{{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Infobox NRHP | name = Battery Rock | nrhp_type = | image = Battery Rock cleft.jpg | caption = Battery Rock from its base | location = West Bank, River Mile 860, Ohio River | nearest_city= Cave-in-Rock, Illinois | coordinates = {{coord|37|31|48|N|88|4|49|W|display=inline,title}} | locmapin = Illinois#USA | added = November 5, 1998 | area = {{convert|33.5|acre}} | mpsub = {{NRHP url|id=64500199|title=Caught in the Middle: The Civil War on the Lower Ohio River MPS}} | refnum = 98001257<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref> }} '''Battery Rock''' is a limestone bluff located at Mile 860 of the Ohio River in Hardin County, Illinois, across from Caseyville, Kentucky. The bluff is a prominent navigational landmark along the river.<ref name="NRHP nom">{{cite web|last=Jacobsen|first=James E.|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Battery Rock|url=http://gis.hpa.state.il.us/pdfs/205545.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201230825/http://gis.hpa.state.il.us/pdfs/205545.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 1, 2014|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=January 19, 2014|date=June 14, 1998}}</ref>
The site played a role in several conflicts during the Civil War. In 1862, the Union Army based its troops at Battery Rock during a standoff with Confederate troops at Caseyville; the standoff ended when the Union troops moved to Caseyville, found that the Confederates had left the town, and punished the rebellious residents. The bluff also played a role in Confederate general Stovepipe Johnson's attack on riverboats in 1864. During the attack, boats used the landing at Battery Rock as a safe harbor and a place to monitor the situation. In addition, two Union recruiters from Kentucky used the bluff as a recruiting station in 1864, and either a Union garrison or a local defense force placed two cannons at the site; graffiti left by an Indiana regiment has also been found at the site.<ref name="NRHP nom"/>
The bluff was used as a filming location for the film ''How the West Was Won'' in the 1960s.<ref name="NRHP nom"/>
Battery Rock was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 5, 1998.<ref name="nris"/>
==See also== *Thompson Brothers Rock Art, a Civil War site in Union County
==References== {{reflist}}
{{National Register of Historic Places}}
Category:Ohio River Category:American Civil War sites Category:Illinois in the American Civil War Category:Natural features on the National Register of Historic Places Category:Landforms of Hardin County, Illinois Category:Cliffs of Illinois Category:National Register of Historic Places in Hardin County, Illinois Category:Conflict sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Category:American Civil War on the National Register of Historic Places
{{HardinCountyIL-NRHP-stub}} {{HardinCountyIL-geo-stub}}