As Union and Confederate armies deployed around Perryville on October 7 and 8, the city's inhabitants were caught in the middle. Many residents fled in haste with whatever belongings they could carry, while others endured the battle in cellars or in the cave by the Chaplin River. As far as can be determined, no civilians died during the fighting on October 8, 1862. After Bragg's army abandoned Perryville on October 9 and retreated northward toward Harrodsburg, Buell's soldiers found a ghost town marked by severe street-fighting damage, with nearly every house more or less riddled with shot and shell. As Buell's army moved on in pursuit of the retreating Confederates, large numbers of wounded men from both sides moved into town, and almost all buildings became hospitals as the area was overwhelmed by several thousand casualties. Army surgeons and civilian doctors struggled to save the wounded despite poor supplies, continued drought, and the sheer number of injured men. Perryville's Dr. J.J. Polk housed 10 wounded in his home at 331 South Buell Street and cared for 40 more elsewhere. The suffering and dying continued until March of 1863.