Perryville | Oct 8, 1862

In the autumn of 1862, General Braxton Bragg and his Confederate Army of the Mississippi boldly invaded Kentucky with the hopes of bringing the Bluegrass State into the Confederacy and filling his depleted ranks with Kentuckians. After being met with a resounding lack of local support, however, Bragg was compelled to halt and regroup. On October 7, 1862, the 55,000-man Union Army of the Ohio under the command of General Don Carlos Buell 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 gray-clad 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, counterattacked, but finally fell back with some troops routed. Buell was unaware of what was happening on the field. 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 Confederate 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.