A

Interpretive Signs in VA Cemeteries
 

Commemorating the Civil War Sesquicentennial, 2011-2015
 

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 

National Cemetery Administration 

History Program 
B

Printed Spring 2016
 

Cover image: Detail, sketch of Nashville National Cemetery, ca. 1869. National Archives & Records Administration.
 
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IntroductIon 

the national cemetery 

Administration (ncA) and the 

burial benefits it is responsible for 

providing to veterans and eligible 

family members today originated 

with the Civil War. It was the first 

instance of any federal government 

committing to inter the remains of 

its troops in “national cemeteries.” 

President Abraham Lincoln signed 

the legislation assuring that Union 

soldiers who “gave the last full 

measure of devotion” to the nation 

would be honored in perpetuity. 

To commemorate the Civil War 

sesquicentennial, 2011-2015, the 

NCA History Program undertook 

several educational and historic 

preservation projects. Visitors to VA 

national cemeteries, and to affiliated 

soldiers lots established by the U.S. 

government in private cemeteries, 

are the beneficiaries of this one: 

191 thematic interpretive signs that 

depict local war-related activity, 

explain why veterans are buried 

there, and highlight Medal of Honor 

recipients and memorials. 

This project supports the NCA 

Veterans Legacy Program, an 

education outreach program begun 

in 2014. Placement of signs at Civil 

War-era national cemeteries, many 

of which are remote, assure visitors 

have access to accurate historic 

information. Agencies are directed 

to do this per the National Historic 

Preservation Act, Section 110. The 

signs reinforce VA’s responsibility 

as steward of its oldest properties; 

most are listed on the national 

Register of Historic Places. 

Each sign includes VA’s web address 

so visitors may access VA benefit 

information. The low-maintenance, 

durable, and low-cost signs measure 

36 inches x 24 inches and are 

composed of a fiberglass-imbedded 

panel in an aluminum frame. All 

were installed in 2014-2015: 

•		 78 national cemeteries 

received a universal “NCA 

History” sign (first image). 

•		 79 national cemetery 

signs that expand on 

site-specific significance. 

•		 18 signs where VA oversees 

major Confederate 

interments: 9 in 

national cemeteries, 9 in 

Confederate-only sites. 

•		 15 soldiers or government lots 

contain site-specific signs. 

The signs compiled in this 

document are arranged 

alphabetically by cemetery name; 

see list, next page. 

This document is also available 

on-line through the NCA History 

Program website: www.cem.va.gov/

history/index.asp. 
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A National Cemetery System................................. 4
 

