Camp Boone was laid out in early 1861 by three men who had been authorized to raise a Kentucky Regiment for Confederate service.

Withers was temporarily given the rank General and placed in command of Camp Boone.

Another early camp commander was Simon Bolivar Buckner, a colonel and later brigadier general, who would eventually become the 30th Governor of Kentucky.

Its location was only 3.5 miles by road from the Kentucky-Tennessee state line, and slightly more than a mile from a Memphis, Clarksville and Louisville Railroad line that still in use today, owned and operated by the R.J. Corman Railroad Group.

Camp Boone was a major training site and staging area for the Confederate States of America Army of Tennessee, and many of the Kentuckians who joined the Confederate States Army began their service at Camp Boone.