Starkweather’s Hill

Starkweather’s Hill. Perryville . The Battle For Kentucky. , Their faces and hands begrimed from the smoke of battle, and their ears ringing with the constant ripping of musketry, Starkweather’s shattered brigade retreated to the ridge in front of you. They had saved half of their cannon by dragging them back to new positions, although their commander, General Terrill was fatally struck by a shell just in front of you. The Union infantry took cover behind a stone wall that ran across the distant hill. Perryville’s rolling terrain allowed the Federals to establish another defensive position behind the stone wall., Maney’s Confederates regrouped and rushed through the valley. They fought desperately at the stone wall, assaulting it again and again. Finally, a Union counterattack forced Maney’s exhausted brigade, now low on ammunition, to retreat back behind this hill., Both sides refused to renew the struggle. Maney’s brigade fell back to Parsons’ Ridge, and Starkweather’s troops retreated to the west., While Maney’s attack helped the Confederates secure a tactical victory at Perryville, Starkweather’s stand saved a third of Union army. Bloodied in victory, some units over half their command, the Confederate Army soon marched out of Kentucky never to return in strength., . . . The ground around was slippery with blood, many a poor dark looking powder begrimed Artillery man was laying stretched out upon the ground around us, torn and mutilated, their countenance plainly indicating the awful manner of their death. , , Union Captain Robert B. Taylor, (Captions):, The 4th Indiana Battery, under the command of Captain Asahel K. Bush, lost 13 men and 35 horses while defending Starkweather’s Hill., General Lovell Harrison Rousseau rallies his troops at Perryville from a post-war painting by William D.T. Travis.