Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle" Winner of the Seaborg Award A History Book Club Selection On October 8, 1862, Union and Confederate forces clashed near Perryville, Kentucky, in what would be the largest battle ever fought on Kentucky soil. The climax of a campaign that began two months before in northern Mississippi, Perryville came to be recognized as the high water mark of the western Confederacy. Some said the hard-fought battle, forever remembered by participants for its sheer savagery and for their commanders’ confusion, was the worst battle of the war, losing the last chance to bring the Commonwealth into the Confederacy and leaving Kentucky firmly under Federal control. Although Gen. Braxton Bragg’s Confederates won the day, Bragg soon retreated in the face of Gen. Don Carlos Buell’s overwhelming numbers. Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle is the definitive account of this important conflict. While providing all the parry and thrust one might expect from an excellent battle narrative, the book also reflects the new trends in Civil War history in its concern for ordinary soldiers and civilians caught in the slaughterhouse. The last chapter, unique among Civil War battle narratives, even discusses the battle’s veterans, their families, efforts to preserve the battlefield, and the many ways Americans have remembered and commemorated Perryville. Kenneth W. Noe holds the Draughon Chair in Southern History at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. He is the author of several books and articles. |
Contents
Divided We Fall | 1 |
A Brilliant Summer Campaign | 22 |
The Enemy Is Before You | 42 |
The Great Foot Race | 63 |
A Babel of Confusion | 80 |
Blissful Ignorance | 107 |
To Strike a Blow | 124 |
Enough Boys for This Morning | 144 |
Up the Hill Came the Rebels | 242 |
I Want No More Night Fighting | 263 |
Scenes of Blood and Suffering | 292 |
Tramp Tramp Tramp | 313 |
The World Has Changed | 330 |
Order of Battle | 355 |
Artillery at Perryville | 361 |
Notes | 367 |
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Common terms and phrases
21st Wisconsin 2nd Ohio Infantry 33rd Alabama army Atlanta Southern Confederacy attack Bardstown battery Battle of Perryville Bottom Boyle County Bragg Papers Braxton Bragg brigade Buckner Capt cavalry Chaplin River Cheatham Cincinnati Daily Cincinnati Daily Enquirer Civil Cleburne command Confederate corps Davis Diary division Dokken Don Carlos Buell Donelson enemy Evansville Journal fall back Federal fell fence fight fire flank front Gilbert guns Hafendorfer Hardee Harris's Harrodsburg Holman to author II Corps Illinois Indiana Infantry John Johnston Kentuckians Kirby Smith Kurt Holman Landrum Letters Liddell Louisville Mackville Road Maney's McCook Memoirs Mississippi move Munfordville Nashville numbers Ohio Infantry Open Knob ordered Peters Hill Pike Polk Polk's position PSHS rear Rebels regiment remained retreat ridge River rode Rousseau Sept Sheridan Shiloh SHSW skirmishers soldiers Starkweather Starkweather's Tennessee Infantry Terrill Terrill's Thomas Tourgée Trask Journal troops USAMHI veterans William woods wounded WRHS wrote