Thousands of Arkansas and Texas Confederates camped near this spot in 1862 at a camp named for Brigadier General Allison Nelson. Disease struck the camp, causing 1,500 deaths, including Nelson. The dead were buried among these hills and forgotten until 1906, when a group of Confederate veterans supervised the establishment of this cemetery. It was soon forgotten and neglected, then restored in 1981 by local school teachers and students and rededicated in 1982.