In the fall of 1861, the 13th GA Infantry Regiment, 24th NC Infantry Regiment, and 50th VA Infantry Regiment encamped around the Blue Sulphur Springs area from Sep 1861 to Dec 1861. Arriving poorly provisioned, the troops fell ill to include their medical care providers as a cold rainy fall came over the mountains. Some managed to fight in small nearby battles at Mt Sewell, but many died of typhoid fever, pneumonia, measles, and other diseases around the hospital established at the former Blue Sulphur Springs Resort and Alleghany Institute college campus, which closed to accommodate the war and encampment. Those who died were buried in unmarked graves on a hill overlooking the springs. Newspapers like the Fayetteville Observer, North Carolina Standard, Milton Chronicle, et al., complained about the poor conditions and incompetent leadership, resulting in withdrawal of the forces in early Dec 1861 to Petersburg VA for recovery and proper provisioning for later campaigns in Gettysburg and Virginia. By Feb 1862, Union forces took control of the area in preparation for the assault on Lewisburg WV in spring 1862. Local folklore attributed the graveyard to a GA unit stationed there in winter of 1862 - 1863, but subsequent analysis unit records, pension records, newspaper reports, and family letters, it is clear the encampment was actually in the fall of 1861. The cemetery has no deed, no access road, no parking, no maintenance. Access is with permission of private land owners.