Matt:

If you have relatives in the Union City area, then you probably know that there is a Confederate cemetery in town containing wartime burials. Many of these Confederates are early war casualties from disease and died in local camps and hospitals.

Union City was a place of rendezvous in the late summer of 1861 for Confederate troops in preparation for seizing control of Columbus, Kentucky on September 4, 1861. Columbus overlooked the Mississippi River and allowed the Confederates to interdict movement of the Federal navy into the Southern heartland. Union City was located on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad which was a major north-south thoroughfare for the western Confederacy. Columbus was some twenty miles north of Union City and the two towns directly connected by the Mobile & Ohio. Louisiana soldiers arriving at Union City from Camp Moore at the end of August 1861 thought the local was a marked improvement over Camp Moore and described the surrounding area as a "rich country" in terms of the bountiful supply of farm produce available. Camp Brown was the name of the site where the 12th Louisiana Infantry camped while at Union City.

The 11th and 12th Louisiana Infantry regiments plus the 22nd Tennessee Infantry regiments were the first Confederate units to enter Columbus. These three regiments were selected for this action because they arrived at Union City equipped with small arms. After Confederate defensive operations were underway at Columbus, Union City served as a rear area hospital complex until the Confederates were forced to abandon Columbus at the end of February 1862.

Local author Rebel C. Forrester gives a good account of these early war years for Union City in his self published book "Glory and Tears: Obion County, Tennessee, 1860-1870" (Union City, 1990).

Happy New Year!!

Hugh Simmons