In September 1863, Confederate Gen. Samuel Jones's command and Union Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside's forces contested control of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad a few miles east. On September 22, Union Col. John W. Foster's brigade engaged the forces of Confederate Col. James E. Carter at Blountville. When the firing began, the women and children gathered the sick and elderly and sought refuge in the cellars of the most solid buildings: the St. John residence and the Old Deery Inn. "In the thick of the fight and more dangerously exposed than the soldiers of either side were the fleeing women," historian Oliver Taylor wrote in 1909.
Tools
Key Facts
- Women and children took refuge here during hte Battle of Blountville.
