Established in May 1862 near this location, Camp Withers served as a central point for coordinating picket duties, observing Federal maneuvers along the Alabama coast, and as a station for Alabama's Seventh Cavalry Regiment. It was named for former Mayor Jones M. Withers, who had been entrusted with building up the Civil War defenses around Mobile and the surrounding coast. The encampment housed members of the Home Guard, City Troop A, under the command of Captain Edmund T. Arrington, and local men known to have served there included Cpl. Samuel Nelson, Pvt. John Ewing, Pvt. C. T. Pope, Pvt. George W. Wallace, and Pvt. John Childress. In September 1863, the unit was incorporated into Company F, Fifteenth Cavalry Regiment, and Camp Withers remained in operation until after the Battle of Mobile Bay in August 1864.