Bottom House


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The Samuel E. Bottom House

Samuel E. Bottom was born on November 4, 1815. He married Susan A. Barton Bottom. Susan was born in 1821 and she was more affectionately known as “Ma Susie.” They lived in a two story home located at the top of the east bank of Bull Run Creek, about three hundred yards north of the Springfield Road. Samuel was a saddler by trade and in the 1850 census he had property valued at $2,150 dollars, which is equivalent to $71,302 today. He had three children: Elizabeth W. Bottom who was born in 1841 and married to William Cecil in 1860, and lived in Danville, Kentucky, Charles F. Bottom, born in 1843, and Robert T. Bottom, who was born in 1845, Samuel Burton Bottom, born in 1858, and Amelia Bottom, born on January 16, 1861. Unfortunately during the antebellum period, child mortality rates were extremely high. Diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, yellow fever, and typhoid fever took their tolls on families. Samuel lost B. Bottom in 1850, Mary Sherwood Bottom in 1855 and John Allen Bottom died in 1855. Also listed in the household during the 1850 census was Sherwood Burton who was born in 1813 and was a merchant, Ambrose Bottom who was born in 1813 and listed as a saddler, and Gabriel Walker who was born in 1832 and was also listed as a saddler. Ambrose Bottom was the brother of Samuel E. Bottom and Mary Jane Bottom Gibson. Ambrose lived with his brother Samuel his entire life.

When the Civil War broke out, one member of the Bottom family decided to join the Union army. Robert T. Bottom joined the 19^th Kentucky Volunteer Union army. On October 7, 1862, Confederate General William Hardee’s Corps arrived at Perryville and he immediately began to set up his brigades to take on Union General Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio. He ordered Confederate General Liddell to set up his brigade on a wooded hill just to the right of the Springfield Pike. Samuel Bottom’s home stood on the hill’s western face. The locals called the area Bottom’s Hill. Bottom’s Hill sloped away to the west past a spring into the dry bed of Bull Run. From Bull Run, the ground rose to another wooded hilltop about three quarters of a mile away. The wooded hilltop was known as Peter’s Hill, which was named after Jacob Peters, who was a farmer who lived in a log house at the western base of the hill on the Springfield Pike. A more impressive house on the western brow of Peters Hill belonged to farmer Jacob Turpin.

Liddell’s men moved into Bottom Hill. The 8^th, 2^nd, 5^th, 6^th and 7^th Arkansas Infantry were placed into line on Bottoms Hill. The line of Confederate troops stretched in front of Bottom’s house. Captain Charles Swett’s Mississippi battery unlimbered to the front and left of the house in order to command the fields and the road. The battery was anchored on Liddell’s left. When “Ma Susie” saw Swett’s battery lining up in her orchard, she immediately put her children in a spring wagon and went to the stone house nearby, which was more than likely the Yankey home. Before she left her house, she displayed a white sheet outside the house hoping to alert the Arkansas troops and the Mississippi battery that they were peaceful and did not take sides in the upcoming battle. Samuel and Ambrose were trying to return home to their family, but they were detained in town by the Confederates who would not let them pass.

That night on October 7, Union General Daniel McCook’s brigade arrived near Peter’s Hill. Col. Speed Fry and the 10^th Indiana Infantry approached the 7^th Arkansas on Peters Hill. Two companies of Indiana infantry flanked Peter’s Hill to the north and moved rapidly towards Liddell’s main line on Bottom Hill. Buell directed General Charles Gilbert, who commanded one his corps to seize Peters Hill. Colonel Daniel McCook and the 52^nd Ohio Infantry were given the task of taking Peter’s Hill. Captain Charles Barnett’s six gun battery I, 2^nd Illinois Light Artillery rode with McCook’s brigade. The 86^th Illinois was sent to support the 10^th Indiana. The 85^th Illinois was placed on the right of the Springfield Pike. Four regiments began to move toward Peters Hill. The 125^th Illinois also began ascending the hill, when fire broke out from Peters Hill. The 7^th Arkansas opened fire. On the left the 52^nd Ohio moved up the hill. McCook ordered the regiments to the right to outflank the 7^th Arkansas. Col. Speed Fry led the skirmishers of the 10^th Indiana and the 86^th Illinois as they moved up the slope. The rest of McCook’s brigade soon joined in on the assault. In fifteen minutes, they seized Peter’s hill. Barnett’s guns were placed on the left of the road and two guns to the right of the road. Barnett’s guns opened fire on Liddell’s brigade as morning broke upon the landscape.

After abandoning Peter’s Hill, the 7^th Arkansas fled down the slope into the partially wooded area of Bull Run. Liddell ordered Col. D. A. Gillespie to rally his men and retake Peter’s Hill. Liddell also ordered Swett’s battery, which was located behind the Bottom house, to open fire. The 85^th Illinois started to take casualties from the artillery fire. The 5^th Arkansas moved down Bottom’s Hill to form a line behind the 7^th Arkansas. For an hour, Swett’s and Barnett’s battery participated in a duel. One of Barnett’s artillery rounds took out one Swett’s guns. Swett had no choice to relocate his guns to behind the hill. The 5^th and 7^th Arkansas moved toward Peter’s Hill. Barnett’s two twelve pound Napoleons and two James Rifles tore holes in the Arkansas lines. When the Arkansas troops got to within one hundred yards, the 86^th Illinois, 52^nd Ohio and the right flank companies of the 125^th Illinois, along with Barnett’s guns, which switched their rounds to double canister shot, fired on the oncoming Confederates. The 5^th and 7^th Arkansas could hold no longer and broke fled to the woods.

