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Blazers Scouts |
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Organized: Blazer's Scouts In September 1863, Lt. Richard Blazer, 91st Ohio Infantry, and Lt. Harrison Gray Otis of the 12th Ohio Infantry organized a company of scouts for operations at the Kanawha and New Rivers of West Virginia to eliminate Bushwhackers. Only the best men suitable for mountain fighting were selected from the 5th, 9th, 13th and 14th WV Infantry, 2nd WV Cavalry, and the 12th, 23rd, 34th and 36th Ohio Infantry.
Numerous raids were made on Sewell Mountain to find the feared guerrilla bands of Thurmond's Rangers. |
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In the spring of 1864, General George Crook reorganized the scouts, as they had been ineffective in stopping Thurmond's Rangers. On foot, Blazer couldn't keep up with the mounted Rangers. So, the yankees got horses as they usually did, horses were obtained by taking them from disloyal citizens and Confederate guerrillas.
General Crook commented: "When I returned to West Virginia in 1864, my sphere of operations gave me control of the country that had never been rid of bushwhackers, so, I organized to suppress them, employing the same principles which were so efficacious when I was in that country before. To that end I organized a body of picked men from the different regiments, and selected as their commander a Capt. Blazer, who evinced an adaptability for that kind of work, and became so efficient that he was not long in ridding the district infested with these people. He had made considerable headway against Mosbys men after the theater of operations was transferred east, but his force was too small to deal with Mosby. I would have increased the same of his command, but at the same time he had an unsuccessful encounter with a overpowering number of Mosby." |
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Thurmond's Partisan Ranger Battalion consisted of Philip Thurmond's Company, which scouted towards Fayetteville and Princeton, William Thurmond's Company, which guarded the State Highway along the New River, and Amick's Independent Scouts (Bumgarner, Tyree, Halstead, McClung) which scouted the Wilderness District.
Captain Robert Blazer was captured and half his scouts casualties after tangling with Mosby's 43rd Virginia Cavalry on Nov. 18, 1864 at Kabletown. |
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AN ACCOUNT
OF
R. R. BLAZER AND HIS SCOUTS |
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Captain Bumgarner
Captures Blazer Scout |
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| Official Records: Blazer's Scouts & Mosby |
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Official Records: Blazer at Meadow Creek |
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| Official Records: Blazer's Scouts & Mosby 2 |
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Official Records: Blazer's Scouts at Lewisburg Road |
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| Official Records: Mosby Defeats Blazer |
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Official Records: Blazer's Scouts & 36th Ohio |
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| Sitemap |
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Thurmond & Blazer |
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36th OVI |
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