Battle of Perryville

“ General Buell and his officers had been subjected to a long ordeal by a court of inquiry, touching their conduct of the campaign in Tennessee and Kentucky, that resulted in the battle of Perryville, or Chaplin's Hills, October 8,1862, and they had been substantially acquitted; and, as it was manifest that we were to have some hard fighting, we were anxious to bring into harmony every man and every officer of skill in the profession of arms. ”

“ Then after much delay on Polk's part the Confederate army joined battle with McCook's corps. The Confederate lines were broken and driven back through Perryville, where caissons, ammunition wagons and 140 officers and men were captured. Darkness had now come on, and in the night Bragg withdrew. His losses were reported as 510 killed, 2635 wounded and 251 missing. The Union loss was 845 killed, 2851 wounded and 515 captured or missing. ”

“ The army advanced in pursuit of the enemy, and it was thought that the rebels would concentrate at Danville—but instead of doing so, finding themselves hard pressed, they made a stand at Perryville; where on the evening of the 7th they stubbornly resisted General Buell’s advance. This point became the field of a bloody battle, which took its name from the spot on which it was fought. General McCook did not receive orders to march to Perryville, till three hours after midnight; and though his troops began to advance before dawn they did not reach the battle-field till ten o’clock on the 8th. ”

“ Buell, at 7 P.M. of the 7th, seemed to be aware that stubborn resistance would be met with the next day at Perryville. He so advised General Thomas. (31) Polk, with Cheatham's division, reached Perryville about midnight of the 7th, and the troops were placed in position on a line previously established with the expectation that a battle would be opened early the following morning. The Confederate troops thus in position numbered about 18,000, while immediately opposed to them were no divisions yet in position, and, in fact, no real preparation for battle had been made on the Union side. ”

“ The morning of October 10th were again early on the move, and at 9 o’clock passed through the town of Perryville, and proceeded on towards Danville. 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 by shot and shell. We saw one house that seemed as if it had been the especial target of the gunners, for it was pierced in many places. We continued on for about two miles, when our advance had some little skirmishing with the enemy’s rear guard. ”

“ You can have too many battles in one year. I didn't get rest enough after my wound at the Second Manassas before I had to go in and save our army at Antietam, and then it was but a little time before we fought at Perryville. That wasn't as big a battle as some of the others, but Dick, for those mad three hours it seemed that all the demons of death were turned loose. ”

“ These admirers held him blameless throughout for the blunders of the campaign, but the greater number laid every error at his door, and even went to the absurdity of challenging his loyalty in a mild way, but they particularly charged incompetency at Perryville, where McCook's corps was so badly crippled while nearly 30,000 Union troops were idle on the field, or within striking distance. With these it was no use to argue that Buell's accident stood in the way of his activity, nor that he did not know that the action had assumed the proportions of a battle. ”

“ Hovering continually near the enemy, you have engaged in no less than one hundred skirmishes. Upon the memorable field of Perryville, alone and unsupported, you engaged and held in check during the entire action, at least two infantry divisions of the opposing army. By your gallant charges on that day you completely dispersed and routed a vastly superior force of the enemy’s cavalry, driving them in confusion under their artillery and infantry supports, capturing in hand-to-hand conflicts many prisoners, forces and arms. ”

“ The Lawrence, stripped of her officers and men, was compelled to surrender.
Perry instantly bore up to the Detroit, the guns of which were plied resolutely, when she became entangled with her consort, the Queen Charlotte, and the Niagara poured a deadly fire into both vessels. This cannonade decided the battle in seven minutes, when the enemy surrendered. The American loss in this engagement was 27 killed and 96 wounded; that of the British 41 killed and 94 wounded. Gallant actions were performed and noble men fell on both sides. ”

“ The enemy rushed, in unconscious recklessness, into the trap which the convergence of our three corps upon Perryville really formed for him, and he owed it partly to accident and partly to our mistakes and blunders that it was not sprung on him. It is enough to state the astounding fact that not far from forty thousand muskets and some eighty pieces of artillery of our army never fired a shot during the whole day. ”

“ For some time, the fire of the enemy was concentrated upon the St. Lawrence, Perry’s flag-ship, and she was much cut up, most of her crew killed or wounded, and [Pg 48] her guns disabled. In the midst of the lire, Captain Perry passed in an open boat from the Lawrence to the Niagara, and succeeded in bringing the rest of his fleet into action. A well directed fire was then opened upon the enemy, and the battle then became close and warm. At length the British vessels having suffered severely from the superior gunnery of the Americans, struck their colors. ”

“ There have been, of course, larger battles fought, involving more loss of blood than was shed at Perrysville that day, but for all that, it had been a stubborn fight, and the ground was covered with the bodies of the slain. The blue and the gray promiscuously, lay around us. Here had been a party of the enemy engaged during the lull in the storm of battle in a friendly game of cards; a shell had exploded in their midst, and left them laying there dead with the cards still in their hands. Here lay a man with the top of his head shot off ”

“ In honor of Captain Lawrence, Perry was determined that the surrender should take place on the Lawrence, so he returned to that vessel and there received the swords of the British officers. On the back of an old letter he wrote his famous dispatch to General Harrison: “We have met the enemy and they are ours—two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop. Yours with very great respect and esteem, O. H. Perry.” This battle of Lake Erie prevented the English and French invasion of the United States and made it possible for the Americans to invade Canada. ”

