This is a cenotaph. 31st Mayor of Knoxville, TN. Civil War officer, Captain Company D Sixth Tennessee Infantry, USA 1862-1865. Sheriff, mayor, representative. Bearden, in West Knoxville, was named in his honor. His remains were originally buried in the Bearden family cemetery on the Bearden farm on Middlebrook Pike which no longer exists. The family placed the marker in Highland Memorial Cemetery when the property was sold.

Marcus D. Bearden is the son of Benjamin and Elizabeth Minor Bearden. He married Dicy Kidd and had two children, Susan Bearden York and John Kidd Bearden. He was Captain of Company , 6th Tennessee Infantry USA during the civil war and was mayor of Knoxville shortly after that war ended.

"Case 898. — Captain M. D. Bearden, Co. D, 6th Tennessee, aged 34 years, was wounded in the left foot, at the Chattahoochee River, July 1, 1864, and was admitted to Lookout Mountain Hospital near Chattanooga eight days afterwards. Surgeon L. D. Harlow, U. S. V., reported : "A conical ball fractured the cuboid bone and lodged in the centre of the foot under the scaphoid bone. The foot became greatly swollen and inflamed, particularly on the inner side, and the patient, who had been a strong and robust man previous to the injury, grew weak, feverish, and irritable. On August 27th an abscess which had formed on the internal surface was opened, and the ball was extracted through the opening. Chloroform was used during the operation. Rapid improvement followed." The patient subsequently entered the Officers' Hospital at Knoxville, where he was mustered out of service April 27, 1865, and pensioned. The Knoxville Examining Board certified to anchylosis resulting from the injury. The Pension Office Examining Board, Washington, D. C, reported the pensioner's condition March 11, 1881, as follows: "This man can do no manual labor. The ankle and leg to the knee are much enlarged, and the lower two-thirds of the tibia and soft parts are much diseased. He has to use crutches at times to walk, and a stout cane at all times. He is very lame, and from the great ulceration of the bone and soft parts must suffer constant pain." -- The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. Part III, Volume II. (3rd Surgical volume) by U. S. Army Surgeon General's Office, 1883.