8 October in military history: Battle of Perryville, 1862

Quick answer

On 8 October 1862 General Braxton Bragg's Confederate army attacked part of Don Carlos Buell's Union Army of the Ohio at Perryville, Kentucky, in what the American Battlefield Trust says is considered the largest battle fought in the state. Through the afternoon the Confederates drove back Alexander McCook's corps, much of it made up of new regiments, while Buell, at his headquarters less than three miles away, did not hear the battle and learned of it only late in the afternoon. That night Bragg learned that he faced Buell's whole army. He fell back to Harrodsburg and then left Kentucky through Cumberland Gap, and the Confederate invasion of the state was over.

The Battle of Perryville, 1862: the fight for Kentucky

8 October 1862 · 164 years ago

On 8 October 1862 Confederate and Union armies fought the Battle of Perryville, the largest battle of the Civil War in Kentucky. It was tactically inconclusive, but it ended the Confederate invasion of the state: outnumbered, General Bragg withdrew to Tennessee, and Kentucky stayed in the Union.

Read the full story of The Battle of Perryville, 1862: the fight for Kentucky ›

Battle of Angamos, 1879: the end of the Huáscar and Admiral Grau

8 October 1879 · 147 years ago

Off Punta Angamos, Chilean ironclads trapped and engaged the Peruvian monitor Huáscar during the War of the Pacific. Rear Admiral Miguel Grau was killed and the battered Huáscar was captured, giving Chile command of the sea for its invasion of Peru and Bolivia.

Read the full story of Battle of Angamos, 1879: the end of the Huáscar and Admiral Grau ›

Also on this day

1918: near Châtel-Chéhéry in the Argonne, Corporal Alvin C. York of Company G, 328th Infantry, 82nd Division, fought the action for which he received the Medal of Honor. His citation says he took command after his platoon had suffered heavy casualties and, leading seven men, charged a machine-gun nest, taken with 4 officers and 128 men. In Cowan's 1922 account only York fired at the height of the fight, and the division report Cowan quotes credits him with 132 prisoners. More in our article on Alvin York.¹

Frequently asked questions

What happened at Perryville on 8 October 1862?

Bragg's Confederate army attacked part of Buell's Union Army of the Ohio near Perryville, Kentucky, and drove back McCook's corps on the Union left until night ended the fighting. That night Bragg learned that he faced Buell's whole army, and he fell back to Harrodsburg.

Who won the Battle of Perryville?

The American Battlefield Trust says Bragg won it tactically, while its biography of Buell calls it indecisive. Afterwards Bragg retreated through Cumberland Gap into East Tennessee, and the Union kept control of Kentucky.

What was the acoustic shadow at Perryville?

Buell, at his headquarters two to two and a half miles from the main fight, did not hear it. He thought the shape of the ground, which broke the sound, and a heavy wind were probably to blame, and he learned of the fighting only from a staff officer in the late afternoon.

How many men were lost at Perryville?

The revised Union return counts 4,211 killed, wounded and captured or missing. The American Battlefield Trust gives the Confederates 3,401, and Buell 3,396.

What else happened on 8 October?

In 1879 Chilean ironclads captured the Peruvian monitor Huáscar off Punta Angamos, and Rear Admiral Miguel Grau was killed. In 1918 Corporal Alvin C. York fought the action in the Argonne for which he received the Medal of Honor.

Sources

United States Army, “The Medal of Honor of the United States Army” (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1948), p. 264, citation of Alvin C. York, via Internet Archive.

Sam K. Cowan, “Sergeant York and His People” (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, by arrangement with Funk & Wagnalls, 1922), via Project Gutenberg.