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Before the battle of Perryville, Charles and Caroline owned a farm on Dry Creek Fork near the entrance of the present day battlefield. They had three children: Millard, Elizabeth Frances (Betty Fanny) and Sarah Bertha. On October 8, 1862, Charles King Kirkland and his wife Caroline Purdom Kirkland were expecting dinner and Caroline had set her table and when her guests had not arrived on time, she began to wonder what happened to them. In rode two soldiers who told Charles and Caroline that the family had ten minutes to pack up their things and leave the house. The solder told the family that a battle was about the start just up the road from their house. Caroline told her husband to put on several pairs of pants and all the coats he could, since she feared that the soldiers would take their clothing. Caroline grabbed a few items for the baby and placed them in a satchel. She left behind her clothes and the children’s clothes since she figured the soldiers would need them. Charles ran to the barn and hitched up two horses Charles told his oldest son Milliard to head up to the attic over the porch and hide the family’s silverware, tea, coffee, and sugar. Carolina took six coin silver spoons. The family left their dinner on the table. i.
When Charles brought the two horses to the yard and Caroline got on her horse sidesaddle, taking the baby and the satchel containing the baby’s clothes. Charles took one child behind him and had one of his children in front of the horse. As the family started out of the yard, a colt was following Charles’s horse. The soldiers rode up and said their time was up and they shot the colt. The family rode ten miles south to Caroline’s father’s home in North Rolling Fork.
Several days later after the battle of Perryville, Charles and his son Millard rode back to the home. The soldiers had converted the home into the field hospital. All the furniture was gone except four pieces, which were a yellow poplar cupboard, a cherry hutch, a cherry drop leaf table that was used as an operating table and a small walnut lamp table. Also left was a small rag carpet that Caroline had woven.
All the family’s clothes had been torn into bandages. The furniture and fencing had been burned for fuel. The chickens, cows, and hogs had been slaughtered for food for the soldiers. Soldiers were buried all over the yard. Several days after the battle, rain uncovered hands and feet sticking out of the ground, since the bodiesND were given a shallow burial. On a hill behind the house, two horses with a breast yoke were standing dead against a tree where they had stopped when they were shot during the battle.
The home could not be lived in, so the family continued to stay in the home of Caroline’s parents on the North Rolling Fork. The family never returned to their home in Perryville due to the extensive damage and several years later after the battle, the family sold the property at a loss. After the battle Charles located his family in a new home and made a spool bed and table and the Purdom family gave the family a dresser. The old home was demolished and a new home was built on the site. Charles petitioned for a war claim for the damages to his property was never paid by the Federal government for his losses. In February of 1870, the governor gave Charles a grant of one hundred acres of knob land just above Elk Creek for his losses incurred during the war.
Years later after the battle, a one armed soldier visited the Kirkland home, which was now owned by a different family. He asked the new family if he could walk into a certain room in the house. The family agreed and ex-soldier walked to the window and in the crack between the window and frame, he pulled out a note. On the note was written at which corner of the house his arm was buried. With permission of the family, the soldier dug up his arm and took the arm home with him.
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