- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Location
- East Texas
Part I - Preparations for Battle
The battle fought at Perryville, Kentucky, on October 8, 1862 was the culmination of the Confederate invasion of Kentucky and another of those unplanned and unwanted conflicts common during the war. It was fought over the rolling hills like those above in the central part of the state and occurred during a severe drought that parched the land leaving wells, streams, and even rivers dry or at best a series of brackish ponds full of slime. The battle here began as a contest over one such water source, Doctor's Creek tributary of the nearby Chaplin River. As seen below, it now looks inviting, but was another of those near-dry creek beds at the time. According to Union Capt. Robert Taylor,
"Today we passed two men lying on the roadside having died from sunstroke - the whole army suffered today severely for want of water. I sent my servant Harrison out with my canteen and told him not to return without water. He came in about 2 o'clock without any; our Division was in the rear, and all the pools of water had already been drunk up."
Taylor was part of the large but unwieldy Army of the Ohio commanded by Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, which was then pushing east from Louisville seeking the much smaller twin Confederate armies of Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith which had entered the state causing panic as far as Ohio, Indiana, and southern Illinois back at the end of August. Fortunately for the Federals, after smashing and routing a Federal force at Richmond on Aug. 30, Kirby Smith halted at Lexington and waited for Bragg to catch up.
Above from left to right, an 1861 card portrait of Braxton Bragg based on a prewar image; Don C. Buell photographed the same year as a staff officer under his friend and patron, George B. McClellan; and Edmund Kirby Smith, photographed after his severe wounding at the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run). Bragg and Smith were at nearby Frankfort, the State Capital, attending the inauguration of a Confederate governor for the newly-"liberated" state when they heard cannonading to the west, indicating that Buell was on his way.
Bragg had a very poor idea of the whereabouts and strength of his opponent, mistakenly thinking the move towards Frankfort was Buell's main effort, so instructed the commander of his own forces near Bardstown to attack what he thought was a small Union flanking force. When he finally arrived at his headquarters here on the road between Perryville and Harrodsburg on the evening of October 7, he was angry his instructions for the attack had yet to be carried out. The building seen here still stands, but has been much-modified in the years since.
Bragg's Army of Tennessee suffered from an awkward command structure which was to affect the conduct of the coming battle. His three principal subordinates pictured above are, center, Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk who commanded the army in Bragg's absence, and the commanders of his Left Wing, Maj. Gen. William J. Hardee at left; and Right Wing, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Cheatham, right. (The system of Army Corps had yet to be adopted.) Even though he had returned and resumed command over his army, Bragg as was his usual custom left Polk in charge of the tactical arrangements for the coming battle. The approaching Union Army of the Ohio suffered from an even greater deficiency of command and at least a third of its soldiery were brand- new volunteers raised by the terrified states at the prospect of Southern invasion. Unfortunately, that condition even applied to the officers, extending all the way to Buell's principal subordinates leading his three Army Corps.
Above, from left to right, Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Crittenden, commanding the Second Corps; Maj. Gen. Charles C. Gilbert, commanding the Third Corps; and Maj. Gen. Alexander McD. McCook, leading the First Corps. Both Crittenden and McCook had led divisions under Buell as far back as Shiloh in April, but Gilbert was truly an odd duck in the group: When invasion seemed imminent, this mere captain in the Regular United States Army was seized and thrust into the rank of Major General of Volunteers, which thereby entitled him to command of an Army Corps! His relatively poor performance here caused Congress to deny confirmation of his promotion, so nothing further was heard from him for the remainder of the war.
As can be seen from the map below, Buell's large army of some 55,000 men was approaching the town of Perryville on a broad front several miles wide. The evening of Oct. 6 a fight occurred over possession of the pools of water in Doctor's Creek between elements of Gilbert's corps and Confederate pickets; the following morning, a sudden rush by the division of a brand-new Brigadier General Phillip H. Sheridan took firm control of the creek and its surrounding hills. Gilbert, ordered not to bring on a general engagement, halted his some 20,000 men in place for most of the battle. That afternoon, McCook's First Corps filed in to the left of Gilbert, taking position near Wilson's Creek and the Open Knob, as Crittenden's Second Corps approached from the southwest on the Lebanon Pike.
Map by Hal Jesperson @civilwarmaps.com
Bragg, still laboring under the delusion that he was facing only a small part of Buell's army, ordered Polk to attack McCook's exposed and isolated corps on the northern edge of the battlefield, extending it south to the crossing of Doctor's Creek northwest of Perryville. Strangely, the most competent of Buell's subordinates, Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas, was sidelined during the campaign acting as Buell's second-in-command accompanying Crittenden's force where he exercised no influence over coming events, since this force of some 22,000 took no part in the battle! Therefore, the contest would devolve as a slugging match between the hapless and unlucky McCook's 13,000 and most of Bragg's 16,800 men. This disparity is indicated on the monument below, which lists the relatively few Union formations which participated here.
