Photo above: Squire Bottom's House on the Perryville Battlefield, 2006, Hal Jesperson. Courtesy Wikipedia Commons. Right: Battle of Perryville, Starkweather's Brigade, Strobridge, and Compay. Courtesy Library of Congress.

Perryville Battlefield Then

Since the 1840's, the small town of Perryville had been a prosperous merchant's town, with its verdant farmland of the Chaplin Hills to the north of town replete with crops that filled its storehouses. But when Braxton Bragg and his Army of Mississippi, with only sixteen thousand men, met the forces of the Army of the Ohio under General Don Carlos Buell, with forces of fifty-five thousand and twenty-two thousand engaged, those fields became the acreage of an early October battle of which Kentucky had never seen before or since.

By the end of the second day of fighting, the Confederates could claim a tactical victory. Union General Buell, behind the lines, did not realize that a major battle was occurring and did not send in his remaining reserves. With the Confederate disadvantage in troops, their victory was initially impressive, but it had come at such high cost by percentage of men and material, that they would retreat back to Tennessee anyway by way of the Cumberland Gap, and never make it back to Kentucky territory again. Seven thousand, six hundred and twelve soldiers from both sides were casualties. More Union perished than Confederate.

Photo above: Harper's Weekly image of the Battle of Perryville, 1862, Harper's Weekly. Courtesy Wikipedia Commons. Below: Cannon from Parson's Battery on the Perryville Battlefield at Open Knob, 2007, Hal Jesperson. Courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

Perryville Battlefield Now

About as pristine as you can get for a battlefield, with additional lands being purchased at regular intervals. You won't have to worry about traffic into a fast food location next to a cannon, at least up to now. When you visit Perryville, particularly the park, but also the town, envisioning the time of the battle and the actions of the brave men who fought there is a rather easy task. The park has a small museum, several monuments, trails and interpretation throughout its over one thousand acres.

There are locations such as the Open Knob, the Bottom House (private, please view from a distance), and the Steeltown site to visit. Steeltown tells a post Civil War story. It was the site of a town where former slaves and veterans of the Civil War created a community.