Ripping volleys of rifle fire and the shattering boom of cannons rolled over the hillsides as members of the 21st Wisconsin Infantry Regiment filed into a cornfield between two Federal positions. The troops, nervously clutching their Austrian muskets, had been in the service for less than a month. Many of them had never before fired their rifles, and the unit was so green that they carried no regimental banner. Amid the stalks was 18-year-old Christian Weinman, of Company I. Weinman and his comrades had taken part in only a handful of drills, but momentarily these soldiers would experience a horrific baptism of fire at Perryville in Kentucky's largest Civil War battle.

Suddenly Confederate battle flags unfurled above the corn and enemy bullets ripped into the field, cutting stalks and dropping soldiers. Outflanked, the regiment stampeded to the rear. One of those left lying in the dust was young Christian Weinman.

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More than a month later, Weinman's sweetheart received a crushing letter from Thomas Allen, a soldier in the 21st. 'It is with great sorrow I write to inform you of the death of Christian Wineman [sic], Allen wrote. He died at hospital No. 1 Springfield Washington County Kentucky on the 9 of Nov. he was shot through the side at the battle of perry vale and we all thought that he was getting better but he began to be worse and he was out of his mind…members of the church got him a good coffin and he was buried in the church yard and then got him a good cross made and lettered…so that will be one consolation to know that he is buried as he ought to be….

The 21st Wisconsin lost a third of its command at Perryville. Charles Carr of Company D wrote of the battle, No pen nor no tongue can begin to tell the misery that I have seen.

The 21st Wisconsin was organized in July and August 1862 and mustered into service in Oshkosh on September 5. The soldiers likely knew that they would not have to wait long for action. That summer, Confederate General Braxton Bragg and Maj. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith invaded Kentucky to draw Union Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio away from Chattanooga, an important railroad hub. Furthermore, the Confederates hoped thousands of Kentuckians would rally to the Southern banner.Smith struck first, entering the commonwealth through the Cumberland Gap. Smith's Army of Kentucky then rapidly moved northward, decimating an inexperienced Federal force at Richmond and then capturing Lexington and the capital city of Frankfort.

Braxton Bragg marched his Army of the Mississippi into Kentucky near Glasgow, then besieged a Union garrison at Munfordville, which gave Buell the opportunity to slip out of Nashville and race to Louisville. Thousands of Confederates were swarming throughout central Kentucky, and the Wisconsin troops knew that a fight was imminent.

Commanded by Colonel Benjamin Sweet, the regiment went to Covington, where they occupied trenches protecting Cincinnati. The 21st arrived in Louisville by September 15, 1862, and helped fortify the town against the Southern armies slowly creeping toward it. On September 25, Buell's legions marched into the city. The haggard and dirty veterans of Buell's army shocked many of the new recruits. Mead Holmes of the 21st Wisconsin called Buell's exhausted troops such jaded men!

Buell quickly reorganized the Army of the Ohio and placed the 21st Wisconsin in Colonel John C. Starkweather's 28th Brigade of Brig. Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau's division of Maj. Gen. Alexander McCook's 1st Corps. The brigade included three other infantry regiments, the 24th Illinois, 79th Pennsylvania and 1st Wisconsin. Two artillery batteries — the 4th Indiana Light Artillery, commanded by Captain Asahel Bush, and Battery A of the Kentucky Light Artillery, led by Captain David Stone — were also attached to Starkweather's command. The brigade numbered approximately 2,500 men.

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