During the last year of the War Between the States, a number of Confederate soldiers were buried in West End Cemetery, including 17 whose identities were unknown. Memorial services for these soldiers were held as early as 1869. On Memorial Day, April 26, 1871, a group of orphans from the Confederate Home in Lauderdale, Mississippi, attended the services, and one child unexpectedly found her father's grave. In 1873 the Ladies Memorial Association was formed; it became the Quitman Memorial Association and is now the Quitman Chapter, Daughters of the Confederacy, which owns and maintains the cemetery.