On Aug. 20, 1861, readers of the Mount Vernon Democratic Banner finally had some recent news of the Fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry and its two companies from Knox County.
A dispatch from Grafton dated Aug. 14 read:
“A severe skirmish took place a few miles from here yesterday, on the Fairmount and Webster road. Information having been received that a regular organized body of rebels, living in this county, were lodged within a few miles of Webster, General Kelly sent Captain Dayton, of Company A, Fourth Regiment, with fifty men, from Webster to disarm them. After scouting nearly 24 hours, he came suddenly on them yesterday morning, and after an hour’s severe fighting, succeeded in killing twenty-one and putting the others to flight without a loss to his command. The rebels numbered 200 and were composed of the worst characters of this county, led on by Zack Cochrane, Sheriff of this county under the Letcher rule.”
Elsewhere in the same paper was this small item: “The Fourth Ohio Regiment, in which our Knox County volunteers are enrolled, is at present near Oakland, Md., in the Glades of the Mountains, about midway between Grafton and Cumberland. We believe the boys are engaged in erecting strong fortifications at their present home.”
