More than 19 companies formed in Hempstead County to fight for the Confederacy, beginning with the Hempstead Rifles, who mustered in on May 4, 1861. Local men from the county also served in the Confederate Congress, with Grandison D. Royston and Rufus K. Charles House in the House of Representatives and Dr. Charles Mitchell in the Senate. All three are buried here, along with many Confederate veterans. Seventy-four unknown Missouri and Texas soldiers are buried together in a mass grave, and the people of Washington, through public subscription, erected a monument honoring them in 1888.