PERRYVILLE — To mark the 140th anniversary of the Battle of Perryville, more than 5,200 “troops,” 400 horses, dozens of cannon and 25,000 spectators will descend on this central Kentucky town next weekend for the largest reenactment ever staged of the pivotal battle.

        Just as wounded soldiers filled every building of any size in Boyle County after Kentucky's bloodiest Civil War battle, hotel rooms in nearby towns were booked four months before the Oct. 4-6 reenactment by tourists from 23 states and five countries, tourism officials say.

        Regular visitors to the reenactment that has been staged each October for the past 42 years won't recognize the 2002 version. The North/South Alliance, a reenactment group with members throughout the United States, has made the Battle of Perryville its only national event for 2002.

        Instead of the usual 500 to 800 reenactors, spectators will see ten times as many. Three battles will be staged, instead of the usual two. Between skirmishes, visitors can visit encampments, munch on mid-19th century fare such as turkey legs and beef stew, and take a Saturday night ghost walk through the battlefield. And for good measure, they can also watch a “raid”on Merchants' Row, Perryville's 19th century commercial district featuring Civil War-era buildings.

        Unlike many Civil War battlefields, Perryville's is virtually free of monuments, markers and statues, said Jim Carroll, spokesman for the co-sponsoring Kentucky Department of Parks. From knolls overlooking the battlefield, spectators can see several miles in any direction and “there's nothing that says to you that you're in the 21st century,” he said.

        “One of the prides of the hobby is to be as authentic as possible,” said Bernie O'Bryan, 50, a Covington businessman and longtime reenactor who will be part of the 1st Kentucky Flying Battery at Perryville. “If a reenactment goes well, you feel like you've stepped in a time warp.”

        Waged on the ridges and cornfields of tiny Perryville, the battle was brief but fierce. Cannonballs smashed through the roofs and walls of nearby homes. Boyle County buildings were transformed into temporary hospitals, as evidenced by the wounded soldiers' writings on the walls and the bloodstained doors turned operating tables that exist today.

        When the fighting ended at dusk on Oct. 8, 1862, Perryville was forever changed.

        “Just imagine a little town of 350 people with 7,500 dead and wounded dumped on their doorstep,” said Clarence Wyatt, a Centre College professor of history and president of the Perryville Battlefield Preservation Association. “It was a devastating thing.”

        Although the Confederates won a tactical victory in the five-hour battle, their dwindling supplies and smaller numbers forced them to retreat from Kentucky, never to return in significant numbers for the duration of the war, Prof. Wyatt said. Kentucky, a border state, was key to the war because whoever won the Commonwealth controlled the Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, he said. Once the Confederate troops retreated from Kentucky, federal troops could focus on pushing farther south and take control in the west.

        “Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying, "I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky,' ” Prof. Wyatt said.

        Chuck Warnick, a descendant of a Union soldier and co-chairman of the steering committee for the 2002 Battle of Perryville, has spent 2 1/4years planning the event.

        “You name it and we have it in the North/South Alliance — bricklayers, insurance salesmen, physicians and lawyers,” he said. “But when we all stand in line in uniform, we all look alike.”

        As a commanding general Mr. Warnick will have a cook at his headquarters preparing meals from tin pots. Most privates, however, will carry three-day rations of hardtack and salt pork. Everything from uniforms to bedding to where the troops march will be as it was 140years ago.

        “Each regiment has been briefed on the numbers killed, wounded, and missing,” said Mr. Warnick, a 49-year-old Frankfort health care worker. “This is not just cowboys and Indians. We're trying to show the public as closely as we can historically what happened on this ground.”

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