The 15th Kentucky Infantry (Union)

The 15th Kentucky Infantry (Union). Perryville . The Battle For Kentucky. , The 15th Kentucky Infantry was recruited in the fall of 1861 from Unionist men from northern Kentucky and the Louisville area. At Perryville the regiment numbered 517 officers and men. It was commanded by Colonel Curran Pope, a graduate of West Point and a prominent Louisville politician. The 15th also contained a number of prominent Kentucky family members. Pope's second-in-command was Lieutenant Colonel George Jouett, and son of a prominent artist and former mayor of Lexington. Despite being in the army for a year, Perryville was the regiment's first major battle., During the battle the 15th supported the 3d Ohio against massed attacks by Confederate General Bushrod Johnson's brigade. Jolmson's men pushed across Doctor's Creek and into the yard of the Bottom House and were pinned down by the fire of the 3d from this position, protected only by a post and rail fence. A Confederate shell ignited a large barn to the right of their line and the smoke blew down their line, adding to the misery of the Yankees. Eventually, the entire hillside was in flames. When the 3d Ohio ran out of ammunition the 15th took its place here. Despite heavy Confederate artillery and rifle fire, the Kentuckians held firm until just before 4:00 PM when their right flank was turned by Brigadier General Daniel Adams' Louisiana brigade. Colonel Pope, still in command despite being wounded early in the action, turned his men to face this new attack. As the regiment faced south, General Patrick Cleburne's brigade attacked from the Bottom House, forcing the 15th Kentucky and 3d Ohio to withdraw west toward the Dixville Crossroads. After a brief stand near the intersection, the 15th withdrew out of the fight., Colonel Pope remained on duty despite his wounds and gradually grew weaker in the weeks after the battle. He died of typhoid in Danville on November 5, 1862. The unit's losses at Perryville numbered 203 killed, wounded, and missing, a 39% casualty rate. Among the dead was Lieutenant Colonel Jouett. Captain James Brown Forman became the regiment's next commander and was killed on New Year's Eve in the Battle of Stones River. The 15th continued to serve in all the major battles of the Army of the Cumberland until mustering out in 1865., (Captions):, The flag carried by the 15th Kentucky Infantry at the Battle of Perryville , James Brown Forman (1842-1862) saved the regiment's flag during the battle by lashing its shattered staff to a broken fence rail. He used it to rally the troops. Forman was killed just a few months later at the Battle of Murfreesboro on December 31, 1862, only two weeks after his 20th birthday