Civil War in Tennessee: Southwest Tennessee

Southwest Tennessee was a contested gateway to the Lower South via the Mississippi River and the rail corridors formed by the Memphis & Charleston, the Gulf, and the Mobile & Ohio lines. Fort Pickering, the major Federal base on the Mississippi River, stood near Exit 11, and part of the 1866 Memphis Riot occurred there. Riverside Drive (Exit 12) provides access to the city’s many Civil War–era properties by the Mississippi River.

North of here, on I-240 (Exit 28), are two historic cemeteries. Both Union and Confederate officers are interred in Elmwood Cemetery, and Zion Cemetery is the city’s oldest African American burial ground.