Major General Benjamin Cheatham’s First Division of the Army of Mississippi opened the battle of Perryville with an assault on the First Corps of the Union Army, commanded Major General Alexander McCook, which was the left of the three Federal Corps. |
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the War
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Brig. General Daniel Donelson’s Brigade was the 1st Brigade of Major General Benjamin Cheatham’s Division, the First Division of the Confederate Army of Mississippi, and this brigade opened up the assault on the center of the Union’s First Corps. |
 Donelson’s 15th, 16th and 44th Tenn. were caught in a murderous crossfire as they advanced on the Third Division, commanded by Brig. General Lovell Rousseau. The Seventeenth Brigade, commanded by Col. Wm. Lytle was on the left and the 24th IL and 79th PA regiments of the 28th Brigade were to the right in a wooded area. |
 Confederate artillery was placed on this ridge to support the advance of Donelson’s Brigade and further to the north Stewart’s Brigade, both of Major General Cheatham’s Division. |
