Garrison Cemetery is named for the Garrison family, among the first European settlers in the area that became Piedmont, South Carolina. The family patriarch, David Garrison, settled here in the 1780s and operated a grist mill on the Saluda River at what became known as Garrison Shoals, though the actual site of his burial is unknown. The first known burial in the cemetery occurred in 1853, when Barksdale Dunham Garrison, a veteran of the War of 1812 who achieved the rank of Brigadier General, was buried here. The cemetery also contains veterans from every major American war from the Civil War to Vietnam, and more than 100 interments have been recorded here.