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Perryville

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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a town of Boyle county, Kentucky, U.S.A., about io m. W. of Danville. Pop. (1900), 431. Here on the 8th of October 1863 General Braxton Bragg, in command of the Confederate army of the Mississippi of about 16,000 men, with which he had invaded Kentucky, faced about in his slow retreat across the state and gave battle to the Union army of the Ohio of about 40,000 (of whom only about 22,000 were actually engaged) commanded by Major-General Don Carlos Buell. Bragg's order to attack was disregarded by Major-General Leonidas Polk, who preferred adopting the "defensive-offensive" rather than engage all of Buell's force. Bragg himself came on the field about 10 a.m. and repeated his orders for an attack, but it was 2 p.m. before there was an actual engagement. Then after much delay on Polk's part the Confederate army joined battle with McCook's corps. The Confederate lines were broken and driven back through Perryville, where caissons, ammunition wagons and 140 officers and men were captured. Darkness had now come on, and in the night Bragg withdrew. His losses were reported as 510 killed, 2635 wounded and 251 missing. The Union loss was 845 killed, 2851 wounded and 515 captured or missing. The battle was drawn tactically, but strategically it was a Union victory and it virtually closed Bragg's unsuccessful Kentucky campaign, which is sometimes called the Perryville campaign.