A Thousand Words a Battle: Perryville

Battle of Perryville
October 8, 1862

In October 1862, the Confederate Army of Mississippi under Braxton Bragg collided with Don Carlos Buell’s Federal Army of the Ohio in the Bluegrass State of Kentucky. The culmination of the Confederate offensive in Kentucky, Perryville, proved to be a fight shrouded in confusion and disarray from the army commanders to the rank and file. It would be particularly so for James Streshly Jackson’s Tenth Division (Federal) and his two brigades, led by William Rufus Terrill and George Webster. According to Charles Denby of the 42nd Indiana Infantry:

It is curious that the night before the battle Generals Jackson and Terrill and Colonel Webster were discussing the chances of being hit in an engagement. Their opinion was that men would never be frightened if they considered the doctrine of probabilities and how slight the chance was of any particular person being killed.[1]

The battle opened at 12:30 p.m. with Confederate artillery. Terrill’s brigade, backed by eight cannon, held Open Knob, a prominent hill. Confederate general Benjamin Cheatham sent his division forward against the position, yelling “Give ‘em hell, boys!” Cheatham’s corps commander, Leonidas Polk, formerly the Episcopal bishop of Louisiana, seconded Cheatham, but exhorted, “Give it to ‘em boys; give ‘em what General Cheatham says!”[2]  However, the initial Confederate assault failed.

According to Percival P. Oldershaw, who served on Jackson’s staff, Terrill ordered the 123rd Illinois Infantry to counterattack.

It advanced bravely, but unfortunately the enemy had not then left the woods, and there was a rail fence on its edge, which prevented their advancing promptly. The regiment fired a volley and fell back, when almost immediately afterward General Jackson, who was standing on the left of the battery, was killed, two bullets entering his right breast. . . . At the moment I was standing on the right of the battery, watching the gallant defense then being made by the troops on our left. Returning to the general to report the same, I found him on his back, struggling to speak, but unable to do so. He died in a few moments. His staff officers at once removed his body from the crest of the hill some 50 yards. Mr. Wing, one of the general’s volunteer aides, went for an ambulance, and while I was absent, notifying General Terrill and Colonel Webster of the general’s death. . . . At 5.30 p. m. Col. George Webster fell from his horse mortally wounded. No man on that battle-field displayed more of the characteristics of the soldier than he did. He fully understood and most faithfully discharged his duty. Of General Terrill’s fatal wound I was not apprised until the battle closed, when I found him lying prostrate and receiving every aid and comfort from his devoted staff.[3]

Jackson’s division took the brunt of the Confederate attack on October 8, losing more than 1,100 men. Total Union losses that day were roughly 4,200. The Confederates had to retreat after losing more than 3,000 men and finding themselves out of position.

Sam Watkins of the 1st Tennessee Infantry declared,

I was in every battle, skirmish and march that was made by the First Tennessee Regiment during the war, and I do not remember of a harder contest and more evenly fought battle than that of Perryville. If it had been two men wrestling, it would have been called a ‘dog fall.’ Both sides claim victory—both whipped.[4]

Jackson’s division earned the woeful distinction of being the only division in the war to see its commander and all of its brigade commanders perish. Denby, writing years later, concluded, “Theory failed, as it has often done before; all three were killed in the next day’s fight.”[5]

— Joseph D. Ricci Jr. and Sean Michael Chick

Part of a series.

[1] Charles C. Gilbert, “On the Field of Perryville” Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Volume 3, (New York, Century, 1888), 57.

[2] James Lee McDonough,  War in Kentucky: From Shiloh to Perryville, (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1994), 243-245.

[3] The War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Volume XVI, Part 1, (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1886), 1060-1061.

[4] Sam Watkins, Co. Aytch, (Chattanooga: Times Printing Company, 1900), 50.

[5] Gilbert, 57.