July 7, 2010

Marker in Myerstown, WV

It's been six weeks since we went on field trips following the adventures of Mosby's Rangers but I still have pictures to post. This is one I didn't actually take on the trip but sought out later when we had business in Berryville.
This marker in Myerstown is described on the Jefferson County Historical Society's website. It's one of a series of concrete obelisks erected by the United Confederate Veterans in 1910. They do not contain text so you need a field guide to know what they mean. Fortunately I found this at the above-mentioned site:

Slaughter and Capture of Blazer’s Men at Myerstown

In the fall of 1864, the Union army had assembled a group designated the “Independent Scouts” whose sole purpose was to eliminate the threat of Col. John S. Mosby’s 43rd Virginia Cavalry Battalion. Mosby’s Rangers, as the battalion had become known, spent their time disrupting the B & O Railroad and capturing Union soldiers, horses, and supplies.

Capt. Richard Blazer led a company of scouts to the vicinity of Kabletown. Confederate Lt. Aldolphus (Dolly) Richards led a band of 100 Mosby’s Rangers to track Blazer down. On November 17th, Richards found Blazer camped near Kabletown. The fight that ensued resulted in the decimation of Blazer’s troops. “General Stevenson dispatched on November 19, ‘two of Captain Blazer’s men came in this morning – Privates Harris and Johnson. They report that Mosby attacked Blazer near Kabletown yesterday about 11 o’clock. They say the entire command, with the exception of themselves, was either captured or killed.”

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