UNION FORT AT MUNFORDVILLE, CAPTURED BY BRAGG, SEPTEMBER 17, 1862.
and Kirby Smith, at Salvisa, twenty miles to the northeast, was calling for reinforcements, as he was confident that the feint was against Perry ville, and that the main attack would surely fall on him. Thus urged, General Bragg, against his own judgment, yielded, and detached two of his best divisions (Withers’s and Cheatham’s) to Smith’s aid. The former division could not be recalled in time, and the latter arrived the morning of the battle. Having plaeed General Polk in command of the troops, Bragg had gone to Frankfort, the capital of the State of Kentucky, to witness the inauguration of the secessionist governor, Hawes. The inaugural was being read when the booming of cannon, shortly followed by despatches from our cavalry outposts, announced the near presence of the enemy. As the hall was chiefly filled by the military, who hurried away to their respective commands, the governor was obliged to cut short his inaugural address.
The field of Perryville was an open and beautiful rolling country, and the battle presented a grand panorama. There was desperate fighting on both sides. I saw a Federal battery, with the Union flag planted near its guns, repulse six successive Confederate charges before retiring, saving all but one gun, and eliciting praise for their bravery from their desperate foes.
About dark, Polk, convinced that some Confederate troops were firing into each other, cantered up to the colonel of the regiment that was firing, and asked him angrily what he meant by shooting his own friends. The colonel, in a tone of surprise, said: “I don’t think there can be any mistake about it. I am sure they are the enemy.” “Enemy! Why, I have just left them myself. Cease firing, sir. What is your name ? ” rejoined
the Confederate general. “I am Colonel-------of
the-----Indiana. And pray, sir, who are you'? ”
Thus made aware that he was with a Federal regiment, and that his only escape was to brazen it out, his dark blouse and the increasing obscurity happily befriending him, the Confederate general shook
dered to unite. Buell was now moving on Bowling Green from the South. On the 16th our army surrounded and invested Munfordville, and General Wilder, with its garrison of four thousand men, was forced to capitulate. General Kirby Smith, having found Morgan’s position impregnable, detached a part of his forces to invest it, and, advancing on Lexington, defeated the Federal forces encountered at Richmond, Ky. He was relying on an early junction with General Bragg.
On the 17th of September Generals Polk and Hardee were called to a council at Munfordville. With the map and the cavalry despatches outspread before him, General Bragg placed General Buell and his army in our rear, with Munfordville on the direct line of his march to Louisville, the assumed objective point of his movement, General Bragg then explaining his plan, which was discussed and approved by his lieutenants. Our advance was then resumed, leaving General Buell to pursue his march unmolested. This action was subsequently severely criticized by military men, and at the time it was greatly deplored by many officers of his command. At 1 o’clock on the morning of the 18th of September, indeed, Bragg was on the point of rescinding the order to continue the march, and of directing instead an immediate offensive movement against Buell. The importance of recovering Nashville induced the proposed change of operation. But, upon further consideration, he reverted to his previous plans, saying to me with emphasis, “ This campaign must be won by marching, not by fighting.” He used similar language at subsequent stages of the campaign before the battle of Perryville. At the moment he evinced no regret at having allowed Buell to pass on our left flank.
The success of the column under Kirby Smith in its combat at Richmond, Ky., elated him. He was worried by the delays that retarded his junction with that officer, and was greatly relieved when all the Confederate forces in Kentucky were united at Lexington. . . .
It was now the eve of the battle of Perryville,
GENERAL BRAXTON BRAGG, C. S. A.
and it was arranged that Smith should move at once against the Federal forces under General George W. Morgan in Cumberland Gap. In this interview General Bragg was very certain that he would begin his forward move in ten or fifteen days at latest, and if Kirby Smith was successful in his operation against Morgan he would be on his offensive against Buell. Kirby Smith took the field on the 13th of August, 1862. On the 28th, after some inevitable delays, Bragg crossed the Tennessee, his right wing, under Polk, 13,537 strong; the left wing, under Hardee, 13,763 strong, —■ total effective, 27,320 rank and file.
General Bragg by this time was deeply impressed with the magnitude of his undertaking. He had lost faith somewhat in the stories that had been told him of Kentucky’s desire to join the South, but he proposed to give the people a chance of so doing by the presence of Southern troops. At the same time he was resolved to do nothing to imperil the safety of his army, whose loss, he felt, would be a crushing blow to the Confederacy. He reached Carthage on the 9th of September. On the 12th he was at Glasgow, Kentucky, where he issued a proclamation to Kentuckians. About that time also the corps of Polk and Hardee were or-
BRAGG’S ADVANCE AND RETREAT.
INCLUDING PERRYVILLE AND MURFREESBORO’ — THE CONFEDERATE SIDE.
BY DAVID URQUHART, COLONEL C S. A.
A member of Gen. Bragg’s staff.
GENERAL BRAGG’S Kentucky campaign has drawn on him more criticism than any other part of his career as a military commander. During that memorable march I rode at his side from day to day, and it was his habit to confide to me his hopes and fears.
About the end of June, 1862, General Bragg was visited by many prominent citizens of Kentucky, who had abandoned their homes, and who assured him that Kentuckians were thoroughly loyal to the South, and that as soon as they were given an opportunity it would be proved. Fired with this idea, he planned his offensive campaign. On the 21st of July, 1862, the movement of the Army of Mississippi from Tupelo was ordered. The infantry moved by rail, the artillery and cavalry across the country. Headquarters were established at Chattanooga on the 29th. On the 30th Major-General Kirby Smith visited General Bragg at that point,
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