The World Needs More Kevin

As Robert E. Lee was invading Maryland a simultaneous thrust was being made into Kentucky. Like Lee, Braxton Bragg expected his Confederate army to be one of liberation and expected that Kentuckians would flock to his banner and swell his ranks. Kentucky was a slave state but had remained in the Union. Originally it had declared neutrality but Confederates under Leonidas Polk had entered the state and it forced the state to remain in the Union. Kentucky was also the birthplace of both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. While Kentucky did not secede it was represented on the Confederate flag with a star and a government was formed with its capital in Bowling Green.

Edmund Smith had first proposed an invasion to gather supplies and recruits. Cavalier John Morgan had conducted a successful raid in the state during the summer and his men had been cheered wherever they went and some had enlisted to join Morgan. Smith believed that 25,000 recruits could be added to his army.

Bragg had other options. The vital rail junction at Corinth could be retaken but Smith had Jefferson Davis’ ear. Bragg’s men were transferred to Tennessee to invade Kentucky and cooperate with Smith and they met on July 31 to plan the invasion. Smith would clear the Cumberland Gap and would then rejoin Bragg (whose men were too exhausted to begin immediately) and get into the rear of Don Carlos Buell’s army and cut it off from its supplies. If U.S. Grant in Mississippi attempted to reinforce Buell the  smaller Confederate forces there would deal with that. Once Buell’s army was destroyed they would push onto the Ohio River.

The plan was risky and would require coordination between two generals that were suspicious of each other and without a defined command structure. Since Smith commanded his own department he would not come under Bragg’s command (as senior general) until the two forces linked up, meaning Smith could do what he wanted until then. Smith quickly abandoned their agreement and advanced on his own with 21,000 men and was heading toward Lexington, Kentucky. He left on August 13 with Bragg beginning to move on August 27.

Buell was advancing slowly on Chattanooga and with these movements he was forced to abandon it to get his army north to shield Louisville and Cincinnati. It became a race. Smith captured Lexington in late August and Bragg moved on Munfordville and delayed his march to capture the Union garrison there. Meanwhile Buell marched right by him. Bragg then moved to the capitol to help inaugurate the new Confederate governor of Kentucky in Frankfort on October 4. Union troops were approaching and the sounds of their cannon interrupted the ceremony.

Bragg’s army, under Polk was near Bardstown. Bragg wanted to move his force to Versailles but Buell was moving quickly and he decided to concentrate his forces around Perryville or Harrodsburg. William Hardee, one of Bragg’s most trusted commanders, selected Perryville to concentrate at. The town had a large road network for its size which allowed for flexibility and nearby Doctor’s Creek offered drinking water, somewhat of a rarity in this part of the state. The summer and early fall had been unusually hot and a drought was in effect. Men and horses on both sides were parched and it was not uncommon to see men drinking from stagnant puddles.

Buell learned that the Confederates were at Perryville and moved to attack. His men were ordered to march at 3 AM on October 7 and to attack at 10 AM. The lack of water was too much of an issue and Buell delayed the march so his parched army could find some. Buell himself was thrown from his horse and was unable to oversee the deployments and the battle itself.

Hardee covered the roads to the north and west of town with only four brigades but the delay allowed time for reinforcements to arrive. On October 8 the first shots of the battle were fired as thirsty Federal soldiers tried to drink from a pool. Phil Sheridan was ordered to take his division and seize Peter’s Hill and drove the Confederate soldiers back. Polk, who was in command, ordered the Confederates to pull back fearing they were outnumbered. Sheridan likewise did the same.

Bragg himself believed that the main battle would be fought near Frankfort and kept Smith’s men there. Bragg himself was in Harrodsburg and was angered when Polk told him he would attack. When Bragg heard no sounds of battle he rode to Perryville to take charge and arrived at about 10 AM. He found gaps in Polk’s line and that Polk had not secured his flanks. He was unaware that Federal reinforcements were almost on the field when he realigned his army and ordered an attack. Bragg assumed that the Federal left rested on the Mackville Road and that he could begin a left wheel, hit the center and then move on to the Federal right. Most of Buell’s army was on the field or close by and the majority of the fighting would fall on Alexander McCook’s I Corps on the Union left.