Albany Rural S/L [Albany, Ny]..............................5
 

Alexandria [Alexandria, VA] ................................ 6
 

Alexandria [Pineville, LA] ....................................7
 

Allegheny S/L [Pittsburgh, PA]............................ 8
 

Alton [Alton, IL] ................................................... 9
 

Annapolis [Annapolis, Md].................................10
 

Ashland S/L [Carlisle, PA]................................... 11
 

Balls Bluff [Leesburg, VA]................................... 12
 

Barrancas [Barrancas, FL].................................. 13
 

Bath [Bath, Ny]................................................... 14
 

Baton Rouge [Baton Rouge, LA].......................... 15
 

Baxter Springs S/L [Baxter Springs, KS]............ 16
 

Beaufort [Beaufort, SC]....................................... 17
 

Beverly [Beverly, NJ]........................................... 18
 

Camp Butler [Springfield, IL] ....................... 19 20
 

Camp Chase Confederate [Columbus, oH] .........21
 

Camp Nelson [Nicholasville, Ky]....................... 22
 

Cave Hill [Louisville, Ky] .................................. 23
 

Chattanooga [Chattanooga, TN] ........................ 24
 

City Point [Hopewell, VA]....................................25
 

Cold Harbor [Mechanicsville, VA] ..................... 26
 

Confederate Mound oak Woods [Chicago, IL] ....27
 

Confederate Stockade [Sandusky, oH]............... 28
 

Congressional [Washington, dC]....................... 29
 

Corinth [Corinth, MS]........................................ 30
 

Crown Hill [Indianapolis, IN]............................. 31
 

Crown Hill Confederate [Indianapolis, IN] ....... 32
 

Culpeper [Culpeper, VA]..................................... 33
 

Cypress Hills [Brooklyn, Ny] ....................... 34-36
 

danville [danville, VA] .......................................37
 

danville [danville, Ky]...................................... 38
 

danville [danville, IL] ....................................... 39
 

dayton [dayton, oH] ......................................... 40
 

Fayetteville [Fayetteville, AR].............................41
 

CEMETERy NAME ANd LoCATIoN
	

Finn's Point [Salem, NJ]................................ 42-43
 

Florence [Florence, SC]...................................... 44
 

Forest Hill S/L [Madison, WI] ............................45
 

Forest Home S/L [Milwaukee, WI] .................... 46
 

Fort Gibson [Fort Gibson, oK]............................47
 

Fort Harrison [Fort Harrison, , VA]................... 48
 

Fort Leavenworth [Fort Leavenworth, KS]........ 49
 

Fort McPherson [Maxwell, NE].......................... 50
 

Fort Scott [Fort Scott, KS] .................................. 51
 

Fort Smith [Fort Smith, AR] ......................... 52 53
 

Glendale [Richmond, VA]................................... 54
 

Grafton [Grafton, WV]........................................55
 

Green Mount S/L [Montpelier, VT].....................56
 

Hampton [Hampton, VA] ....................................57
 

Hampton VAMC [Hampton, VA] ........................ 58
 

Hot Springs [Hot Springs, Sd] ............................59
 

Jefferson Barracks [St. Louis, Mo] ............... 60 61
 

Jefferson City [Jefferson City, Mo].................... 62
 

Keokuk [Keokuk, IA]...........................................63
 

Knoxville [Knoxville, TN].................................. 64
 

Leavenworth [Leavenworth, KS] ........................65
 

Lebanon [Lebanon, Ky] ..................................... 66
 

Lexington [Lexington, Ky] .................................67
 

Little Rock [Little Rock, AR].........................68 69
 

Los Angeles [Los Angeles, CA]........................... 70
 

Loudon Park [Baltimore, Md]............................. 71
 

Marietta [Marietta, GA]......................................72
 

Marion [Marion, IN] ...........................................73
 

Memphis [Memphis, TN] ....................................74
 

Mill Springs [Nancy, Ky] ....................................75
 

Mobile [Mobile, AL] ............................................76
 

Mound City [Mound City, IL] ..............................77
 

Mound City S/L [Mound City, KS] ..................... 78
 

Mountain Home [Mountain Home, TN]..............79
 

Mt. Moriah S/L [Philadelphia, PA]..................... 80
 

Mt. Pleasant S/L [Augusta, ME]..........................81
 

Nashville [Madison, TN].................................... 82
 

Natchez [Natchez, MS] ....................................... 83
 

New Albany [New Albany, IN] ........................... 84
 

New Bern [New Bern, NC].................................. 85
 

North Alton Confederate [Alton, IL] .................. 86
 

oakdale S/L [davenport, IA] ..............................87
 

Philadelphia [Philadelphia, PA] ....................88 89
 

Point Lookout Confederate
	

[St. Mary's County, Md]...................................... 90
 

