The Civil War battle at Mt Zion occurred in the vicinity of Mt Zion Church on December 28, 1861. It began early in the morning while Confederate officers were having breakfast with the William P Robinson family, who lived near the church.
Confederate soldiers numbered with 350 (by their account, mostly recent recruits, inexperienced and not all armed) or 900 (by Union estimate) under command of Col. Caleb Dorsey; A combined force of 470 Union cavalry and infantry commanded by Gen. Benjamin M. Prentiss.
Sever dead soldiers left behind at Mt. Zion had to be buried immediately though there was identification for only one. It was somehow known, perhaps because he lived long enough to tell them, that one was named Brandenburg. Mrs Arthusa Turner, in feelings of grief for the nameless boys, some of whom, for all she knew, might have been from her native area, brought her finest linen tablecloth to the cemetery and spread it over the bodies in their common grave.
The site is now marked with a marker.
http://mtzioncemeteryboonecomo.webs.com/
