confederate General Edmund Kirby

Smith.

Preparation

• In the summer of 1862, Confederate generals Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith devised plans to invade Kentucky. In an attempt to procure supplies, enlist recruits, and to pull Union troops away from the vital railhead of Chattanooga, Tennessee, these Southern commanders instigated a two-pronged advance into the Commonwealth.

Leading to Perryville

• Kirby Smith left Knoxville on August 14 and entered the state. Two weeks later, Braxton Bragg’s Confederates followed. By mid-September, Smith’s soldiers had whipped a Federal force at Richmond and Bragg’s troops had captured a Union garrison at Munfordville. The Confederate armies had captured Lexington and Frankfort, controlled most of central Kentucky, and threatened the entire state.

• On the night of October 7, the Southerners moved an advance unit of Arkansas troops between the dried waters of Bull Run and Doctor’s Creek, located west of town. When Union forces reached the area, a reconnaissance mission proved that small pools of water were available in Doctor’s Creek. The Union command ordered the water, and the heights overlooking it (called Peter’s Hill), secured.

• At 3:00 a.m. on October 8, Federal troops under Brigadier General Philip Sheridan moved on Peter’s Hill, driving back the Arkansas soldiers. The Battle of Perryville had begun.

The Fight

• It pitted a force of superior numbers (the Union Army of the Ohio), which included troops so green they did not know how to properly aim their artillery, against veteran soldiers (the Confederate Army of the Mississippi) whose commander had badly misjudged the size of their opposition.

• With little direction from their commanders, the soldiers engaged in what some insisted was the most ferocious fighting of the entire war. Following the battle, and for the rest of their lives, both Generals were condemned for their poor leadership and mismanagement of their forces.

External ForcesFor months, a severe drought affected the area.

As Union and Confederate forces maneuvered around Perryville, both man and horse

suffered intensely for want of water. Only stagnant pools were available for the

thousands of thirsty soldiers. After the Union army left Louisville, some of the first

casualties were caused by this dry, hot weather.

One Union colonel wrote, "Today we passed two men laying on the roadside having died

from sunstroke . . ." The heat was unbearable, and Perryville’s Chaplin River was nearly

dry.”

Major Miscommunication

• Braxton Bragg, who had left his army to inaugurate a Confederate governor in Frankfort, traveled to Harrodsburg, where he hoped to concentrate his forces. Bragg soon learned that a Federal force had been encountered at Perryville. As Bragg believed that the main body of Union troops was near Frankfort, he ordered his men at Perryville to attack. After waiting to hear the sounds of battle, Bragg rushed to Perryville to learn why his orders had not been followed. Upon reaching town, the Confederate commander discovered that his staff had chosen a "defensive-offensive" strategy. An incensed Bragg, who did not realize that his army was outnumbered, realigned the Southern forces and again ordered his 16,000 men to attack.

Casualties Mount

One Confederate infantryman later recalled the Southern assault. "Such obstinate fighting I never had seen before or

since," he wrote. "The guns were discharged so rapidly that it seemed

the earth itself was in a volcanic uproar. The iron storm passed through our ranks, mangling and tearing men to

pieces."

Won the battle but….

• The Confederates had won a tactical victory but encountered a strategic defeat. Although the Rebel army whipped the Federal left, Bragg was forced to withdraw his outnumbered Southerners from the region and from the state, ending his invasion and dashing the hopes of a Confederate Kentucky.

• The Battle of Perryville, which was the largest Civil War battle in the Commonwealth, killed and wounded more than 7,500 Union and Confederate troops.

The Result

The Confederates won a tactical victory by pushing most of the Union forces back from the strategic high ground and sources of water over which they fought, but they immediately abandoned the land they had gained at such a high price when they realized they had been opposed by less than half of the Union troops in the area.

• The Confederate "victory" marked the end of their last offensive Campaign in the West, and their retreat left the border state of Kentucky under the control of the Union Army for the rest of the war.

The Aftermath

• The thousands of casualties lay scattered over hundreds of acres. A Federal cavalryman later described the horrific post-battle scene. "We found that the Rebels had left during the night," he wrote.

• "We marched over the battlefield. It was a horrible sight. For four miles the fields are strewn with the dead of both parties, some are torn to pieces and some in the dying agonies of death. The ambulances are unable to take all the wounded . . . A large pile of legs and arms are lying around that the Rebel doctors cut off."

