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David Wilkerson owned a farm on a hill, located above the east bank of Wilson’s Creek, several hundred yards downstream of the point where the creek crossed the old Mackville Road. He was the brother in law of John Russell. At the time of the battle of Perryville, David Wilkerson was sixty one years old. He was married to Matilda Laws Wilkerson. She was forty-seven years old. She was the sister of Francis “Frankie” Laws , who was the wife of John Russell. He had four children: Elizabeth Par Wilkerson age twenty, Harriett F. Wilkerson age nineteen, Jeremiah Law Wilkerson age seventeen, and Lucy Belle Wilkerson age twelve.
During the battle, the Union army converted the home into a field hospital. Unfortunately nothing has been recorded on whether the Wilkerson family stayed in the home during the battle or whether they fled their home, but more than likely they fled their home to an area of safety.
Just two miles east of the Wilkerson home, a battle raged between Union General Terrill’s 33rd Brigade, Army of the Ohio and Confederate General Benjamin Cheatham’s division. General Terrill was born in Covington, Virginia on April 21, 1834 and he received his early training from his parents. His father was Colonel William Henry Terrill, who was a Virginia lawyer and a member of the Virginia legislature. From an early start, Terrill had an interest in the military, so in 1849 his parents sent him to West Point. In 1853, he graduated sixteenth in his class from West Point. He was assigned to the 3rd U. S. Artillery and the 4th U. S. Artillery. In 1853-54, he returned to West Point and became an assistant professor of mathematics. He quit his teaching his position and served in Florida during the 3rd Seminole War and from 1858 to 1861 he served on the U. S. Coast Survey. In 1856, he was appointed first lieutenant. Although he received his education in the North, his connections were with the South. At the age of twenty-eight, he had to make the decision to either join the Union army or join the Confederate army. He chose to go with the Union army. His father urged him to join his relatives and friends in the Southern army. His brother James attended the Virginia Military Institute and joined the Confederacy. His brother was the in the 13th Virginia Infantry and fought in every battle of the Army of Northern Virginia. With all the pressure and temptation, William “unfalteringly stood by the Union and the Constitution, resolved to die in their defense. . . . Like a rock, amid the lashings of the storm tossed waves, he stood nobly by the old State ship, which was riding almost rudderless upon the angry sea of revolution.”i. His parents and friends disowned him. After staying with the Union army, he was appointed captain of the 5th U. S. Regular Artillery. In April of 1862, he commanded a battery of artillery and on September 9, 1862, he was promoted to brigadier general and took command of the 33rd Brigade.
At the battle of Perryville, Brigadier General Benjamin Cheatham’s brigades under Confederate General Alexander Stewart and Confederate General Thomas Maney approached Terrill’s 105th Ohio, 123rd Illinois, 80th Illinois, Garrard’s detachment and Colonel Charles Parson’s Battery. During the battle, Union General James S. Jackson, commander of the 10th Division, was killed and Stewart and Maney’s brigades were able to overrun Colonel Charles Parson’s battery. After the death of Union General James S. Jackson, the 105th Ohio Infantry broke and ran, which was soon to be followed by the 123rd Illinois, 80th Illinois, and Garrard’s detachment. The fleeing Union regiments broke and ran down a hill, through a cornfield and to the next hill. The 21st Wisconsin Infantry was in a cornfield in front the hill and Stone’s battery and Bush’s battery commanded the heights on the next hill, along with the 1st Wisconsin Infantry and the 79th Pennsylvania Infantry. Terrill was in command on the hill.
When Maney’s and Stewart’s brigades approached Terrill’s position, he decided to do what came naturally to him and helped load a cannon. Union Captain Taylor, of Garrard’s battalion, Terrill’s brigade, saw Terrill manning the cannon and wrote that “I saw our . . . Brigadier Terrill with his coat off, sleeves rolled up, and working one of the two guns of the battery. . . He stood there, whirling the rammer of a field gun around his head. . . and with it driving his cartridge and canister far back into the barrels of the cannon. At 4:00 p.m., Union Major James Connelly, of the 123rd Illinois, Terrill’s brigade, wrote: General William R. Terrill, commanding our brigade, was wounded, by a shell within 5 feet of me, and while he was giving me directions for rallying the men. I was the only one with him, I raised him to a sitting position and saw that nearly his entire breast was torn away by the shell. He recognized me and his first words were “Major do you think it is fatal?” I knew it must be, but to encourage him I answered, “Oh I hope not General.” He said: “My poor wife, my poor wife.” After his injury, he was taken by an ambulance to the Wilkerson house. With his faithful attendants around him, he lived with his agonizing wound until 2 a.m. when he was finally passed away. On October 13, his remains arrived in Louisville, Kentucky and on October 15, his body was transported to Reading, Pennsylvania. On October 16, his funeral took place at the Christ Church in Reading. The funeral was attended by his family, who lived in the city for several months, by his aids, who accompanied his body from the battlefield to Reading, and by all the officers and privates in the city, and by convalescent soldiers from the hospital and citizens of the city. His burial was in the Charles Evans cemetery in Reading. On November 19, 1864, Terrill’s remains were reinterred at the West Point cemetery. On May 30, 1864, his brother James was killed at the battle of Bethesda Church.
Terrill was not the only patient who would die from their wounds inflicted during the battle at the Wilkerson home. In 1867, Edmund Whitman had the gruesome task of finding the buried Union soldiers on the battlefield, including the Wilkerson house. His task was to reinter the bodies at the Perryville National Cemetery. Whitman found a trench in bad condition, where bones were partly exposed and contained about forty bodies and all of them were unknown graves. Near the last trench, surrounded by a rail pen, was another trench, which contained about twenty or thirty bodies, with no marks on the graves. In a rail pen trench was another large trench in bad condition and contained about fifty bodies. In another rail pen in good condition were four unknown graves. The four unknown graves were all washed or rooted up and were afterwards re-buried by the teacher and students from the deaf and disabled asylum in Lebanon. Located in a hollow near the house were buried in good condition about twenty or thirty bodies from a Wisconsin Regiment, who were commanded by Colonel Clinton. According to Whitman, there was “a fine stone wall around the graves. No marks.” One of the family members must have still lived in the house, because Whitman stated Mr. Wilkerson knew where one unmarked grave was located. Whitman also found a trench said to contain ten or twelve bodies. There was a board nailed on tree and written on the board was: "79th Pennsylvania, Killed Oct 8th 1862." On the same board were the names of the three soldiers from the 32nd Kentucky. He also found three soldiers from the 2nd Ohio Infantry. He also found a grave that belonged to Captain Carr. The entire property of the Wilkerson farm was littered with graves of individual soldiers who were unmarked.
After 1867, there is no further mention of the Wilkerson family. The home no longer stands. David Wilkerson died in 1865.
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