Perryville
— The Battle for Kentucky October 8, 1862 —
In 1860, a forty-three year-old farmer named John Dye lived here with his wife, Elizabeth, their four children, and six slaves. The 120-acre farm produced hay, corn, and wheat, and the family also had a few cows, horses, and mules.
Two years later, the Battle of Perryville struck. Confederate General Simon Bolivar Buckner commandeered the house as his headquarters and most of the Confederate army passed by the house as they deployed to attack the Union right flank, which was located about a mile in front of you. After the battle the house was a hospital. Stains that appear to be bloodstains still remain on the upstairs floor.
Union troops remained at the house for several weeks after the battle. One day, the seventeen-year-old Martha Dye went upstairs to get some flour to bake bread. As she descended the stairs, a Union soldier refused to step aside to let her pass. Martha promptly dumped the flour over the soldier's heads.
Another soldier allegedly proposed marriage to the fifteen-year-old Ruth Dye, but she refused his proposal.
Simon Bolivar Buckner was born in Hart County, Kentucky, on April 12, 1823. an 1864 West Point graduate, Buckner taught there for one year before serving in the Mexican War. Immediately before the Civil War, Buckner was adjutant general of Kentucky and led the State Guard. Appointed brigadier genera1 in the Confederate army, Buckner fought at Fort Donelson, where he surrendered the Confederate army after his superiors fled the fort. Captured there and later exchanged, Buckner negotiated the surrender of the Union garrison at Munfordville, Kentucky, before leading a division at Perryville. Later in the war he fortified Confederate positions at Mobile, Alabama, and fought at Chickamauga. After the conflict, Buckner was the editor of the
Louisville Courier and was elected governor of Kentucky in 1887. A vice-presidential nominee in 1896, he died near Munfordville, Kentucky, on January 8, 1914. He is buried in Frankfort, Kentucky.
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