Perryville Battle Field Perryville, KY

Perryville has been on my "to visit" list for some time.  We were passing through, and had a few moments to explore the battlefield and museum!

I read somewhere, I THINK in a Randy Bishop book, that this is the most significant Civil War battlefield NOT managed by the National Park Service.

Like every other Civil War site we have been to, we didn't have enough time here, and I know we will be back soon.  They ARE having a Civil War reenactment in early October, so that might be a good time!

The museum at Perryville is small but packed.  I love a good display of actual relics, and they have them here!  One of the most interesting items was a gun from the area.  The gun was hidden from the owner/soldier by a wife concerned about the owner's expressing suicidal thoughts.  She hid it in the wall, and the gun was not found until about a hundred years later!

The staff at the museum/visitor center was great, and they seemed excited when asked any questions by visitors.

I was interested in a computer that visitors were allowed to use to look up their family name, and see if they had any relatives who fought in the Civil War.  You can imagine my excitement when I personally discovered that I had several relatives who fought for the Union!  I have a very odd and rare last name, and figured that my search would reveal 0.  My wife (who has a similar odd last name) also discovered several connections!

The staff at Perryville let me know that this was not some secret data base that only they had.....  ANYONE can use it!  In fact.....  HERE is a link!

http://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers.htm

I would love to hear from anyone else who also discovers that they can now proudly brag of having family in the Civil War!  Any advise on good, free genealogy resources online would also be appreciated by me!  I now have some family research to do!

After our visit to the museum, we drove around the park some.  There are many trails, and I am excited about making more visits here in the future to explore them.  A few hours at great sites like this is never enough.

This is a VERY well preserved battle field.  With very few modern additions to the area, it is easy to read the signs about the battle, and to look over the acres of green fields and imagine how things were.  Little has changed.