Perryville

Western ACW Books

The 1862 Kentucky Campaign is fascinating when studied in conjunction with the Corinth-Iuka campaign that took place simultaneously and farther south. Edmund Kirby Smith launched his Rebels into Kentucky and pretty much forced Bragg's Confederate troops to follow. This in turn made Buell's Union Army folow him. What happened next was a foot race to Louisville that the Union barely won. Buell's men only got stronger, received supplies easier, and also received reinforcemtns which were pouring into Cincinnati and Louisville. Bragg and Smith, not getting the expected enthusiastic response from Kentuckians, grew weaker and were farther from their supplies the farther north they marched. Eventually the campaign ended with a confusing and ill-managed battle at Perryville, Kentucky. Buell had an opportunity to trap a portion of Bragg's Rebel Army, but he let 2/3's of his troops sit idly by while the remaining third was severely mauled by a fierce Confederate attack. Perryville was the high tide of the Confederacy in the west.