• Rocky bluff along Doctor’s Creek which part of the left wing of the42nd had to climb up while being fired upon by the advancing enemy.

Civilian Account of the Battle of Perryville

On the second morning after the battle of Perryville, or Chaplin Hills, I visited the battle-field. In passing out on the Springfield road, the fencing was all leveled to the ground - here and there a dead rebel. After proceeding about one mile, I came to a company of Union soldiers, who had collected ten or twelve of their dead comrades and were preparing to bury them.

(cont’d)Thence I proceeded to Mr. Peter's house, meeting on the way more than ten thousand Union troops, pressing from their homes. The first hospital I entered was Mr. Peter's house. Here about two hundred wounded soldiers, were lying side by side on beds of straw.

Not withstanding, they were wounded in every possible way, there was not heard among them a groan or complaint. In the orchard close by a long trench had been dug, in which to bury the dead; about fifteen were lying in a row, ready for internment.

Confederate Account of the Battle of Perryville

When I think of that day it occurs to me as a unit, from the time I awoke until about sundown.

Anyhow, we advanced across an open field, under a rather sharp fire of the enemy's skirmishers, to the foot of a wooded hill, where it became evident that the enemy's lines still flanked ours, and we must march by the right flank, taking ground to the right. While I was thus engaged I heard a severe fire toward the head of the column. I rode rapidly towards the firing, and it was very pleasant to me to see the kind feeling the brigade had for me, expressed in continuous cheers and friendly guying. Our whole line was then under fire, and I was riding between the men and the enemy.

After looking at the battle for a few minutes Gen. Maney asked me what I thought of it. I told him I didn't think our position could be maintained; that there were seven or eight guns of the enemy against Turner's four, and that the enemy's line of infantry was longer and stronger than ours. He asked what I thought should be done, and I told him I believed our only chance was to take those guns. He asked if I thought it was possible for our men to do it. I said, "I think so."

He said, "Go, direct the men to go forward, if possible." I rode out into the field, in the rear of the line, and, passing the whole length of our line of battle, told the field officers of each regiment what was expected. I was repeatedly assured by officers and privates as I rode along that if it were possible to make a simultaneous movement, they believed they could take the guns, but in the great uproar of bursting shells and crashing of incessant musketry a man could hardly be heard even speaking his loudest.

• Perryville Battlefield October 8, 1862 initial positions, movements, and final positions

The Retreat

• On the evening of October the 8th Bragg’s troops began to fall back from Perryville and head towards Harrodsburg.  The decision to leave Perryville was due to the large number of federal troops that were amassing west of Perryville.  Bragg hoped to unite with Smith at Harrodsburg and thus have a force large enough to challenge the Union army.  While marching to Harrodsburg Bragg decided to abandon the Kentucky campaign and march to Knoxville via the Cumberland Gap

The Retreat

October 8, 1862, Watkins and 18,000 Confederates clashed with 20,000

Union troops on the hills outside of Perryville. Nearly 8,000 soldiers were killed and wounded in what became Kentucky’s largest Civil War battle. The Confederates’ failure to attain a

decisive victory kept Kentucky in Union hands for the remainder of the

war, influenced northern Congressional elections, and gave

President Lincoln the political acumen needed to issue a preliminary version of the

Emancipation Proclamation. Perryville is indeed a site of national

significance.

Thank you for your attention.

Reference Guide• References-Maps• Burroughs, W.G., 1926, The

Geography of the Kentucky Knobs, Volume 19: Kentucky Geological Survey, series 6, 284p.

• Cressman, E.R., 1974, Geologic Map of the Perryville Quadrangle, Mercer and Boyle Counties, Kentucky: U.S. Geological Quadrangle Map GQ-1185, One sheet, 1:24,000.

• Davis, D.H., 1924, Geography of the Mountains of Eastern Kentucky, Volume 18: Kentucky Geological Survey, series 6, 180p.

• References-Websites• http://www.uky.edu/ArtsScienc

es/Geology/webdogs/civilwar/index.html

• http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/ky009.htm

• http://www.swcivilwar.com/BraggMissionaryRidgeReport.html

• http://www.perryville.net/• http://www.perryville.net/histor

y.html• http://

www.battleofperryville.com/