“ Enough has been said to show that the reverses of the beginning of the war which led to the long retreat were due not only to the brutal strength of the German invasion, but to bad information, bad judgment, bad45 organisation, an ill-conceived strategy and reckless tactics, on the side of the Allies. The impact on the north and north-west (including now the Crown Prince’s Army) of some 28 army corps—considerably over a million men—provided with heavy artillery, machine-guns, transport, and material on a prodigious scale, had never been dreamed of, and proved irresistible. ”

“ Shot well home, my brave boys, they shortly shall see,
That quite brave as they are, still braver are we."
Then we drew up our squadron, each man full of fight,
And put the proud Britons in a terrible plight,
The brave Perry's movements will prove fully as bold,
As the fam'd Admiral Nelson's prowess of old.
The conflict was sharp, boys, each man to his gun,
For our country, her glory, the vict'ry was won,
So six sail (the whole fleet) was our fortune to take,
Here's a health to brave Perry, who governs the Lake.
THE BATTLE OF ERIE
[September 10, 1813]
Avast, honest Jack! ”

“ By the 7th of November the chief objective of the offensive thrust was obtained. On that day American troops, among them the Rainbow Division, reached Sedan. Pershing's army had cut the enemy's line of communication. Nothing but surrender or complete defeat was left to him.
In estimating the extent of the American victory it is interesting to note that General Pershing reported that forty enemy divisions participated in the Meuse-Argonne battle. Our army took 26,059 prisoners and captured 468 guns. Colonel Frederick Palmer estimates that 650,000 American soldiers were engaged in the battle. ”

“ This mile and a quarter in Cambridge proved to be one of continual battle, also. The Americans were ever on the alert, and growing [147] more and more active as they realized more and more the real meaning of the invasion. The sight of many of the British soldiers loaded down with plunder; the curling smoke and flames from American dwellings; the dying and the dead, some of them horribly mutilated, scattered all along the highway, were at last inspiring an intense feeling of hatred, and a longing for a satisfying vengeance. Percy's army experienced practically the same sensations. ”

“ War is a great evil, I begin to think, but there is nothing finer than the sight of a man who, forgetting himself, rushes into the shadow of death for the sake of something that is better. At every heave on the rope our blood came out of us, until a ball shattered a pulley, and the gun fell. Perry had then a fierce look, but his words were cool, his manner dauntless. He peered through lifting clouds of smoke at our line. He stood near me, and his head was bare. He crossed the littered deck, his battle-flag and broad pennant that an orderly had brought him trailing from his shoulder. ”

“ Perry's Victory.—During the summer, by the exertions of Commodore Perry, an American squadron had been fitted out on Lake Erie. It consisted of nine small vessels, carrying fifty-four guns. A British squadron had also been built and equipped, under the superintendence of Commodore Barclay. It consisted of six vessels, mounting sixty-three guns. Commodore Perry, immediately sailing, offered battle to his adversary; and on the 10th of September the British commander left the harbor of Malden, to accept the offer. In a few hours, the wind shifted, giving the Americans the advantage. ”

“ But Percy, an I brook my life, thy death well quite shall be." As our noble king made his avow, like a noble prince of renown, For the death of the Lord Perc-y he did the battle of Homildoun, Where six and thirty Scottish knights on a day were beaten down; Glendale glittered on their armour bright, over castle, tower, and town. This was the hunting of the Cheviot; that tear began this spurn; Old men that knowen the ground well enough call it the battle of Otterburn. At Otterburn began this spurn upon a Monenday; There was the doughty Douglas slain, the Percy never went away. ”

“ To-morrow, September 6, our armies of the left will attack in front and flank the I and II German armies. The 4th Army, stopping its southward movement, will oppose the enemy, combining its movement with that of the 3rd Army, which, debouching to the north of Revigny, will assume the offensive, moving westward.
97 (f) To the 3rd Army: The 3rd Army, covering itself on the north-east, will debouch westward to attack the left flank of the enemy forces, which are marching west of the Argonne. It will combine its action with that of the 4th Army, which has orders to attack the enemy. ”

“ The National left, composed entirely of raw troops, was crushed by a heavy onset; but the next portion of the line, commanded by Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, not only held its ground and repelled the assault, but followed up the retiring enemy with a counter attack. Gooding's brigade (National) lost five hundred and forty-nine men out of fourteen hundred and twenty-three, and its commander became a prisoner. When night fell, the Confederates had been repelled at all points, and a portion of them had been driven through Perryville, losing many wagons and prisoners. ”

“ All efforts must be employed to attack and repel the enemy. Any troop which can no longer advance must at any cost hold the ground won, and be slain rather than give way. In the present circumstances, no failure can be tolerated.”
Sir John French struck a more conventionally cheerful note: “I call upon the British Army in France to show now to the enemy its power, and to push on vigorously to the attack beside the 6th French Army. ”

“ The soldier bred upon Napoleonic annals may long for the opportunity of free manœuvre; all the evolution of warfare is against his dream. An army neither feeds nor directs itself; it is supplied and directed as part of a larger machine executing a predetermined plan. Superiority of force is increased by concentration, and achieves victory by envelopment of the enemy as a whole, or his disintegration by the piercing of gaps, a preliminary to retail envelopment or dispersal. A course which loses the initial superiority and requires a considerable change of plan is already a grave prejudice ”

“ The pursuit was not an unbroken course of victory for the invaders. Before the Gap of Charmes, on August 24–26, Castlenau and Dubail administered the first great German set-back of the war. At the same time, the Prince Imperial received a severe check at Etain; and, although Smith-Dorrien’s stand at Le Cateau on August 26 disabled the British Force for some days, it did much to save the Allied left wing. On August 28, the German IV Army was sharply arrested at Novion Porcien; and next day took place the combats of Proyart and Dun-sur-Meuse, and the battle of Guise. ”