Port Hudson [Zachary, LA] ................................. 91
 

Prospect Hill S/L [Brattleboro, VT]................... 92
 

Prospect Hill S/L [york, PA] .............................. 93
 

Quincy [Quincy, IL]............................................ 94
 

Raleigh [Raleigh, NC] .........................................95
 

Richmond [Richmond, VA] ................................ 96
 

Rock Island [Rock Island, IL] .............................97
 

Rock Island Confederate [Rock Island, IL]........ 98
 

Salisbury [Salisbury, NC]................................... 99
 

San Antonio [San Antonio, TX].........................100
 

San Francisco [San Francisco, CA] ................... 101
 

Santa Fe [Santa Fe, NM] ...................................102
 

Seven Pines [Sandston, VA]............................... 103
 

Springfield [Springfield, Mo] .................... 104 105
 

St. Augustine [St. Augustine, FL]......................106
 

Staunton [Staunton, VA].................................... 107
 

Togus [Togus, ME] ............................................108
 

Union Confederate Monument
	

[Kansas City, Mo] .............................................109
 

Wilmington [Wilmington, NC] ......................... 110
 

Winchester [Winchester, VA] .............................111
 

Wood [Wood, WI] ............................................. 112
 

Woodland S/L [Cleveland, oH]......................... 113
 

Woodlawn [Elmira, Ny].............................. 114 115
 

Woodlawn Cemetery Confederate
	

Monument [Terre Haute, IN] ............................ 116
 
A NATIONAL CEMETERY SYSTEM

Civil War Dead

An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died in 

the Civil War between April 1861 and April 1865. As the death 

toll rose, the U.S. government struggled with the urgent but 

unplanned need to bury fallen Union troops. This propelled the 

creation of a national cemetery system.

On September 11, 1861, the War Department directed 

commanding officers to keep “accurate and permanent records 

of deceased soldiers.” It also required the U.S. Army

Quartermaster General, the office responsible for administering 

to the needs of troops in life and in death, to mark each 

grave with a headboard. A few months later, the department 

mandated interment of the dead in graves marked with 

numbered headboards, recorded in a register.

Soldiers’ graves near General Hospital, City Point, Va., c. 1863. Library of Congress.

Creating National Cemeteries

The authority to create military burial grounds came in an 

Omnibus Act of July 17, 1862. It directed the president to 

purchase land to be used as “a national cemetery for the 

soldiers who shall die in the service of the country.” Fourteen 

national cemeteries were established by 1862.

When hostilities ended, a grim task began. In October 1865, 

Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs directed officers 

to survey lands in the Civil War theater to find Union dead 

and plan to reinter 

them in new national 

cemeteries. Cemetery 

sites were chosen 

where troops were 

concentrated: camps, 

hospitals, battlefields, 

railroad hubs. By 1872, 

74 national cemeteries 

and several soldiers’ 

lots contained 305,492 

remains, about 45 

percent were unknown.

Knoxville was established after the siege of the city and 

Battle of Fort Sanders in 1863. Cemetery plan, 1892, 

National Archives and Records Administration.

Most cemeteries were less 

than 10 acres, and layouts 

varied. In the Act to Establish 

and to Protect National 

Cemeteries of February 22, 

1867, Congress funded new 

permanent walls or fences, 

grave markers, and lodges for 

cemetery superintendents.

At first only soldiers and 

sailors who died during the Civil War were buried in national 

cemeteries. In 1873, eligibility was expanded to all honorably 

discharged Union veterans, and Congress appropriated 

$1 million to mark the graves. Upright marble headstones honor 

individuals whose names were known; 6-inch-square blocks 

mark unknowns.

By 1873, military post cemeteries on the Western frontier joined 

the national cemetery system. The National Cemeteries Act of 

1973 transferred 82 Army cemeteries, including 12 of the original 

14, to what is now the National Cemetery Administration.

Lodge at City Point, Va., pre-1928. The first floor 

contained a cemetery office, and living room and 

kitchen for the superintendent’s family; three 

bedrooms were upstairs.

Reflection and Memorialization

The country reflected upon the Civil War’s human toll— graves and monuments, and gathered around rostrums to 

2 percent of the U.S. population died. Memorials honoring hear speeches. Construction of Civil War monuments peaked 

war service were built in national cemeteries. Most were in the 1890s. By 1920, as the number of aging veterans was 

donated by regimental units, state governments and veterans’ dwindling, more than 120 monuments had been placed in 

organizations such as the Grand Army of the Republic. the national cemeteries.

