Civil War skirmish on Shelbyville Pike

On September 21,1862, raiding parties of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith were in Shepherdsville, and a Confederate force under General Braxton Bragg held Frankfort.   Union forces at Louisville feared Smith and Bragg would consolidate forces and attack Louisville.  Their fears were amplified on September 26th when a 500-man Confederate cavalry troop swooped into the vicinity of 18th and Oak Streets and captured approximately 50 Union soldiers.  The following night, a heavy skirmish occurred just beyond Middletown on the Shelbyville Pike (present-day Shelbyville Road) and on September 30th, after Confederate and Union pickets clashed at Gilman's Point (St. Matthews), Union troops drove a detachment of Confederates back through Middletown to Floyds Fork.   But there was no "Battle of Louisville."  Before the Confederates could consolidate their forces and attack, a large Union force under the command of General Don Carlos Buell arrived (Yater, 1979).

On September 25, 1862, Buell's Federal army reached Louisville and remained there until October 1.  General Buell with 25,000 men met Confederate General Bragg on October 8, 1862 at Perryville where Kentucky's last battle was fought.  It lasted from noon till dark, with a Federal loss of 4,346 men and Confederate loss of about 2,500.

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