Weston Bluff Skirmish - Weston - KY - Kentucky Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

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Weston was a strongly pro-Southern community. The Evansville Daily Journal on September 14, 1861 reported that the steamer Charley Bowen had arrived the previous day with a captured Southern flag flying below the U.S. flag. The largest military action in Crittenden County took place at Weston on June 21, 1864. Confederate forces fired upon the steamboat Mercury from behind a bluff and buildings on or near it as it steamed upstream. The Mercury was carrying the entire 7th Ohio Infantry, which returned fire from the boat. The attackers apparently didn’t realize the strength of the unit on the boat or that the Mercury had been warned of their presence by a boat bound downstream and were readily driven off by the firing of whole volleys from the boat. There were causalities on both sides; two wounded for the Seventh and a unknown number from the Confederates. The Mercury’s captain refused to land the regiment citing orders not to do so in Kentucky, so there was no pursuit of the Confederate force or a larger engagement. In terms of number of troops involved this was the largest engagement in Crittenden County.
The 7th Ohio Infantry was initially a three-month regiment mustered in April 1861. It was reorganized as a three-year unit in June 1861. The Seventh took part in the battles of Antietam, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and in the fall of 1863 was transferred to the west. It participated in the Chattanooga campaign and took significant causalities at Ringgold, Georgia. At the beginning of William T. Sherman’s Atlanta campaign the Seventh fought in the battle of Resaca. The Seventh’s term of service nearly over. Some members had re-enlisted or had time remaining and joined the Fifth Ohio; the others were on their way to Cleveland to muster out of the Army.
One member of the unit described the action as follows… 21st– We got to Smithland at 5 am and here the 8th Missouri left for St. Louis. We soon put out and steamed up the grand Ohio. We have been meeting boats and passing towns and Islands constantly. Passed Golconda, Elizabethtown, etc. When we near Preston, Ky. We met a boat and were told that the guerillas were miles above. We put on our equipment and took position on the upper deck. When just about Preston the rebs fired on us and we poured a volley into their hiding place. We fired as long as we were in range and we saw some of the rebs take to their heels. We had two slightly wounded. One from Co. E and of Co. 1.

Marker Name: Weston Bluff Skirmish Marker Location: City Type of Marker: Park Marker Number (for official markers): blank Group(s) Responsible for placing Marker: The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, TEA-21 Program

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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/24/2010 ReedKyCacheFinders visited it