Confederate Kentucky Campaign Part 6 Battle of Perryville Part 1

[00:00:00]Welcome everyone to History Gone Wild, or part of Half History Will Travel. I'm your host, the Wilder Historian, Dr. Lucas Wilder. And last time, parts of Don Carlos Buell and Braxton Bragg's armies met outside the town of Perryville, Kentucky.

[00:00:12]Now, the Battle of Perryville opens.

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[00:00:29]Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio descended upon part of Braxton Bragg's Army of the Mississippi outside of Perryville, Kentucky. But, Buell wasn't confident in his movement. He effectively deceived Bragg into misjudging his true intentions, but on the eve of battle, Buell hesitated.

[00:00:47]Bragg, on the other hand, envisioned concentrating just long enough to halt a column of Union pursuers, thinking that Buell was intending to strike him at Versailles, Kentucky.

[00:00:57]On October 7th, 1862, parts of the two armies skirmished with one another, but the battle would erupt the next day.

[00:01:05]Buell ordered Alexander McCook and Thomas Crittenden to assemble their respective corps on each flank of Charles Gilbert's corps in the center.

[00:01:12]However, the orders got to McCook and Crittenden late, and their movements would be delayed.

[00:01:17]Bragg and Leonidas Polk and William Hardee hoped to hit the left flank of the Union Army and drive it southward.

[00:01:24]The first Confederate Brigade to advance was that of Daniel Donelson, crossing the Chaplin River at Walker's Bend.

[00:01:30]He only advanced with three regiments, with the 16th Tennessee advancing ahead of the rest of the brigade. However, they ran into heavy artillery and musketry from the Federals, pinning them down and forcing them to find cover.

[00:01:42]Benjamin F. Cheatham, Donelson's division commander, began sending reinforcements to relieve Donelson in the form of George Maney's Brigade and Alexander P. Stewart's Brigade.

[00:01:52]Maney didn't wait for his whole brigade to form before he launched an attack with three regiments against the 123rd Illinois, a unit so large the rebels thought they were attacking a brigade.

[00:02:03]The inexperienced Federals didn't withstand much combat before retreating in haste.

[00:02:08]William Terrill, the regiment's brigade commander, saw the break and quickly threw the 105th Ohio onto his flank to guard against Maney, as well as the 80th Illinois and an attachment under Theophilus Garrard.

[00:02:21]During this phase of the battle, the left-wing's division commander, James Jackson, was killed. Jackson was a Kentuckian who volunteered to fight in the Mexican War, resigned from the army to avoid a court-martial for a duel with another officer, and became a lawyer and politician before the Civil War. He was known as a tyrant to his soldiers.

[00:02:39]Jackson often paraded them around in full uniform and equipment in the oppressive summer heat, with at least four men dying of heatstroke.

[00:02:46]His men were not saddened to hear the news that a rebel bullet found its mark in Jackson.

[00:02:51]Maney wasn't deterred by the Union reinforcements. He sent the 1st Tennessee around to Terrill's left flank, sending a destructive fire into the Federals, who had no choice but to withdraw.

[00:03:02]Streaming through the ranks of the 21st Wisconsin, who were situated in a cornfield in a low area.

[00:03:09]Their comrades broke up their ranks, and when Maney's men advanced on them, they broke. The regiment lost 41 killed, 101 wounded, and 36 missing of the 663 men they took into battle.

[00:03:21]Union forces concentrated on a hill to their rear as the Confederate attack continued.

[00:03:27]Maney's momentum eventually slowed down and stalled before the reformed Federals. Meanwhile, in Donelson's front, the 16th Tennessee encountered the 33rd Ohio and pushed them back, opening up a gap in the Union line.

[00:03:40]Lovell Rousseau, the division commander in that sector, rushed to fill the gap with the 2nd Ohio and the 24th Illinois.

[00:03:47]The Tennesseans had momentum on their side and threw back the 2nd Ohio, as well.

[00:03:52]Brigade Commander George Webster observed the break and ordered the 50th Ohio to fill the gap, but the regiment refused to move. So, Webster decided to rally the 2nd Ohio and send them into the breach. The line was secure for the moment, but that part of the Union line became a focal point for the Confederacy.

[00:04:09]Thomas Jones's Mississippians were now across Doctor's Creek with John C.

[00:04:13]Brown's Brigade behind.

[00:04:15]With John C. Brown's Brigade behind, Jones attacked the Union line, but close-range artillery fire decimated the Mississippians and quickly drove them back. Brown's Brigade came up right behind them, taking their place in line.

[00:04:29]Brown launched his own attack, but didn't come under the same artillery fire as Jones because the Union artillery were directing their fire toward other locations.

[00:04:37]So, Brown held his ground, putting pressure on the Federals.

[00:04:41]Brown himself was wounded in the attack.

[00:04:44]Soon, Sterling Wood's Brigade threaded the needle between Jones and Brown to add more weight to the Confederate attack.

[00:04:51]Leonard Harris's William Lytle's Brigades were quickly running low on ammunition, and more Rebel Brigades were making their way to the field.