The text on the sign reads:
"This cemetery, founded in 1853, grew up around the Brunswick Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which has since moved. During the Confederate War, the church building was used as a hospital, and 17 unknown Confederate soldiers who died there are buried in a nearby plot. Also buried there are many of the regions's pioneers."
There is a marker (N35 15.309 W89 46.423) for the plot where the 17 unknown Confederate soldiers are buried and it reads:
"This Plot Contains the Remains of 17 Confederate Soldiers of Prices
Army Names Unknown. Removed from Hospital in Memphis in 1862 and Died
in a Church that was converted to a hospital near this spot.
Erected by Russell Jones 1906."
Russell Jones is buried in this cemetery. (N35 15.323 W89 46.408)
The army on the grave marker is referred to as “Price’s Army.” The only Confederate general with the name Price was General Sterling Price. That would mean that these men were from what was known as the Army of the West.
The Army of the West was a military force within the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War that the was part of the Trans-Mississippi Department and was composed primarily of members of the old Missouri State Guard.
It saw action in the Battle of Pea Ridge, Battle of Corinth and Battle of Iuka and consisted of about 20,000 men.
The Army was reorganized in late 1862 but the troops that followed Price in his other commands continued to be popularly called the Army of the West. Price's troops were formally reconstituted as the Army of Missouri when they began Price's Raid in an 1864 attempt to recapture Missouri. (1)
The marker does not contain specific dates. Research does not mention the full Army of the West being in Memphis. However, from this statement, “This army fought at Pea Ridge and elsewhere in Arkansas, and, being transferred across the Mississippi, was present at the siege of Corinth,”(2), and this statement, “ General Price, for the Missourians, had acquiesced and relinquished his former rank in the State Guard for the same rank in the Confederate army. Special orders announced that the First brigade of Price's division would embark for Memphis April 8th, and Colonel Little would take command,”(3) it can be concluded that the a part of the Army of the West was in Memphis at some point.
Sources:
(1) (
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(2) (
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(3) (
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