Existing comment:
(Stop 14) Widow Bottom Cabin:
In 1862, an elderly widow named Mary Bottom lived in a cabin at this site. Many was the mother of Henry P Bottom, who owned most of the land upon which the battle was fought.
When Confederate troops crossed Doctor's Creek to attack the center of the Union lines, they formed near the cabin before moving forward. Like most Perryville homes, the Widow Bottom house most likely became a field hospital following the battle.
After the Civil War, on April 10, 1866, two Perryville residents named Bill and John Taylor murdered the Widow Bottom during a robbery. According to one resident, this brutal act "had the whole town wild." Citizens formed a posse and caught the culprits.
Taken to Perryville, the Taylors were hanged form a tree at the edge of the town's Hillcrest Cemetery. Some how, Bill Taylor managed to escape, but he was recaptured and sent to prison. John Taylor was not as fortunate. When a group of schoolchildren visited the cemetery and found his corpse, one of the children promptly fainted.
Because of the lawlessness that pervaded Kentucky in the years following the Civil War, many residents turned to vigilante justice. As the years passed, the mobs disbanded and Perryville residents learned to readjust to peace.
"About 9 o'clock they were taken from the guards, a rope put about their necks, and conducted to the graveyard and hung to a tree that was just over the fence and in front of the church door."
-- William Linney, Perryville resident |