130 The American Civil Warthere he and Major-General Edmund Kirby
Smith, already at Lexington. Kentucky, with
10.000 soldiers, would bypass Nashville and
head north to Louisville. Along the way he
was disappointed to find that Kentuckians
showed little interest in enlisting in his
Confederate ranks, as he had hoped. Nearing
Louisville, Bragg's forces captured
Munfordville on 17 September after
convincing the Federal commander there.
Colonel John T. Wilder, that he was greatly
outnumbered. Residents of Louisville and
across the Ohio River were panic-stricken
that Bragg's army would soon arrive and
advance across the river into Indiana.
Bragg's raid into Kentucky forced Buell to
abandon northern Alabama and return to
Louisville to protect the city. Consequently,
he forfeited much of the region that his
army had fought hard to conquer earlier in
the year. Though it was a demoralizing
march, to its credit his army moved swiftly
north, some days marching nearly 30 miles
(48km), and by the end of September had
made it to Louisville.
In early October, Buell's 60,000 men
engaged Bragg's force of less than half that
size at the Battle of Perryville. The battle
opened on the 8th when soldiers from both
armies, searching for water, blundered into
one another. The fight developed chaotically,
as neither commander fully understood the
strength or exact whereabouts of the other
commander's entire army. In Buell's case,
peculiar atmospheric conditions prevented
him from realizing the seriousness of the
engagement until the afternoon. By 2.00 pm
the battle was raging furiously, although
Buell was unable to commit his entire army
to the fight. By nightfall, the uncoordinated
character of the battle yielded little of
immediate significance, except that the
Federals had lost roughly 4,200 casualties
and the Confederates about 3.400 men.
Though both commanders interpreted the
fight to be a victory on their part. Bragg
recognized during the night that Buell
outnumbered him and would make short
work of the Confederates unless he
abandoned the battlefield and retreated
Confederate General Earl Van Dorn was sent to
command in Arkansas early in 1862. His army lost
the Battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862, and was shortly
after ordered east of the Mississippi River. In 1862, he
successfully defended Vicksburg, but in October he
failed to retake Corinth, Mississippi, and was shortly
after ordered to serve under John C. Pemberton.
(Review of Reviews Company)south. His invasion of Kentucky was over
and in the days following the battle he
crossed back into Tennessee and encamped
at Murfreesboro. When Buell made excuses
for not pursuing Bragg, Lincoln lost his
patience with the overly cautious
commander and eliminated him
from command.
The initial Confederate late-summer
thrusts to counter the Union spring offensive
ended in October. By the time Bragg and
Buell finally met at Perryville, other battles
had taken place in northern Mississippi. At
luka, just a few miles southeast of Corinth,
General Grant sent Major-General William
S. Rosecrans with 15,000 soldiers to dislodge
Sterling Price's Confederates. On
19 September, Rosecrans succeeded in
driving Price away before he could be
reinforced by Earl Van Dorn at Tupelo and
move into West Tennessee. In the weeks that
followed, however, Van Dorn arrived to
reinforce Price. Together the Confederates