Camp Zollicoffer was established here in the summer of 1861 as a Confederate induction and training base that prepared thousands of soldiers for military life. The land belonged to J.D. Goodpasture, whose house stood nearby, and his farm suited the camp because it had a large spring and a thirty-acre field for drilling. Officers named the camp for Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer, a prominent Tennessee political leader and newspaperman who died in Kentucky at the Battle of Mill Springs in January 1862. Camp life was difficult. In August 1861, Amanda McDowell of Sparta wrote that the camp food was beef, bacon, and flour bread with no way to cook it, and that the soldiers had a camp kettle and frying pan but no dishes, dish rag, or soap. Lt. Spencer B. Talley of the 28th Tennessee Infantry noted that many soldiers had no arms except a few old squirrel rifles and occasional pistol. Confederate Col. John P. Murray, the ranking officer, complained to Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston that he was trying to operate a camp in a region devoid of resources, reporting ten companies with 917 privates but only 665 weapons. Many Confederate regiments trained here, including Col. Sidney S Stanton’s 25th Tennessee Infantry, which was organized in August 1861, had 683 soldiers in January 1862, fought at Perryville, Murfreesboro, and Chickamauga, then moved to Virginia and fought at Drewry’s Bluff and Petersburg before surrendering with 4 officers and 21 men at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.