Reunions and Memorials

Opened in 1906 as part of the Memphis Park and Parkway System, Confederate Park commemorates the Battle of Memphis. When Confederate forces retreated to Mississippi after the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, unfortified Memphis became vulnerable to attack. From these bluffs and those at what is now Chickasaw Park, on June 6, 1892, thousands of civilians watched the naval battle on the Mississippi River below. Within 90 minutes, the Union fleet defeated the Confederates, Medical Cadet Charles R. Ellet and as small party entered the city and raised the U.S. flag over the post office. The Federals held Memphis for the rest of the war.

In May 1901, the United Confederate Veterans held a reunion here in an 18,000-seat structure named Confederate Hall. More than 125,000 visitors participated in activities, including a parade led by former generals John B. Gordon, Fitzhugh Lee, and Joseph Wheeler.

During the Progressive era, Park Commissioner Robert Galloway suggested that Confederate Park be one of three small urban parks within a 1,750-acre system. Civilian Conservation Corps workers built the rock wall in 1937. The park contains a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who lived in Memphis temporarily after the war, and a bust of Captain J. Harvey Mathes, who served in the Army of Tennessee and later edited the Memphis Public Ledger. The park also honors Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, an enthusiastic Confederate supporter and suffragist, and Virginia "Ginnie" Bethel Moon, a Confederate spy who escaped from Union forces here and continued her espionage in Washington, D.C., and New Orleans.

(captions)
(lower left) Confederate Park, ca. 1910- Courtesy Library of Congress
(upper center) Medical Cadet Charles R. Ellet raising U.S. flag over Memphis post office, Harper's Weekly, July 5, 1862
(upper right) Memphis levee from the bluff, 1906 - Courtesy Library of Congress

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Show me all markers in:  Memphis, TN  |  Shelby County  |  38103  |  Tennessee  |  United States of America

Naval Battle of Memphis, 1862
Memphis and Shelby County Medical Society
Jefferson Davis Memorial
Confederate History of Memphis
Elizabeth Avery Meriwether
Capt. J. Harvey Mathes
Virginia ("Ginnie") Bethel Moon
Cobblestone Landing
Jefferson Davis Park
The Sultana Disaster

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