Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site is a park near Perryville , Kentucky , in Boyle County , Kentucky . An interpretive museum is located near the site where many Confederate soldiers killed in the Battle of Perryville were buried . Additionally , monuments , interpretive signage , and cannons mark notable events that occurred during the battle . The site became part of the Kentucky State Park System in 1936 . Battle . The battle was fought on October 8 , 1862 , between the Union Army of the Ohio , commanded by Maj . Gen . Don Carlos Buell , and the Confederate Army of Mississippi , commanded by Gen . Braxton Bragg . The battle was a tactical victory for the Confederates , but a strategic victory for the Union because Bragg withdrew his army from the Kentucky , which remained in Union hands for the remainder of the war . Perryville ' s homes and farms were left in shambles by the battle . Henry P . " Squire " Bottom , a slave - owning Unionist on whose farm a significant portion of the battle was fought , suffered losses of pork , corn , hay , and wood to Union soldiers who remained in the area for weeks after the fighting . During the battle Bottom also had significant damage to his farm , including the loss of a substantial barn filled with hay that burned completely due to artillery fire from a Confederate battery . Other accounts note that nearly all residents of the area suffered some losses as well as having their homes and outbuildings used as field hospitals . The main force of the Union army had buried most of their dead in long trenches before pursuing Bragg , but most of the Confederate dead were still unburied a week after the battle . Union soldiers finally forced local residents to help them lay the dead in shallow trenches carved in the dry soil . Two months later , 347 were reburied in a mass grave on Bottom ' s land . In 1886 a total of 435 Confederates were buried on Bottom ' s land ; this land was chosen because their dead lay thickest on the eastern slope . Although Bottom claimed that about 100 were identified , the only remnants of the cemetery were a corner of a stone wall and one headstone — that of Samuel H . Ransom of the 1st Tennessee Infantry CSA . At the end of the war in 1865 , Union soldiers reburied the remains of 969 Federal dead in a national cemetery at Perryville with a stone wall , two gates and plans for a monument . The monument was never erected , however , and in 1867 the new cemetery was closed and the Federal dead transferred to Camp Nelson in Jessamine County , Kentucky , leaving no identified Federal dead on the field at Perryville . Memorial . On the fortieth anniversary of the battle in 1902 , a Confederate monument was dedicated in the Confederate cemetery begun by Henry Bottom at the center of the field , and a smaller Federal memorial was erected nearby in 1931 . The Perryville State Battlefield site was established in 1954 by the Kentucky State Conservation Commission , and a museum and visitor ' s center were opened near the monuments on the battle ' s one hundredth anniversary in 1962 . For a century following the war , the memory of the Battle of Perryville ( and many others fought in the Western Theater ) was minimized by what has been called the " Lee tradition , " which emphasized the deeds of the armies and generals who fought in the Eastern Theater , particularly Virginia . Around the time of the war ' s centennial , however , numerous scholars worked to establish the importance of the Western campaigns . In recent years , appreciation for what happened at Perryville and other battlefields in Kentucky , Tennessee , and Mississippi has grown . More than 7 , 000 acres ( 28 km² ) at Perryville are now recognized as a National Historic Landmark , and the site averages around 100 , 000 visitors per year . A reenactment of the battle occurs each October . The Perryville Battlefield Preservation Association was created in 1991 to preserve , enlarge and protect the park . The acquisition of 149 acres ( 0 . 6 km² ) of farmland from a descendant of Henry Bottom more than doubled the size of the park and allowed visitors to complete a tour of the entire battlefield .