Zollicoffer's Headquarters

Zollicoffer had urged Tennesseans to stay in the Union. In 1860 the Whig editor backed John Bell, the Constitutional Union candidate, but when the state seceded he endorsed the decision and Governor Isham Harris made him a brigadier general. Sent to Knoxville in July 1861 with four thousand raw recruits, he treated peaceful Unionists fairly until Union guerrillas burned railroad bridges, after which his measures turned harsher. He was killed at Mill Springs, Kentucky, in January 1862, after his army crossed to the north side of the Cumberland River.

What the plaque says

Zollicoffer's Headquarters One-half mile southeast of here, near Maple Hill Cemetery, stood the home of Thomas Buntin, founder of Richland Station and a Confederate sympathizer. In the spring of 1861, the Buntin residence was headquarters of Brigadier General Felix K. Zollicoffer, commander of nearby Camp Trousdale, a Confederate training camp. On July 26, 1861, General Zollicoffer was ordered to East Tennessee to command that department. Reverse: His orders were "to preserve the peace, protect the railroad and repel invasion." On January 19, 1862, General Zollicoffer was killed at the Battle of Mill Springs (or Fishing Creek), Kentucky. The popular ex-congressman, newspaper editor, and orator became the first Confederate general to die in the Western theater. After lying in state at the State Capitol, he was buried in Nashville's old City Cemetery.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wynnewood State Historic Site — 18 mi
  A National Historic Landmark log inn at the Bledsoe's Lick springs, beside a Mississippian mound center and tied to the domestic slave trade.

More markers nearby

• Richland — 0.6 mi
• Bishop William McKendree — 2.0 mi
• Parker's Chapel "Old Taylor Field" — 2.4 mi
• Camp Trousdale — 2.5 mi