Civil War battle that included local soldiers is topic of Sterling-Rock Falls Historical Society meeting

STERLING – The Sterling-Rock Falls Historical Society’s first meeting of 2025 will be 2 p.m. Jan. 19, when Ron Koehn will speak on “The Battle of Perryville.”

The meeting will be at 611 E. Third St., Sterling.

The Battle of Perryville was a critical Civil War engagement that involved the 75th Illinois Infantry, a locally organized regiment.

On Oct. 8, 1862, the Confederate Army of Mississippi and the Union Army of the Ohio clashed on the farm fields surrounding the small community of Perryville, Kentucky. Before the day’s end, approximately 1,420 soldiers lay dead, and over 5,000 wounded filled every house, barn and church in the area.

About a thousand of the wounded later died, making the total death toll about 2,400. At least 21 states were represented at the Battle of Perryville. The 75th Illinois Volunteer Infantry from Whiteside, Lee, and Ogle counties – organized at Camp Dement in Dixon and mustered on Sept. 2, 1862 – was heavily engaged in the fighting. About 50 of those were killed in the battle; others later died of their wounds. The casualty rate for this one regiment was about 30%.

This oft-forgotten battle decided Kentucky’s fate during the Civil War. Unable to maintain its occupation of Kentucky, the Confederacy was forced to abandon its military aspirations for the Commonwealth, and Kentucky remained a loyal state in the Federal Union. The rebel withdrawal from Kentucky along with strategic Confederate defeats on four other fronts enabled President Abraham Lincoln to finally issue his Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect Jan. 1, 1863.

Ronald H. Koehn is a retired Fulton High School social studies instructor. He earned two degrees at Illinois State University at Normal: a bachelor of science in education degree in history and political science and a master of science degree in history.