Heading
to Perryville 
On
Independence Day, 1862, Colonel John Hunt Morgan left Knoxville, Tennessee with
1,100 men, to pursue the ‘liberation’ of his native Kentucky from Union
forces. With extreme speed and
deception, ‘Morgan’s Raiders’ took seventeen towns, cut off rail and telegraph
lines, and captured 1,200 prisoners.
Morgan, as with many other Southerners, believed that thousands of
Kentuckians would join the Confederacy if they could rid the state of Union
forces. Upon returning back to
Tennessee, Morgan pressed General Kirby Smith for an attack on Kentucky. Agreeing with Morgan, Smith developed a
plan.(mountaingrown)
Originally,
General Smith was supposed to take Cumberland Gap from Union forces, however he
planed to bypass the gap, leaving the federals cut off from the North. He would then move on Lexington, a move he
claimed would have extraordinary results.
However, he would need the help of General Braxton
Bragg to protect his left flank from General Don Carlos
Buell’s Union forces. On August 14th,
1862, General Smith left Knoxville for Kentucky with 21,000 men. Traveling into Kentucky, Smith successfully
cut off the federals in the gap, however the people of Eastern Kentucky were
very unfriendly to the southern liberators due to their strong Union ties. Meanwhile, General Braxton Bragg began his
invasion of Kentucky to the west of Smith occupying Glasgow a few days after
crossing the border.(Harrison 43) Bragg
then decided to move north to Louisville with wagon trains carrying thousands
of rifles to arm the expected entourage of confederate recruits in Kentucky.(47) The Unionists in Kentucky were thrown into
distress by the invasions of the Confederates and hurried new, untrained armies
from the North into the state. The army
attempted to stop General Smith at Richmond but was crushed by the Confederate
forces, suffering 75% casualties in killed, wounded, and captured. Smith went on to capture Lexington and
Frankfort.(mountaingrown)
To
the west, Buell was trying frantically to catch up to Bragg as he was moving
north to the undefended city of Louisville.
When Buell finally did catch up to Bragg’s rebel army, neither cautious
general wanted to fight. Instead of
taking Louisville, General Bragg changed his direction to the northeast towards
Bardstown, while Buell continued on to Louisville. Under pressure from Washington to attack the Confederates, Buell
left Louisville on October 1st, 1862.(mountaingrown)
Meanwhile, Bragg and Smiths’
armies were widely scattered across Central Kentucky and were not in any way
united. It was beginning to come to
light that Kentuckians were holding back their loyalty to the South, waiting to
see if the Confederate forces were strong, and would not retreat back into
Tennessee, despite the obvious Confederate sympathy of many of the state’s
population.(Harrison 47) Many Confederate
sympathizers wanted a victory first.(48)
General Bragg traveled to Frankfort to establish a Confederate
government of Kentucky, in hopes that it would encourage enlistments. The ceremonies began at noon before a large
audience of civilians and soldiers to put Governor Hawes of Virginia into
office. However, Union troops were
quickly approaching the capital, and by midafternoon the Confederates were
evacuating the town. The Confederate
government of Kentucky was in exile for the remainder of the war, mostly with
the western armies.(49) The confused
commander decided to retreat to Harrodsburg where General Leonidas Polk,
commander of the Right Wing of the Confederate army, would join
him.(mountaingrown) Bragg believed that
the decisive battle would take place at Versailles, west of Lexington, where he
would work with Smith to stop Buell’s army.
However, Buell’s army was heading to the south of Harrodsburg in great
numbers. Bragg, unaware of where Buell
was heading, ordered General William Hardee, commander of the Left Wing, to
halt his troops around Perryville were water was available.(Harrison 50) The Summer of 1862 was accompanied by a
terrible drought with no relief in sight.
When the fighting first broke out around Perryville, it had been between
two armies in search of water, so desperate to find relief, even if it meant
encountering an enemy of unknown size and strength.(civilwar) The next day, Hardee reported Union troops
in the area of Perryville and he wrote Bragg that fighting would probably take
place the next day. Not worried, Bragg
ordered a division to go and help Hardee take care of the enemy before going on
to Versailles. On October 8th,
Union forces had started to increase in size around Perryville, and Bragg
ordered an immediate attack on what he thought to be a small opponent.(Harrison
51) Bragg, at Harrodsburg, became
impatient when he could not hear the sounds of the battle, and rode to
Perryville to personally look over matters.
Buell’s orders did not get to his commanders on schedule and his army
was not aligned in time because he too, could not hear the sounds of
battle. He originally planned to attack
by mid-morning, but because his troops were not ready, he decided to attack the
next morning, October 9th, 1862.
However, the battle would take place that day, October 8th,
1862.(mountaingrown)