In The Crucible Of War

In The Crucible Of War. Perryville Between The Lines. , West of Perryville, a battle erupted about 4:15 p.m. when Mississippians under C.S. Colonel Samuel Powel were moving west along the Springfield Pike ran headlong into Union Maj. General Charles C. Gilbert's 22,000-man corps, positioned on and around Peters' Hill. Gilbert's force reacted ferociously and drove Powel's men back toward Perryville. Federal troops under General Robert Mitchell set off in hot pursuit of the fleeing Confederates., As Powel's men fled back into Perryville, a US. brigade under Colonel William Carlin gave chase. After a short bombardment, Carlin's infantry moved into town. They tangled with Powel's survivors, who fled across the Chaplin River to join another Confederate force under General Preston Smith. Sensing the opportunity for victory, Carlin and Mitchell both wanted to press on. Their repeated requests for reinforcements were denied., An artillery duel raged between the 2nd Minnesota Battery located where the elementary school is now and the Confederate guns of Barret and Semple located on the other side of the Chaplin River raged., "The buildings, as we passed along, presented the appearance of hard usage from the effects of the battle of Wednesday. Nearly every house was more or less riddled with shot and shell." , -Private O.P. Cutter, 1st Ohio Light Artillery

"The Yankees planted a battery and turned it on the town. Just then we were ordered down Main Street (Now U.S. 150)... We marched down in ranks of four: When we got to the street, the Yankees got our range. The soldiers were not in the houses then but did get into them later. The shells came thick and went through many of the houses. We stayed there a few minutes, then they called us to order. We went in double quick time down the street." , -Richard Wharton 154th Tennessee Infantry

(sidebar) , For several hours Carlin's men on the Chaplin's west bank dueled with Confederates on the river's east bank. Desperate Confederates slipped down into the river to retrieve what little water they could as an intense drought was ravaging Central Kentucky. Finally, as the day was waning, Gilbert, concerned for his corps' vulnerability, ordered Mitchell's men back into line to shore up a defensive position. Darkness was falling and this ended the first major street fighting in the Civil War.