Decoration Day, later Memorial Day, was a popular patriotic National cemetery monuments, left to right: Massachusetts Monument, Winchester, Va., 1907; 

Maryland Sons Monument, Loudon Park, Baltimore, Md., 1885; and Women’s Relief Corps/Grand spring event that started in 1868. Visitors placed flowers on Army of the Republic Monument to the Unknown Dead, Crown Hill, Indianapolis, Ind., 1889.

mandated interment of the dead in graves marked with 

numbered headboards, recorded in a register.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benets and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
ALBANY RURAL SOLDIERS’ LOT

Mourners at Alexandria National Cemetery, Virginia, c. 1865. After 1873, standard marble 

headstones replaced the wood headboards seen here. Miller, Photographic History of the 

Civil War (1910).

Civil War Dead

An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died 

in the Civil War (1861-1865). As the death toll rose, the U.S. 

government struggled with the urgent but unplanned need 

to bury fallen Union troops. This propelled the creation of a 

national cemetery system.

On September 11, 1861, the War Department directed officers 

to keep “accurate and permanent records of deceased soldiers.” 

Federal authority to create military burial grounds came in an 

Omnibus Act of July 17, 1862. Cemetery sites were chosen where 

troops were concentrated: camps, hospitals, battlefields, railroad 

hubs. By 1872, 74 national cemeteries and several soldiers’ lots 

contained 305,492 remains. About 45 percent were unknown.

The U.S. government established soldiers’ lots at private 

cemeteries in northern states. National cemeteries, in contrast, 

were built throughout the South where most Civil War action 

occurred. While the army reported dozens of lots containing 

Union dead in the 1870s, the National Cemetery Administration 

maintains only fifteen. The number of graves ranges from less 

than ten to nearly 400 in these lots.

Albany at War

On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, 

South Carolina. The next day, the New York State Assembly 

appropriated $3 million to raise and provision 30,000 troops 

to help suppress the southern rebellion. Albany County 

raised ten Union infantry regiments and one artillery battery

to fight the Civil War. 

The area transportation network made the city a strategic 

military crossroads. Thousands of soldiers traveled by rail 

or river from Albany to New York City. There, they boarded

southbound steamships that took them to the battlefront. 

In spring 1861, Gen. John F. Rathbone, commander of 

the New York Militia, converted the Albany Industrial 

School into a hospital and erected three new buildings on 

the campus. Originally known as “The Barracks,” it later 

became a U.S. General Hospital named in honor of New 

York Senator Ira Harris. 

Undated photograph of Ira Harris U.S. General Hospital. 

U.S. National Library of Medicine. 

Albany Rural Cemetery plan showing soldiers’ lot. Phelps, The Albany Rural Cemetery (1893). 

Inset: Plan of the soldiers’ lot, 1866. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Soldiers’ Lot

Albany Rural Cemetery was an early pastoral burial ground 

established in 1844. In June 1862, the Albany Cemetery 

Association donated a small parcel in Lot 7, Section 75, to 

the U.S. government for the burial of Union dead. By 1868, it 

contained the remains of 126 soldiers and two sailors. Most 

had died in city hospitals, others were removed from southern 

battlefields or hospitals. Today 149 men lie in this lot, the last 

one buried in 1897. 

In the 1870s, a Civil War monument was gradually erected 

here. On Decoration (Memorial) Day 1872, the Grand Army 

of the Republic Lew Benedict Post No. 5 dedicated a granite 

pedestal and bust of President Abraham Lincoln. Four bronze 

plaques, cast from melted cannon, name the “648 brave souls 

from the county of Albany who gave their lives that the 

country might live.” By 1875, the monument featured a basrelief medallion of Lincoln, and a bronze figure of a Union 

soldier had replaced the bust. 

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs

National Cemetery Administration

To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov
ALEXANDRIA NATIONAL CEMETERY

Securing the Capital

On May 24, 1861, Gen. Winfield Scott ordered eleven 

regiments of Union troops from Washington, D.C., across the 

Potomac River, where they captured Arlington and Alexandria.

