Webster's Brigade

In these fields, a Union brigade commanded by Colonel George Penny Webster supported the main Union battle line at the Battle of Perryville. More than 3,000 men from Ohio and Indiana, many of them new soldiers carrying old and unreliable Prussian muskets, held high ground behind Captain Samuel Harris' artillery battery as a second line against the Confederate attack. When the Federal brigade in front of them retreated, advancing Southern troops struck Webster's men directly for the first time. As enemy soldiers swarmed near them, Webster was shot in the hip and fell from his horse; taken to a field hospital, he later died of his wound. Inexperienced and hampered by outdated weapons, his brigade quickly retreated west. The fighting was a brutal first combat experience for these raw troops, who suffered 90 killed, 345 wounded, and 144 missing, reflecting the ordeal of many untested Union soldiers at Perryville when confronted by veteran Confederate troops.

Kentucky · United States