As a general rule the Union dead from Arkansas were relocated after the war in either the national cemetery at Memphis or at Little Rock.

However, during this process, the burial contractor wrote the names of the soldiers they were relocating on their wooden caskets in chalk. Most of these caskets were stacked in the open on the decks of steamboats which transported them to either Memphis or Little Rock.

During this transporting process the chalk names were washed off by rain and other elements there rendering the occupants of these caskets as being "Unknown"