Erected in 1869, this memorial to unknown Confederate dead is one of the oldest Civil War monuments in Tennessee and a rare example of Reconstruction-era memorialization. Its setting within a cemetery reflects the mourning character common to the South's earliest Civil War monuments. After the war, local women raised money to disinter Confederate soldiers from around the country and rebury them here. Dr. John H. Morton and the Union City Fire Company promoted the effort in the Union City Herald, and Tennessee poet Annie Somers Gilchrist honored the women's work in “The Unknown Confederate Dead.” Some of the reburied men had died at nearby Camp Brown, a training camp, while others had served in the 7th Tennessee Cavalry. Cemetery planners recognized Union City's importance as a railroad junction, with oaken steps leading to the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad and a double-arched gate facing it. On October 21, 1869, the Union City brass band led a dedication procession here, joined by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the local Masonic fraternity, while the Reverend W.T. Harris delivered the funeral oration at the Union City Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The monument's base, later vandalized, once held a Confederate rifle, a Bible, and a history of the monument. About seventy years after the dedication, the Leonidas Polk Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy persuaded county officials to spend $100 on repairs, and the monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.