Next, Part II - Cheatham attacks
The battle fought at Perryville, Kentucky, on October 8, 1862 was the culmination of the Confederate invasion of Kentucky and another of those unplanned and unwanted conflicts common during the war. It was fought over the rolling hills like those above in the central part of the state and occurred during a severe drought that parched the land leaving wells, streams, and even rivers dry or at best a series of brackish ponds full of slime. The battle here began as a contest over one such water source, Doctor's Creek tributary of the nearby Chaplin River. As seen below, it now looks inviting, but was another of those near-dry creek beds at the time. According to Union Capt. Robert Taylor,
"Today we passed two men lying on the roadside having died from sunstroke - the whole army suffered today severely for want of water. I sent my servant Harrison out with my canteen and told him not to return without water. He came in about 2 o'clock without any; our Division was in the rear, and all the pools of water had already been drunk up."
Taylor was part of the large but unwieldy Army of the Ohio commanded by Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, which was then pushing east from Louisville seeking the much smaller twin Confederate armies of Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith which had entered the state causing panic as far as Ohio, Indiana, and southern Illinois back at the end of August. Fortunately for the Federals, after smashing and routing a Federal force at Richmond on Aug. 30, Kirby Smith halted at Lexington and waited for Bragg to catch up.
Above from left to right, an 1861 card portrait of Braxton Bragg based on a prewar image; Don C. Buell photographed the same year as a staff officer under his friend and patron, George B. McClellan; and Edmund Kirby Smith, photographed after his severe wounding at the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run). Bragg and Smith were at nearby Frankfort, the State Capital, attending the inauguration of a Confederate governor for the newly-"liberated" state when they heard cannonading to the west, indicating that Buell was on his way.
Bragg had a very poor idea of the whereabouts and strength of his opponent, mistakenly thinking the move towards Frankfort was Buell's main effort, so instructed the commander of his own forces near Bardstown to attack what he thought was a small Union flanking force. When he finally arrived at his headquarters here on the road between Perryville and Harrodsburg on the evening of October 7, he was angry his instructions for the attack had yet to be carried out. The building seen here still stands, but has been much-modified in the years since.
Bragg's Army of Tennessee suffered from an awkward command structure which was to affect the conduct of the coming battle. His three principal subordinates pictured above are, center, Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk who commanded the army in Bragg's absence, and the commanders of his Left Wing, Maj. Gen. William J. Hardee at left; and Right Wing, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Cheatham, right. (The system of Army Corps had yet to be adopted.) Even though he had returned and resumed command over his army, Bragg as was his usual custom left Polk in charge of the tactical arrangements for the coming battle. The approaching Union Army of the Ohio suffered from an even greater deficiency of command and at least a third of its soldiery were brand- new volunteers raised by the terrified states at the prospect of Southern invasion. Unfortunately, that condition even applied to the officers, extending all the way to Buell's principal subordinates leading his three Army Corps.
Above, from left to right, Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Crittenden, commanding the Second Corps; Maj. Gen. Charles C. Gilbert, commanding the Third Corps; and Maj. Gen. Alexander McD. McCook, leading the First Corps. Both Crittenden and McCook had led divisions under Buell as far back as Shiloh in April, but Gilbert was truly an odd duck in the group: When invasion seemed imminent, this mere captain in the Regular United States Army was seized and thrust into the rank of Major General of Volunteers, which thereby entitled him to command of an Army Corps! His relatively poor performance here caused Congress to deny confirmation of his promotion, so nothing further was heard from him for the remainder of the war.
As can be seen from the map below, Buell's large army of some 55,000 men was approaching the town of Perryville on a broad front several miles wide. The evening of Oct. 6 a fight occurred over possession of the pools of water in Doctor's Creek between elements of Gilbert's corps and Confederate pickets; the following morning, a sudden rush by the division of a brand-new Brigadier General Phillip H. Sheridan took firm control of the creek and its surrounding hills. Gilbert, ordered not to bring on a general engagement, halted his some 20,000 men in place for most of the battle. That afternoon, McCook's First Corps filed in to the left of Gilbert, taking position near Wilson's Creek and the Open Knob, as Crittenden's Second Corps approached from the southwest on the Lebanon Pike.
Map by Hal Jesperson @civilwarmaps.com
Bragg, still laboring under the delusion that he was facing only a small part of Buell's army, ordered Polk to attack McCook's exposed and isolated corps on the northern edge of the battlefield, extending it south to the crossing of Doctor's Creek northwest of Perryville. Strangely, the most competent of Buell's subordinates, Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas, was sidelined during the campaign acting as Buell's second-in-command accompanying Crittenden's force where he exercised no influence over coming events, since this force of some 22,000 took no part in the battle! Therefore, the contest would devolve as a slugging match between the hapless and unlucky McCook's 13,000 and most of Bragg's 16,800 men. This disparity is indicated on the monument below, which lists the relatively few Union formations which participated here.
Next, Part II - Cheatham attacks
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