OCTOBER 8 1862, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg launched an invasion of the key border state of Kentucky, hoping to divert Union attention from the Southern strongholds at Vicksburg and Chattanooga, as well as to encourage Bluegrass State volunteers to join the Rebel army. 

Though unsuccessful in the last regard, the Kentucky Campaign did draw Federal forces out of northern Alabama and Middle Tennessee, ground it would take the Union almost a year to regain. 

The largest engagement fought in Kentucky, the Battle of Perryville was a Confederate tactical victory, though the heavy fighting and bloodshed forced Bragg to retreat into Tennessee. 

PHOTO: Brigadier General Sterling Alexander Martin Wood and staff seated in dark uniform.    Just before the Battle of Shiloh, Wood's brigade (which consisted of the 16th Alabama, 8th and 9th Arkansas, 27th, 47th, and 55th Tennessee, and the 3rd Mississippi Battalion, all infantry regiments, including an artillery battery) was placed into Hindman's Division, William Hardee's Corps.

 At the Battle of Perryville October 8th Kentucky while his brigade helped to capture an artillery battery there, Wood was wounded by a artillery shrapnel.