With preparations finished Bragg launched the attack on October 9 in the afternoon. Bragg’s artillery opened up around 12:30 but the infantry did not move in immediately. McCook extended his line further north securing his flank as well as placing Charles Parsons’ large battery on a knob of land. The first infantry attack came at 2 PM with three regiments from Daniel Donelson’s Brigade. The attack was disjointed and easily repulsed and over within 30 minutes. George Maney’s Brigade followed and approached the guns. The Union commander, John Jackson was killed and his replacement panicked, ordering a hasty bayonet charge to save Parsons’ guns. This bayonet charge was smashed and its survivors fled.

A.P. Stewart’s Brigade was next to attack the northern end of the hill and pushed the Union troops back. They reformed on the next ridge, which had a stone wall and a steep slope and it was another strong defensive position. Maney and Stewart assaulted it three times but were repulsed each time.

About 2:45 the next attack moved south to the Union center. Thomas Jones moved his men forward on his own when he heard firing  and was driven back by the Union defenders under Leonard Harris. John Brown’s Brigade tried next at about 3:30 and was also driven back.

Bragg tried one last attack on the Confederate right, this time at the Dixville Crossroads where the Benton Road and the Mackville Road came together. He wanted to cut McCook off from the rest of the army and with McCook being forced back earlier in the day his corps was poised to be captured. John Starkweather’s Union brigade was holding its ground but much of the rest of McCook’s corps was in bad shape. Bragg wanted a pincer movement to hit both ends and force McCook’s capitulation and two fresh brigades made the attack. McCook had been pleading for reinforcements and had sent messengers that encountered several generals but from other corps. When word reached Buell, who could not hear the battle raging 2 miles away, he believed that McCook was overreacting but he did order Abel Scoepf’s division from Charles Gilbet’s corps to move.

Bragg’s last attack here bogged down. Leonidas Polk was nearly captured when he rode into a Union regiment and bluffed his way out of trouble. The assault bogged down and both sides fired at each from 100 yards, producing some of the highest casualty rates of the battle. Darkness here brought an end to the fighting.

On the Confederate left the fighting began at about 2:30 when Union soldiers were collecting water. The fighting went from stone wall to stone wall on Squire Bottom’s farm. Reinforcements were added at 3:40 and the Union soldiers were pushed back by Daniel Adams and Pat Cleburne’s Brigades. Sheridan was only a few hundred yards away but was ordered not to join the fight to his dismay. Buell and Sheridan’s commander Charles Gilbert heard firing and assumed it was their artillery practicing and sent word not to waste ammunition. Sheridan did get his artillery involved but Gilbert ordered him back to Peter’s Hill.

At about 4 PM as the sun was setting Sheridan was allowed to attack and cut his way through the Confederates in front of him. Sheridan paused and waited for reinforcements and when they arrived Sheridan pushed on to Perryville. There they were ordered to halt without getting into town. Bragg at that point was withdrawing and by capturing the town Sheridan could have dealt a serious blow to the Confederate army.

Darkness ended the fighting and Bragg began to withdraw. The invasion of Kentucky was over and he would limp back to Tennessee. The eager recruits he had sought had not flocked to his banner and though a pro-Confederate governor had been inaugurated his term did not last long. He had put a good scare into both Louisville and Cincinnati but he never came close to taking either city. He also lost about 3,500 men while Buell lost about 4,300.

Buell pursued only half-heartedly to Nashville. Lincoln wanted him to invade East Tennessee to liberate that land of supposed Unionists. Buell had other ideas and his performance did not please Lincoln who replaced him by the end of the month with William Rosecrans. His career remained in limbo until 1864 when he resigned.

The battlefield is today preserved as Perryville Battlefield State Historic Park. I visited in 2014. A walking tour is available but I did not do the entire battlefield as a car fire on the Bluegrass Parkway delayed my arrival and I needed to be in Cincinnati by the evening. I could have seen much more when I was there as I did not hit much traffic going into Cincy so one day I will be back.