Reenactment, other events to mark 160th anniversary of Perryville

Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site in Kentucky's Boyle County will host a Civil War reenactment next month for the 160th anniversary of the battle. Perryville became the site of the most destructive battle in Kentucky, which left more than 7,600 killed, wounded or missing. The two-day event, October 8-9, includes tours, battle reenactments, lectures, museum exhibits, educational programs, food and other vendors. -- Article

You can learn the story of a rural Kentucky doctor who saved souls and also saved soldiers after the bloody Battle of Perryville

Bryan Bush at the Polk home (Kentucky State Parks)

At age 60, Dr. Jefferson Johnson Polk had all but retired, after having treated thousands of patients and delivering more than 800 babies in his hometown of Perryville, Ky., and surrounding communities. He concentrated on saving souls as a preacher.

But when the Civil War arrived in Perryville in October 1862, Polk joined other military and civilian physicians who rushed to save the wounded after the battle left 7,600 casualties and a strategic Union victory.

The role of Polk, a staunch unionist, in the clash’s aftermath will be presented Saturday (Jan. 25) at Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site by park manager Bryan Bush, who has experience in portraying historical figures. Other dates for the presentation are Feb. 15, March 14 and April 11. Perryville is 45 miles southwest of Lexington.

“Besides his medical practice, Polk was also a traveling minister, newspaper publisher, temperance lecturer and abolitionist,” says a press release about the talks. “His account of the aftermath of the Battle of Perryville is one of the more vivid and horrifying descriptions of the destruction resulting from a major battle during the Civil War.”

Dr. J.J. Polk

Polk and his son, William Tod Polk, also a doctor, treated the wounded at makeshift hospitals and the elder Polk’s home and office in Perryville. The two structures survive and are part of the town’s Merchants Row, a collection of buildings that are more than 170 years old. Many are occupied today by businesses catering to tourists and residents.

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Dr. J.J. Polk documented some of what he saw in his autobiography.

“The first hospital I entered was Mr. Peters’ house. Here were about two hundred wounded soldiers, lying side by side on beds of straw. Notwithstanding they were wounded in every possible way, there was not heard among them a groan or complaint. In the orchard close by a long trench had been dug, in which to bury the dead; about fifteen were lying in a row, ready for interment.”

According to one history, Polk treated the wounded in a barn at the Goodnight property, where the farmer played a fiddle and gave the wounded whiskey to dull their pain. The musical group Granville Automatic recorded the song “Goodnight House” a few years ago about the scene.

The doctor wrote other vivid passages about what he encountered.

“I noticed at one spot six dead horses, the entire team of a rebel cannon. Turning my steps south toward Perryville, I saw dead rebels piled up in pens like hogs. I reached my home, praying to God that I might never again be called upon to visit a battlefield.”

The Polk home is part of Merchants Row, below (Courtesy of  Main Street Perryville)

Polk, a Presbyterian, moved to Perryville, then a bustling farm community in southwest Kentucky, about 20 years before the Civil War began. The community had mixed sympathies at the time of Fort Sumter.

The doctor is believed to also have treated soldiers at his home and tiny office about 25 feet away, says Vicki T. Goode, executive director of Main Street Perryville, which leases the Merchants Row buildings from the town and promotes preservation and economic growth in the small downtown district.

Wounded soldiers, mostly Union, were cared for at nearby homes, she told the Picket. “Some of them were there for a year following the battle.”

Dr. Polk's office in 2007 (Courtesy of Main Street Perryville)

Polk treated and befriended a captured Confederate officer from Prussia – Karl Langenbecker – who eventually helped treat others but died two months after the battle. “He is buried in Dr. Polk’s plot with a very nice headstone right next to Dr. Polk’s monument,” says Goode. Polk died at age 79 in 1881.

The Polk home and office are not currently being used. Some of his effects are in the 10-feet by 14-feet office, which needs restoration.

The office interior

Main Street Perryville has also maintained the home, including performing structural repair of the foundation, installing a new roof and making window repairs. The “mothballed” home is in good shape but still needs an interior restoration, Goode said. 

A postwar addition on the back of the home deteriorated and was removed.

Main Street Perryville has helped restore some of the old structures downtown and Goode says new businesses catering to businesses are set to open.

The one-person interpretations of Dr. Polk are on Jan. 25, Feb. 15, March 14 and April 11 at 1 p.m. Tickets are $4 for adults and $3 for children ages 12 and under. The state historic site is near the town of Perryville.

Calling all corn planters!

Volunteers are needed to help plant corn that will be a key part of an October re-enactment of the Battle of Perryville, one of Kentucky’s best-known Civil War engagements. • Article

Walking the fields at Perryville

His failure to chase Braxton Bragg's army after the Oct. 8, 1862, Battle of Perryville in Kentucky cost Union Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell his job. While brave and organized, Buell was cautious and lacked the ingenuity to overcome unexpected circumstances.

Last month, I finally was able to visit Perryville, stopping at the visitors center for exhibits and a movie, before taking a self-guided tour over much of the battlefied.

It was a beautiful late summer afternoon, puffs of clouds hovering over the green rolling fields. With the exception of one couple, we had Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site to ourselves.

Bragg’s autumn 1862 invasion of Kentucky had reached the outskirts of Louisville and Cincinnati, but his far-outnumbered army was forced to retreat and regroup.

According to a National Park Service summary of the battle, Buell's army, numbering nearly 55,000, converged on the small crossroads town of Perryville in three columns.

The undulating hills in the area had a strange effect, we had learned, making it difficult to hear the din of battle from portions of the battlefield. Buell, who wasn't aware of the fierce fighting until late in the day, failed to send a large number of reserves to stem the Confederate assaults.

We walked up and down the terrain where Maney's men in gray attacked the Union flank and forced it to fall back. When more Confederate divisions joined the fray, the Union line made a stubborn stand, counterattacked, but finally fell back with some troops routed, according to the NPS.

The Yankees regrouped and were able to push some Confederates back into Perryville.

"Bragg, short of men and supplies, withdrew during the night, and, after pausing at Harrodsburg, continued the Confederate retrograde by way of Cumberland Gap into East Tennessee. The Confederate offensive was over, and the Union controlled Kentucky."

Casualties were estimated at 7,407, 4,211 of them Federal.

The Civil War Trust is trying to purchase a 141-acre tract on the extreme southern portion of the battlefield, where Rebels had smashed into the Union line.

A Louisianian described the fighting on this tract as "the grandest but the most awful sight, ever looked upon ... the enemy stood firm," according to the trust's website.

Despite surprising the Federal forces holding the line near the Squire Henry Bottom house, the fighting had quickly devolved to a bloody, stand-up fight. "All along our front, a solid line of dead and wounded lay, in some places three deep, extending to the right from the barn."