On the afternoon of October 8, 1862 — in the middle of a life-threatening, miserable drought — roughly 40,000 Americans clashed in the parched, hilly fields outside Perryville, Kentucky.

By nightfall, Kentucky’s largest Civil War battle would result in 7500 killed and wounded, with thousands of dead and dying strewn across miles of Kentucky countryside.

The battle affected landowners and citizens of Perryville too. In addition to suffering the widespread effects of damaged homes and farms, the 300 residents of the community found themselves serving as caretakers to injured and dying men for months after the battle.

The stench of death lingered over the town as a hot sun baked the corpses of those not yet disposed of by buzzards or feral hogs.

It was indeed a battle that would remind its witnesses, for months and years to follow, of the horrors of war.
Today Perryville is one of the most pristine battlefields in the nation. The presence of the battlefield coupled with the town’s antebellum commercial district makes Perryville the ideal place to study 19th-century military and civilian life.
But it took the vision, dedication and perseverance of several generations to make Perryville what it is today.

Among the first to memorialize the courage and sacrifices of 1862 was Squire Henry P. Bottom, who two months after the battle created on his land a mass grave for fallen Rebel soldiers.

For decades after that, several groups and individuals made various efforts—with various success—to preserve and honor the memory of those who triumphed and suffered at Perryville.

By 1952, the historic site had once again fallen into disrepair and deterioration. The local Lions Club persuaded the state to get involved, and 17 acres were initially set aside for a state park. Two years later, the Perryville State Battlefield Site was officially opened by Kentucky native and former vice president of the United States, Alben Barkley.

Over most of the next two decades, small parcels of land were acquired piece by piece, and by the mid-1970s, the park had grown fivefold, to encompass 98 acres.

In 1991, the newly formed Perryville Battlefield Preservation Association (or PBPA) came onto the scene with a vision—and a plan.

Armed with $2.5 million in federal Transportation Enhancement funds offered through the state of Kentucky, the PBPA was able to collaborate with federal, state and local entities to begin a new era of acquisition, preservation, interpretation and education.

The PBPA works with with the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Boyle County, and the City of Perryville in the Perryville Enhancement Project. Much of the preservation at Perryville is done under the auspices of this partnership .

Since 1995, the PBPA has purchased more than 25 properties, increasing the amount of protected battlefield land from 98 acres to more than 574 acres. In addition, the Association has secured several crucial battlefield structures, including the Crawford House and the Dye House, both of which served as Confederate headquarters during the battle.

The PBPA also protects Merchants’ Row, the town’s 19th-century commercial district. Working with a renowned restoration architect, the group is preserving and interpreting this historic mercantile area in downtown Perryville.
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In 1993, the Congressionally-appointed Civil War Sites Advisory Commission named Perryville a Priority-One Class-A Battlefield. This designation ranks Perryville as one of the top eleven battlefields in need of preservation nationwide, and establishes the site as one of the most important of the 384 engagements included in the study.

Much has been done, but new funding is needed to carry forward the preservation mission, to provide educational programming, to spur economic development, and to add to the one hundred thousand people who visit the battlefield and community each year.

Noted Civil War historian Ed Bearss once wrote that the Perryville battlefield “is today as handsome and as unspoiled as it was 140 years ago, unlike many Civil War battlefields. Because of the pastoral nature of these landscapes, a soldier of the 1860s would not find, as has happened too often, the hard hand of [modern development] laid on these rural landscapes.”

To help preserve the rural landscapes and antebellum structures that make Perryville one of America’s finest 19th-century treasures, please visit www.perryville.net, or call (859) 332-1862.