diff --git a/pandas/tools/tests/test_concat.py b/pandas/tools/tests/test_concat.py
index 568cf63c02e30..13c6b72ade27b 100644
--- a/pandas/tools/tests/test_concat.py
+++ b/pandas/tools/tests/test_concat.py
@@ -889,6 +889,59 @@ def test_union_categorical(self):
         with tm.assertRaises(ValueError):
             union_categoricals([])
 
+    def test_union_categoricals_nan(self):
+        # GH 13759
+        res = union_categoricals([pd.Categorical([1, 2, np.nan]),
+                                  pd.Categorical([3, 2, np.nan])])
+        exp = Categorical([1, 2, np.nan, 3, 2, np.nan])
+        tm.assert_categorical_equal(res, exp)
+
+        res = union_categoricals([pd.Categorical(['A', 'B']),
+                                  pd.Categorical(['B', 'B', np.nan])])
+        exp = Categorical(['A', 'B', 'B', 'B', np.nan])
+        tm.assert_categorical_equal(res, exp)
+
+        val1 = [pd.Timestamp('2011-01-01'), pd.Timestamp('2011-03-01'),
+                pd.NaT]
+        val2 = [pd.NaT, pd.Timestamp('2011-01-01'),
+                pd.Timestamp('2011-02-01')]
+
+        res = union_categoricals([pd.Categorical(val1), pd.Categorical(val2)])
+        exp = Categorical(val1 + val2,
+                          categories=[pd.Timestamp('2011-01-01'),
+                                      pd.Timestamp('2011-03-01'),
+                                      pd.Timestamp('2011-02-01')])
+        tm.assert_categorical_equal(res, exp)
+
+        # all NaN
+        res = union_categoricals([pd.Categorical([np.nan, np.nan]),
+                                  pd.Categorical(['X'])])
+        exp = Categorical([np.nan, np.nan, 'X'])
+        tm.assert_categorical_equal(res, exp)
+
+        res = union_categoricals([pd.Categorical([np.nan, np.nan]),
+                                  pd.Categorical([np.nan, np.nan])])
+        exp = Categorical([np.nan, np.nan, np.nan, np.nan])
+        tm.assert_categorical_equal(res, exp)
+
+    def test_union_categoricals_empty(self):
+        # GH 13759
+        res = union_categoricals([pd.Categorical([]),
+                                  pd.Categorical([])])
+        exp = Categorical([])
+        tm.assert_categorical_equal(res, exp)
+
+        res = union_categoricals([pd.Categorical([]),
+                                  pd.Categorical([1.0])])
+        exp = Categorical([1.0])
+        tm.assert_categorical_equal(res, exp)
+
+        # to make dtype equal
+        nanc = pd.Categorical(np.array([np.nan], dtype=np.float64))
+        res = union_categoricals([nanc,
+                                  pd.Categorical([])])
+        tm.assert_categorical_equal(res, nanc)
+
     def test_concat_bug_1719(self):
         ts1 = tm.makeTimeSeries()
         ts2 = tm.makeTimeSeries()[::2]
diff --git a/pandas/types/concat.py b/pandas/types/concat.py
index 3b30531fb30ac..c8af0ec62db86 100644
--- a/pandas/types/concat.py
+++ b/pandas/types/concat.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 import pandas.tslib as tslib
 from pandas import compat
 from pandas.compat import map
+from pandas.core.algorithms import take_1d
 from .common import (is_categorical_dtype,
                      is_sparse,
                      is_datetimetz,
@@ -254,10 +255,15 @@ def union_categoricals(to_union):
 
     new_codes = []
     for c in to_union:
-        indexer = categories.get_indexer(c.categories)
-        new_codes.append(indexer.take(c.codes))
-    codes = np.concatenate(new_codes)
-    return Categorical(codes, categories=categories, ordered=False,
+        if len(c.categories) > 0:
+            indexer = categories.get_indexer(c.categories)
+            new_codes.append(take_1d(indexer, c.codes, fill_value=-1))
+        else:
+            # must be all NaN
+            new_codes.append(c.codes)
+
+    new_codes = np.concatenate(new_codes)
+    return Categorical(new_codes, categories=categories, ordered=False,
                        fastpath=True)