y on Perryville
and Sill was ordered in the same direction. Buell, at 7 P.M. of
the 7th, seemed to be aware that stubborn resistance would be met
with the next day at Perryville. He so advised General Thomas.(31)
Polk, with Cheatham's division, reached Perryville about midnight
of the 7th, and the troops were placed in position on a line
previously established with the expectation that a battle would be
opened early the following morning. The Confederate troops thus
in position numbered about 18,000, while immediately opposed to
them were no divisions yet in position, and, in fact, no real
preparation for battle had been made on the Union side. There was
some skirmishing on the Confederate extreme left in the night,
between Colonel Dan McCook's brigade of Sheridan's division, for
the possession of the water in Doctor's Fork, but nothing more.

Bragg, at Harrodsburg, not hearing the battle open at dawn, hastened
to Perryville, and there learned at 10 A.M. that a council of
Confederate generals had been held, on Polk's suggestion, at which
it was determined to act only on the defensive. He, however, after
some reconnoissances and adjustment of the lines, ordered Polk to
bring on an engagement.(32)

McCook with his two divisions came within about three miles of
Perryville about 10.30 A.M. of the 8th, and there encountered some
resistance, and later his troops were advanced and formed with the
right of Rousseau's division, resting near a barn south of the
Perryville and Mackville road, its left extending on a ridge through
a corn field to a wood occupied by the 2d and 33d Ohio. The right
of General William R. Terrill's brigade of Jackson's division rested
on woods to the left of Rousseau, his left forming a crotchet to
the rear. Starkweather and Webster's brigades of Rousseau and
Jackson's divisions, respectively, were posted by McCook in support
of the line named. Sheridan and R. B. Mitchell's divisions of the
Third Corps were posted, not in preparation for battle, several
hundred yards to McCook's right, but supposed to be near enough to
protect it.(33)

Save some clashes of the skirmish lines and bodies seeking positions,
no fierce engagement took place until 2 P.M., when a determined
attack in force fell on Terrill's brigade, causing it to soon give
way, General James S. Jackson, division commander, being killed at
the first fire, and Terrill fell soon after. McCook had previously
(about 12.30 P.M.) ridden