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On the 59th Anniversary of the Battle of Perryville, the different committees made their preparations for the event. The new roadway from the Mackville Pike to the Confederate monument was completed and graded to allow cars to drive the site. Several prominent speakers planned to attend the reunion, including Captain Thomas Durham English, who was in the 4th Kentucky Cavalry, under Confederate General John Hunt Morgan, and a member of the Danville Chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Dr. Madison Ashby Hart of Danville, who was a minister of the Christian Church in Danville, Circuit Judge Henry S. McElroy, of Lebanon, Dr. Reverend Edward Melvin Green, Sr., former Captain of the 21st South Carolina Infantry, whose brother Major John Green, served on the staff of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, and present at the surrender at Appomattox, Union Captain Andrew Offutt, of the 5th Kentucky Cavalry, and Union Captain Sanford Van Pelt, of the 11th Kentucky Cavalry Company F and 7th Kentucky Cavalry Company F, who was also the commander of the Grand Army of the Republic Department of Kentucky, Mrs. Ledman Fisher, of Indianapolis, who was a poet, and Judge Charles T. Corn, of Harrodsburg. Dr. Henry Clay Morrison, of president of Asbury College, at Wilmore, would also be at the event and would give a speech. Henry Morrison was a world-famous Methodist evangelist, camp-meeting, and revival preacher. Claude D. Minor would introduce the speakers. The highlight of the program will be when Offutt, Green, and Van Pelt will give their “reminiscences” of the war. i.
The reunion would start at 10 am on October 8 and the spectators were encouraged to bring their own dinners, but food was available to purchase. The event invited every Civil War soldier and World War I soldier to attend the event as well as anyone that wanted to pay tribute to the “old heroes” of the Battle of Perryville.ii. On the day of the event, between 1,200 to 1,500 people from different states and Boyle County, arrived to pay tribute to the “dead heroes that are buried in this sacred spot”. The weather was cold and windy. Captain English presided over the reunion program replacing Claude Minor who was ill. Captain English delivered a “stirring address” before introducing the other speakers. He said that there was no division between the Blue and the Gray and both were working for the best interest of the country. Rev. G. W. Boswell, pastor of the Methodist Church at Perryville, offered the invocation after Mrs. Ledman Fisher recited several poems including the “Battle of Perryville.” Later in the day she gave other poems of war time memories. Dr. M. A. Hart was the next speaker and told of his father being a Confederate soldier, who like himself, loved both the Union and Confederate, “who fought for the things he believed to be right”. Dr. Hart stated in his address that people should not war “should not glorify and deify warfare too much.” He said: “We love the men who made the sacrifice in the Civil War, and in the recent world war but today when we think of the awful destruction of war, we should think of some other way of settling our differences. We should stand together against war and adopt some means of law or arbitration for settling differences of between peoples.”
Captain English introduced Dr. E. M. Green who had six brothers that “fought, bled, and died” in the Confederate army. Dr. Green told a few “interesting” war stories, but on account of the weather and his age, he only spoke for a few minutes. After the speeches, the Danville and Perryville brass band furnished the music and played several patriotic pieces. While the citizens of Perryville prepared the dinner, John Doke of Tatum Springs, mounted the platform and began dancing to the music. He was seventy-nine years old. He was a private in the Union 4th Kentucky Mounted Infantry, the 28th Kentucky Union Infantry, and the 30th Kentucky Mounted Volunteer Infantry. He was only nineteen when he enlisted in the Union army.
Several of the veterans were present and together with the speakers and others, were served dinner. The ladies of Perryville spread the dinners on the ground for the diners. After dinner Professor Poynter of Perryville announced that the committee needed four hundred dollars in order to pay for land recently purchased around the Confederate monument and for the roadway from the Mackville pike to the battlefield. They raised about one hundred dollars.
The first speaker in the afternoon was Henry McElroy who announced that Captain Offutt had died in Lebanon the night before. McElroy said he was talking with Captain Offutt before the event and he said he would be at the reunion adding that “If you get there before I do tell them I’m coming.” McElroy said that instead of coming to the reunion on the Perryville battlefield, Offutt had gone to “that reunion in heaven.” McElroy gave a “loving tribute” to Captain Offutt and the other men of the Civil War. He quoted from President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address saying “The world will forget what we say here today but will never forget what they did here.” In his speech he gave a tribute to the great many men of the Civil War. iii.
Captain Van Pelt read his address to the crowd. His speech gave several interesting stories of the Civil War. Mrs. Fisher read a few more poems and Reverend B. A. Dawes closed the meeting with prayer.
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