After their defeat in July at Manassas, Virginia, the Union 

Army began constructing fortifications to protect the capital 

city. Fort Albany, Battery Rogers, and Fort Ellsworth near 

Alexandria anchored the southern end of Washington’s defenses. 

The city became an important Union base of operations. 

Battery Rogers, Alexandria harbor, was one of ninety-three detached batteries that made up the 

defenses of Washington, c. 1864. Library of Congress.

Mansion House Hospital, at the intersection of North Fairfax and Cameron streets, c. 1864. 

Library of Congress. 

Military Hospitals

The influx of troops to Alexandria prompted the need for 

military hospitals. Thousands of sick and wounded Union 

soldiers were treated in area hospitals throughout the Civil 

War. The army opened Mansion House Hospital, Old General 

Hospital, Sickel General Hospital, and Slough Barracks 

General Hospital. It also established a large convalescent 

camp in Alexandria for soldiers who were discharged from the 

hospital but were still recovering. 

Beginning in March 1863, the federal government began 

actively recruiting black men for the Union Army. A few 

months later, the War Department created the Bureau of 

United States Colored Troops (USCT). USCT regiments 

fought in battles and engagements from Virginia to Texas. 

L’Overture General Hospital, designed by the Quartermaster 

Department, opened in Alexandria in February 1864 for the 

treatment of black soldiers and civilians.

The First National Cemeteries

Despite the numerous medical facilities in Alexandria, many 

soldiers died. The federal government acquired 4 acres 

adjoining the city cemeteries in 1862 to bury the dead. 

Initially it was known as Soldiers Cemetery. In 1871, the 

Quartermaster Department built a Second Empire-style lodge 

of Seneca sandstone at the entrance. A matching stone wall 

enclosed the cemetery. Today, Alexandria National Cemetery 

is the final resting place of about 4,000 individuals, including 

280 USCT soldiers. 

A simple boulder monument with a bronze plaque, erected 

in 1922, honors four civilian employees of the U.S. Army 

Quartermaster Corps. The men drowned attempting to cross 

the Potomac River on April 24, 1865, while pursuing John 

Wilkes Booth, President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin. Their 

graves are located near the monument.

Entrance to Alexandria National Cemetery, 1869. National Archives and Records Administration.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
ALEXANDRIA NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War Alexandria

Alexandria, Louisiana, served briefly as the headquarters 

of the Confederate Department of the Trans-Mississippi, 

a vast area encompassing states and territories west of the 

Mississippi River. 

In spring 1863, the Confederates moved this base north 

to Shreveport, just before a U.S. Army-Navy operation 

captured Alexandria on May 7. Union forces abandoned the 

city by summer. 

In spring 1864, Alexandria became the target of Union 

Gen. Nathaniel Banks’ Red River Campaign. In March, a 

combined land and sea operation captured Fort DeRussy, 

downriver from the city, and the Union reoccupied the city. 

Banks marched west where he was defeated by Confederate 

troops under Gen. Richard Taylor. He then retreated to 

Alexandria on April 9, where low river levels trapped the naval 

fleet. Troops constructed a dam to raise the water level and the 

gunboats escaped. The Union Army withdrew from Alexandria 

on May 13, burning part of the city as they departed.

Union gunboats float over the dam at Alexandria. Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil 

War (1894). 

Superintendent’s lodge, 1895. National Archives and Records Administration. 

National Cemetery

In 1867, the federal government established Alexandria 

National Cemetery on 8.24 acres seized from a private 

citizen. By 1874, there were 1,283 interments here. All but 

twelve graves contained the remains of Union soldiers or 

sailors. The majority were buried as unknowns. 

By 1880, a brick wall surrounded the cemetery. A brick 

Second Empire-style lodge housed the superintendent 

and his family. Large artillery pieces flanked the cemetery 

entrance. Trees planted along the road created a shady 

avenue from the main gate to the flagstaff at the center of the 

cemetery. In 1931, the old lodge was razed and the current 

one was constructed.

