Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle
On October 8, 1862, Union and Confederate forces clashed near Perryville, Kentucky, in what would be the largest battle ever fought on Kentucky soil.
Perryville
Civil War in Kentucky
American Civil War
October 8, 1862
Mosby's Memoirs
Old soldiers tend to exaggerate their war stories; and they occasionally ramble. Mosby's Memoirs are fascinating. His view on the events leading up to Gettysburg. The colonel discusses the merits and failures of various generals and officers in the war..
Confederate General Braxton Bragg's autumn 1862 invasion of Kentucky had reached the outskirts of Louisville and Cincinnati, but he was forced to retreat and regroup.
On October 7, the Federal army of Major General Don Carlos Buell, numbering nearly 55,000, converged on the small crossroads town of Perryville, Kentucky, in three columns. Union forces first skirmished with Rebel cavalry on the Springfield Pike before the fighting became more general, on Peters Hill, as the grayclad infantry arrived.
The next day, at dawn,
fighting began again around Peters Hill as a Union division advanced up the pike, halting just before the Confederate line. The fighting then stopped for a time. After noon, a Confederate division struck the Union left flank and forced it to fall back.
When more Confederate divisions joined the fray, the Union line made a stubborn stand, counter attacked, but finally fell back with some troops routed. Buell did not know of the happenings on the field, or he would have sent forward some reserves. Even so, the Union troops on the left flank, reinforced by two brigades, stabilized their line, and the Rebel attack sputtered to a halt.
Later, a Rebel brigade assaulted the Union division on the Springfield Pike but was repulsed and fell back into Perryville. The Yankees pursued, and skirmishing occurred in the streets in the evening before dark.
Union reinforcements were threatening the Rebel left flank by now. Bragg, short of men and supplies, withdrew during the night, and, after pausing at Harrodsburg, continued the Confederate retrograde by way of Cumberland Gap into East Tennessee.
The Confederate offensive was over, and the Union controlled Kentucky.
Principal Commanders: Major General Don Carlos Buell [US]; General Braxton Bragg [CS]
Forces Engaged: Army of the Ohio [US]; Army of the Mississippi [CS]
Estimated Casualties: 7,407 total (US 4,211; CS 3,196)
All for the Regiment: The Army of the Ohio, 1861-1862
The amateur soldiers who formed the Army of the Ohio organized themselves into individual regiments of remarkable strength. Commanders Anderson, William Sherman, and Don Buell all failed to integrate those regiments
The Civil War Reenactors' Encyclopedia
Besides his weapons, the soldier needed a leather belt with a cap box for the percussion caps that fired his weapon, a box for his cartridges, a sling/scabbard for his bayonet, a haversack and/or knapsack to carry his rations and his few personal items
War in Kentucky: From Shiloh to Perryville
Union gains in the Mississippi Valley and in Tennessee and Kentucky had brought the Confederacy to a point of crisis. This addition to the literature on the Civil War in the West tells how the Union then failed to press home its advantage while the Confederacy failed to force Kentucky into the Confederacy
The Last Confederate General: John C. Vaughn and His East Tennessee Cavalry
The first man to raise an infantry regiment in the state, and one of the very last Confederate generals to surrender.History has not been kind to Vaughn, who finally emerges from the shadows in this absorbing reassessment of his life and military career
The Railroads of the Confederacy
The story of the first use of railroads on a major scale in a major war. A complex and fascinating tale, with the railroads of the American South playing the part of tragic hero in the Civil War: at first vigorous though immature; then overloaded, driven unmercifully, starved for iron; and eventually worn out
John Hunt Morgan and His Raiders
The "Thunderbolt of the Confederacy" John Hunt Morgan from Tompkinsville, Kentucky to Greeneville, Tennessee.
Mosby's Rangers
From 1863 to the end, Mosby's raiders were a constant headache for the North. More than 1,000 men served under Mosby, they usually acted in small detachments of several dozen, sacking supply depots, attacking railroads, and harassing federal troops. They seemed to move behind enemy lines almost at will.
Brother Against Brother: The American Civil War
Fort Sumter, to the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, Features battle reconstructions and depictions of army life, eyewitness accounts, period photographs and engravings, plus commentary and analyses.
History's Mysteries: Family Feud:
The Hatfields And McCoys
Millions of dollars worth of timber and coal rich land were at stake, the courts were involved and once the national press got wind of what was happening, the backwoods folk found that their fight was being followed nationwide
Civil War: A Concise History
The best collection of Civil War visuals ever assembled in one 75-minute program. A breathtaking and first-hand account of the war. Great DVD Bonuses
Gettysburg / Gods and Generals
The tide of the war changes during three fierce days of combat at Gettysburg [Disc 1] the gripping saga of the tactics command errors and sacrifices behind the bloodiest battle ever fought on U.S. soil. Gods and Generals [Disc 2] reveals the spirited allegiances and fierce combat of earlier Civil War struggles
History Channel Presents The Civil War
From Harper's Ferry, Fort Sumter, and First Bull Run to Shiloh, Antietam, and Gettysburg. The most legendary Civil War battles in brilliant detail. A selection of the soldiers and legendary leaders.
The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns
Here is the saga of celebrated generals and ordinary soldiers, a heroic and transcendent president and a country that had to divide itself in two in order to become one
Blue Vs. Gray - Killing Fields
Relive the most vicious fighting of the Civil War, in which General Ulysses S. Grant forcibly reversed the tide of the conflict by paying with the blood of thousands. It was a desperate time for the Union
Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Library of Congress.
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