Union County, Georgia
in the war

This SCV Camp is located in Blairsville, Union County, Georgia in the middle of the North Georgia Mountains. Blairsville is the County Seat of Union County. Contrary to popular lore, UNION COUNTY WAS NOT NAMED FOR UNION SUPPORT DURING THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES a.k.a. the Civil War. The county was named 29 years earlier for the Jacksonian Union Party which agitated for the removal of the Cherokee. The men of Union County overwhelmingly fought for the Confederacy, as did the men in the surrounding mountain counties of Georgia and North Carolina.


In 1861, at the age of six, JOSEPH G. SOUTHER of the Choestoe District, Union County, Georgia . . .

I saw the first soldiers of my township enlisting for the front - happy, content, saying the war would be over in six weeks and not a drop of blood spilt . . . Thirty young men of my township joined the ranks, one-half of which never returned to once prosperous and happy homes.

The above is an excerpt from a letter written in the last year of J. G. Souther’s life (1855-1937). In the Spring of 1864, at the age of nine, Joseph Souther joined the Confederate Home Guard as a Scout. He served until the end.