Battle of Blountville - Confederate Position - Civil War Discovery Trail Sites on Waymarking.com

This Marker is located in the former schoolyard of the Masonic Female Institute, where Confederate troops stood as they defended Blountville on September 22, 1863. There are other Civil War Trails markers in the foreground, near the Court House, (dome top building in photo) and the old Derry Inn to the right, where some citizens took refuge in the basement when the shelling started, not knowing that they were in the line of fire from both Federal and Confederate artillery. This area behind the Inn, next to the Court House where the Slave Quarters were located was shelled heavily from the Federals artillery position, as well as the Court House which is just 50 yards west. Col. James E. Carter's 1st Tennessee Cavalry withdrew that morning of 1863 from the Watauga River to positions such as the one here that had already been prepared to block the Union Col. John W. Foster's cavalry brigade after it crossed the river. Foster took up a position on Cemetery Hill on the western end of town early in the afternoon, and a destructive artillery duel ensued. After four hours of fighting and shelling, the Confederates withdrew to Carter's Depot on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad a few miles east of here as Federals charged through the town near dusk.
Carter lost a cannon and about fifty men captured in battle. The next day, he evacuated the depot, leaving it in Foster's hands.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blountville

Type of site: Battlefield Address: Town of Blountville, Tennessee Admission Charged: No Charge Website: [Web Link] Phone Number: Not listed Driving Directions: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   05/06/2023 Don.Morfe visited it 12/30/2019 Manville Possum visited it

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