More Men than Firearms

Camp Zollicoffer, a Confederate induction and training base, was established here in the summer of 1861 and prepared thousands of soldiers for military life. At the time, J.D. Goodpasture owned this land, and his house stood nearby. His farm was suitable for the training camp because it had a large spring and a thirty-acre field for drilling. Officers named the camp for Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer, a prominent Tennessee political leader and newspaperman, who died in Kentucky at the Battle of Mill Springs in January 1862.

The soldiers found camp life challenging. In August 1861, Amanda McDowell of Sparta wrote that the camp "food is beef, bacon and flour bread with no way to cook it. They have a camp kettle, and frying pan, and no dish {es} at all. Jack says they have not even got a dish rag or bit of soap, and they cannot cook decently that way." Lt. Spencer B. Talley, 28th Tennessee Infantry, noted than many soldiers "had no arms save a few old squirrel rifles and occasional pistol." Confederate Col. John P. Murray, the ranking officer, complained to Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston about trying to operate a camp in a region so devoid of resources. He reported having ten companies with 917 privates but only 665 weapons.

Many Confederate regiments were trained here, including Col. Sidney S Stanton's 25th Tennessee Infantry. Organized in August 1861, it had 683 soldiers in January 1862. It fought at Perryville, Murfreesboro, and Chickamauga, then moved to Virginia and fought at Drewry's Bluff and Petersburg. The regiment surrendered with 4 officers and 21 men at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865

(Inscription under photo on left side)
Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer-Courtesy Tennessee State Library and Archives.

(Inscription under photo on bottom right side)
This idealized view of a "Confederate camp" was published in London in 1871-Courtesy Library of Congress

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