Perryville Under Fire: The Aftermath of Kentucky's Largest Civil War Battle (Civil War Series)
Stuart W. Sanders
Language: English
Pages: 160
ISBN: B00XQUNVD4
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The Battle of Perryville laid waste to more than just soldiers and their supplies. The commonwealth's largest combat engagement also took an immense toll on the community of Perryville, and citizens in surrounding towns. After Confederates achieved a tactical victory, they were nonetheless forced to leave the area. With more than 7,500 casualties, the remaining Union soldiers were unprepared for the enormous tasks of burying the dead, caring for the wounded, and rebuilding infrastructure. Instead, this arduous duty fell to the brave and battered locals. Former executive director of the Perryville Battlefield Preservation Association Stuart Sanders presents the first in depth look into how the resilient residents dealt with the chaos of this bloody battle and how they rebuilt their town from the rubble leftover.
Receding Tide: Vicksburg and Gettysburg- The Campaigns That Changed the Civil War
Vicksburg 1863: Grant Clears the Mississippi (Campaign, Volume 26)
Military Strategy and Operational Art, Joining the Fray: Outside Military Intervention in Civil Wars
The Civil War Trilogy: Gods and Generals / The Killer Angels / The Last Full Measure
Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America: A Biography
fair state of mortification.” Leaving Bardstown three hours later, they traveled eight miles and were fed coffee and meat. Again, Hupp could not sleep at all during the night. On the morning of October 15, Hupp wrote, “My wound became very sore, not being washed or dressed once since that fight; I could hardly stand to ride and felt very much exhausted.” He was given wine and whiskey and finally reached Louisville at 7:00 a.m. on October 16, eight days after the battle. The wagons did not stop,
Anderson (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1942), 162. 62. Burnett, Humorous, Pathetic, and Descriptive Incidents, 14; Operations of the Sanitary Commission at Perryville, 10. 63. Kurt Holman, ed., Perryville Casualty Computer Database File, Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site, Perryville, KY. 64. L.W. Day, Story of the One Hundred and First Ohio Infantry (Cleveland, OH: W.M. Bayne Printing Co., 1894), 55. 65. Joan W. Albertson, ed., Letters Home to Minnesota: 2nd Minnesota Volunteers
Bottom, Executor of the Last Will and Testament of Henry P. Bottom, Deceased, v. the United States, Congressional nos. 9877 and 2514 (consolidated), National Archives, Washington, D.C. [hereinafter cited as Bottom War Claim]; McChord Memoir, Perryville Battlefield Preservation Association, 34; Stuart W. Sanders, “Broken in Spirit,” Kentucky Humanities 1 (2000): 20–25; A.J. Herald, “Terrible Sight at Perryville,” National Tribune 23 (April 28, 1904): 10. 127. Crawford, “Battle of Perryville,” 4;
tactical victory there could not save his doomed campaign, and the Southern commander faced an overall strategic defeat. Perryville was, therefore, as historian Lowell Harrison wrote, the “high-water mark of the Confederacy in the West.” Never again would a western Confederate army push so far northward, and never again would the Rebels have the chance to influence congressional elections to bring Peace Democrats to power. Had the Confederates succeeded in Kentucky and advanced into Indiana or
of our fire.” Hatchitt added that the Confederates’ use of “buck and ball” rounds, consisting of one large musket ball and three smaller pieces of buckshot, added to the large number of Union casualties.22 A comparison to more recent battles involving American troops illustrates how Perryville involved a large number of casualties in a short period of time. During the Second World War, the Pacific island battle of Tarawa was judged to be one of the U.S. Marines’ hardest-fought battles. In this