Defense of the Union Center

Defense of the Union Center. Perryville . The Battle For Kentucky. , Here, on this ridge, the Union soldiers established a strong defensive position at the eastern edge of a 25 acre cornfield. Leonard Harris' brigade along with William Lytle's brigade to your left and six cannon of Peter Simonson's Battery awaited the Confederate attack. The troops were primed and ready, already somewhat involved in the defense of the attacks of General Cheatham's Confederates., With a shout, Jones' Confederate brigade crested the hill in front of you. Outnumbering the Confederate attackers, the Union troops' muskets blazed. Sheets of flame erupted from the hundreds of rifles and the rapid fire at close range halted the attackers at the top of the hill. Although the Southerners tried to charge down into the valley four times, the tenacious Federal infantrymen repelled the attack as the cannon blasted holes in the Confederate lines. Torn apart, Jones' Mississippians retreated., While the Union troops stifled Jones' attack, and the successive attacks of John Brown's and Sterling A. M. Wood's brigades, doing so severely depleted their ammunition. Furthermore, their artillery withdrew because of lack of ammunition as well as fear of being captured by the Confederate infantry., Their cannon withdrawn and their ammunition depleted, the Union lines wavered when Wood's Confederate brigade crested the hill. Exchanging gunfire with these troops for more than half an hour, the Union defenders finally fell back when other Union brigades to the south withdrew. With ammunition low, Brown threatening their front, and other Confederate units attacking to your right and left, the Union line fell back through the corn. Using the terrain to their advantage, they then established another defensive line behind the tree line behind you., During the afternoon the enemy planted some artillery that played with destructive effect on the right of our division, and occasionally some of the shots came over in our direction. Most of them went high, but I saw one twelve-pound shot strike near the right and a little to the rear of the regiment, and bound and skip along toward the left. It passed so close to where I was standing and seemed to be going so slowly that my first impulse was to stop it with my foot, but it flashed through my mind that I had read of an English officer in the Crimea who lost his foot in an attempt to stop what he thought was a spent cannon ball, so I let it pass on. Fortunately it did no damage and it came to a stop on its own accord a few yards beyond me. , - Major Anson McCook, 2nd Ohio Infantry, U.S., Artillery played about 2 hours, when we were ordered to the left on the top of the ridge and there commenced our fight in earnest. We were under a constant fire until about sunset, when our ammunition failed, and we went slowly off of the field. Our boys fell on every side of us, and nothing but a miracle saved any of us. We fought a whole Brigade. As for myself I came out without injury, but tired and exhausted. , - Sergeant Abraham V. Knapp, 10th Wisconsin Infantry, U.S., Our regiment was drawn into line in rear of [Simonson's] battery. The balls came crashing about us pretty lively. Soon we formed on the left of [the] battery and met the enemy face to face. Our regiment met with a great loss. I was wounded in the arm but not till ammunition had nearly run out, I wandered back to the hospital about 1 1/2 mile and laid on the ground all night. Got the Doctor to look at my arm and put on some lint. , - Private Gilbert M. Dowd, 10th Wisconsin Infantry, U.S., I saw the necessity of holding my position, with or without support, until the right was successful or compelled to retire, and I determined to do so. If I had been driven back [Lytle's] Brigade would have been cut off from the main body and in my judgment irretrievably lost. , - Colonel Leonard A. Harris, 2nd Ohio Infantry, U.S. Commanding Union 9th Brigade., (Caption):, Colonel Leonard A. Harris (1824-1890) , Colonel Harris was the original colonel of the 2nd Ohio Infantry Regiment. He commanded the Union 9th Brigade, centered here. He had to resign his military service because of ill health. He was elected mayor of Cincinnati in 1863.