Sanctuary

As fighting raged at Perryville, Union soldiers in Brigadier General William Terrill’s brigade, many of them never before in combat, were driven from the ridge and the split rail fence in front of this position. Their inexperience sometimes led men and officers to seek safety in dangerous places. Captain Robert B. Taylor, born in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1831, had raised an infantry company and was quickly thrust into the battle, where his company fought in Terrill’s brigade and was forced from the fields in front of this area. As the troops fell back, Taylor found 2nd Lieutenant Thomas Hutchinson with his face covered in blood after a fragment of shell struck his head. Believing a gully would provide safety, Taylor brought Hutchinson there, but while they lay under the bank to shield themselves from the storm of iron, a cannonball struck within a few feet and threw up a great cloud of dust. Hutchinson then rushed to a hospital, and Taylor rejoined his company, only to be wounded later in the battle. Private Josiah Ayre of the 105th Ohio Infantry recalled the unit in confusion, with men looking out for themselves, the regiment broken up, and Taylor slightly wounded on the head while the soldiers tried to continue the fight from the cover of trees.

Kentucky · United States