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At the time of the battle of Perryville, Lucy Ann (Trisler) Reynolds/ Runnels was forty three years old. She was born in 1819 and was a seamstress. In 1843, she married Joseph Reynolds. They had three children: Amanda (1843), John Rice (1844) and William Jackson “Will Hack” Reynolds (1848). The family lived in cabin located along Doctor’s Creek. Elizabeth Lavine Moore Trisler (1820-1870) married Lucy Ann’s brother Philip. In 1850, Philip died leaving Elizabeth a widow. In 1853, Lucy Ann’s husband Joseph died, leaving Lucy Ann a widow. After her husband’s death, Lucy Ann lived with her two sons, John and Will Jack. By that time, Amanda was no longer living in the house. Lucy Ann and her sister in law Elizabeth Lavine Moore Trisler (1820-1870) were both widows and decided to combine families. Lucy Ann’s household increased when Elizabeth and her two sons, Jackson and Philip Jr., moved in with Lucy Ann’s two sons. The household continued to increase when Elizabeth’s mother Nancy Moore and Elizabeth’s niece Nancy L. Moore also moved into the home.
On September 16, 1862, just weeks before the Battle of Perryville, Elizabeth Lavine (Moore) Trisler marries Franklin Corban. Elizabeth, her two sons, her mother and her niece moved out of the cabin, leaving Lucy Ann and the two boys. During the battle, records do not indicate whether the family stayed in the cabin during the battle or whether they left.
As with most of the homes in Perryville, the Widow Reynolds house became a field hospital. Surgeon Samuel K. Crawford, of the 50th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, set up his field hospital in the Widow Reynolds cabin during the battle and wrote about his experiences during the day and night. He wrote: “Surgeon McMeans, 3rd Ohio, was our acting brigade surgeon at the time. Assisted by him were several other surgeons and myself selected a small farm house with its barn and other outbuildings, as the best we could do in the way of a hospital. The improvements stood in a beautiful little valley, between two high hills, and surrounding the dwelling was a beautiful greensward. In less time than it takes to pen these lines, after the first arrival of wounded, all the space in and out of doors on the premises was occupied. This location was, when selected, considered a safe one, and thicker stragglers were wont to gather. The sward made a nice place where we could spread blankets for a temporary resting place for wounded upon their arrival, and it was soon thickly covered with them. Between this sward and the road [farm road that lead from the west along Doctors Creek] was a small lot occupied by an abandoned cabin and a rank growth of wild hemp. About 5 o’clock p.m. this old cabin was filled with them, save the space occupied by one or two horses belonging to field staff officers, and at about this hour it was discovered that our hospital was between the opposing lines. First, there was a battery on the hill to our left and its firing was vigorous, and then in a very short time another battery, belonging to our forces, opened upon the hill to our right, and the firing became brisk on both sides of us, the short and shell screaming over our heads with to us an almost deafening effect. Just before sunset, the rebel artillery on the hill to our left felt moved to plant three or four solid shots in rapid succession into the primitive roof of our cabin, no doubt as much to develop its contents as anything else and if for this it was a great success, for the servants decamped in the wildest disorder.” i.
Private Arthur B. Straw of Company M, 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry, Gay’s Cavalry Brigade, also wrote about the Widow Reynolds Cabin. He mentioned a farmhouse which was used a field hospital early in the day along Doctor’s Creek, where he saw a row of dead men, amputated arms and legs, and men only slightly wounded lying on the grass nearby. ii.
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