Mooretown Soldiers Monument

In 1871, Robert and Martha McLaughlin George erected a Soldiers Monument in the memory of their son Thomas and other soldiers from Ross Township, Jefferson County, Ohio who died in service to the United States during the Civil War. All were native to Ross Township and some, like 25-year-old Thomas George, were members of Company K, 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Captain David Mitchell commanded Company K, whose recruits came from Mitchell’s Salt Works (Holt) and Yellow Creek. The unit fought in many battles, including Perryville, Kentucky, Stone River, Tennessee, Chickamauga, Georgia, and in the Atlanta campaign. Corporal Thomas George was killed at Perryville on October 8, 1862. Many of his comrades were killed in battle; others perished from disease or died as prisoners of war.

The photograph shows local Civil War veterans at the monument, c. 1896. Standing sentinel with the monument is a 30 pounder Parrott gun, so called because it is named after its inventor, Robert Parrott, and because it fired a shell weighing about 30 pounds. The gun is rifled, weighs approximately 4,200 pounds, and was cast at the West Point Foundry on the Hudson River in New York State. Local lore suggests that it took a six horse team to haul the cannon to the monument site.