Confederate cavalry, probably under Wheeler began to fire on McCook’s men and Barnett wheeled two of his guns around to fire on the oncoming cavalry. Gilbert and Sheridan rode up to McCook and ordered him not to advance. Instead, Gilbert ordered Col. Gay’s cavalry to clear the woods and as soon as he rode forward, fire broke out. The 2^nd Michigan and 9^th Pennsylvania Cavalry dismounted and moved forward. Two dozen cavalrymen fell. The Colt Repeating rifles took a toll on the Confederates in the woods and they fell back to the safety of Bottom’s Hill. Gay hoped to flank the Confederate position, but Swett’s battery opened up and the Union cavalry had no choice to fall back to Peter’s Hill. Captain William Hotchkiss placed a section of his 2^nd Minnesota Battery of twelve pounders to fire on Swett’s battery. The 2^nd Michigan Cavalry charged up Bottom’s Hill and Liddell’s men fell back and the 2^nd Michigan topped Bottom’s Hill, but Liddell formed another line on the reverse slope, and opened fire onto the 2^nd Michigan. The 2^nd Michigan fell back. On Bottom Hill, Hotchkiss guns took a toll of Liddell and he decided to pull Swett’s artillery to the right. Confederate General Simon Buckner, Liddell’s commander rode up and Buckner told Liddell that he must hold his position and that he would send help. Buckner rode off to find Confederate General Leonidas Polk.

Sheridan ordered Captain Walter Hoppe of the 2^nd Missouri Infantry to seize the valley. He was supported by the 44^th Illinois and Hescock’s artillery. Hoppe and his men raced down Peters Hill and entered the woods and relieved Gay’s cavalry. Liddell’s men charged back up Bottom’s Hill, but Hescock’s and Barnett’s battery forced the Arkansas troops back down the hill. The 2^nd Missouri marched past the Bottom’s house and through the orchard. From the left, Fry’s two brigades moved towards Liddell’s lines. Fry’s men moved up the hill and fired into Liddell’s men. Liddell’s men formed a new line behind a stone fence.

Sheridan ordered the 15^th Missouri into battle along with Hescock’s guns and the 86^th Illinois and took a new position to fire on Swett’s battery. On the extreme left, the 9^th Pennsylvania cavalry moved forward, but were stopped by Swett’s battery. The Union guns forced Liddell to fall back. Buckner’s orders arrived on the field and Liddell was ordered to fall back leaving Bottom’s Hill and Peter’s Hill in the hands of the Federals.

Sheridan was prepared to pursue Liddell, but Gilbert returned to Peter’s Hill and realized that the Federals had moved onto to Bottom’s Hill and left Peter’s hill unoccupied. Union General Don Carlos Buell’s attack was to start at 10 a.m. and Union General Alexander McCook’s corps had not even arrived yet to support Gilbert’s corps. Gilbert ordered Sheridan to fall back onto Peter’s Hill and “limit himself to its defense until a general advance to attack in force should be ordered.” Buell told Gilbert that he did not want to bring on an engagement until after the junction of the flank corps. Sheridan recalled his troops. The 2^nd Missouri fell back to Peters Hill. General Daniel McCook’s 52^nd Ohio moved into the valley to secure Bull Run. McCook halted his troops on the right resting on the Springfield pike.

Liddell reported seventy one killed and wounded during the entire day’s fight, with most coming from Peter’s Hill. The 2^nd Missouri lost as many troops as Liddell’s entire command in just fifteen minutes during their assault on Bottom’s Hill, including Captain Hoppe and McCook’s brigade suffered the same amount. The struggle for Bottom’s Hill came to an end.

During the battle, “Ma Susie” stayed at the Yankey House and during the night, she placed Samuel Burton Bottom down to sleep on what they later discovered in the day light was not a pillow but a side of bacon. Of course young Samuel woke up to find his hair greasy from the bacon fat. When the family returned home several days after the battle, they had to drive their wagon around dead bodies. Although the family did not record whether the house was used a field hospital, or if they had to bury the Union and Confederate dead on their property, the Federal government does record the removal of dead Union soldiers off their property in 1868 and according the Federal documents three Union bodies were removed from their property and buried in the Perryville National Cemetery. In 1908, Woodson Arnold, the owner of the Samuel Bottom’s farm, decided to cut down the fifty acres of woods that Liddell’s men had fought over forty-six years ago. The trees were sold for lumber, which made seventy thousand feet of lumber. Mr. Henry Young, the saw mill owner, seriously damaged one of his saw blades when the saw hit grape shot that was embedded in the tree from the battle. Musket balls were also found deeply embedded in some of the logs.