Moving the Brownsville Dead

In July 1906, the all-black 25th U.S. Infantry arrived at Fort 

Brown near Brownsville, Texas, for duty. These soldiers 

experienced discrimination and physical abuse in the town. 

On August 13, 1906, unknown persons killed a bartender and

wounded a police officer. The soldiers were accused but denied 

any involvement. The army summarily discharged “without 

honor” all 167 enlisted men. As a result of the incident, the 

War Department decided to close the fort and remove the 

remains from Brownsville National Cemetery. The former post 

cemetery, established during the Mexican-American War, had 

been designated a national cemetery in 1867. 

In 1909, a contractor, using local labor, exhumed more 

than 3,000 dead from this cemetery. Five freight-train cars 

transported the remains to Alexandria. The identified 

remains were interred along the northwest wall, and the area 

designated Section B. Unknown remains were placed in a 

mass grave on the southeast side of the flagpole circle. The 

federal government erected a group monument on this grave.

Workers remove remains from Brownsville National Cemetery, Texas, c. 1909. 

Brownsville Historical Society.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
ALLEGHENY SOLDIERS’ LOT

Mourners at Alexandria National Cemetery, Virginia, c. 1865. After 1873, standard marble 

headstones replaced the wood headboards seen here. Miller, Photographic History of the 

Civil War (1910).

Civil War Dead

An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died 

in the Civil War (1861-1865). As the death toll rose, the U.S. 

government struggled with the urgent but unplanned need 

to bury fallen Union troops. This propelled the creation of a 

national cemetery system.

On September 11, 1861, the War Department directed officers 

to keep “accurate and permanent records of deceased soldiers.” 

Federal authority to create military burial grounds came in an 

Omnibus Act of July 17, 1862. Cemetery sites were chosen where 

troops were concentrated: camps, hospitals, battlefields, railroad 

hubs. By 1872, 74 national cemeteries and several soldiers’ lots 

contained 305,492 remains. About 45 percent were unknown.

The U.S. government established soldiers’ lots at private 

cemeteries in northern states. National cemeteries, in contrast, 

were built throughout the South where most Civil War action 

occurred. While the army reported dozens of lots containing 

Union dead in the 1870s, the National Cemetery Administration 

maintains only fifteen. The number of graves ranges from less 

than ten to nearly 400 in these lots.

Pittsburgh at War

When President Abraham Lincoln issued a call for 

volunteers on April 12, 1861, to suppress the southern 

rebellion, the quota for Pittsburgh was 3,277 men. More 

than 11,000 came forward. Forty companies raised from 

Allegheny County remained at Camp Wilkins, which was 

established on the city’s fairgrounds. In August 1861, 

the U.S. Army took charge of the camp and mustered the 

men into Union service.

The area’s river network transported thousands of men 

and tons of supplies to the battlefront. City foundries 

produced in excess of 1,100 cannon—nearly 15 percent of 

all artillery made for the U.S. Army during the Civil War.

Pittsburgh rallied for the war effort. In fall 1861, citizens 

formed a subsistence committee. Members served more 

than 400,000 meals to soldiers who passed through the 

city. Mercy Hospital, established in 1847 by the Sisters of 

Mercy, a Roman Catholic order of nuns, filled with sick 

and wounded soldiers. Overcrowding at Mercy led the 

federal government to establish a military hospital in 1862 

at West Pennsylvania Hospital.

Allegheny Arsenal, in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood, manufactured cartridges and 

other ammunition for the Union. An explosion on September 12, 1862—the same day as the 

Battle of Antietam, Maryland—killed 78 workers, most young women. Many were buried 

together at Allegheny Cemetery. Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh. 

Allegheny Cemetery plan, 1947, with soldiers’ lot shaded green. The 103rd anniversary 

commemorative booklet. Inset: Soldiers’ lot plan, 1956. National Cemetery Administration.

Soldiers’ Lot

Allegheny Cemetery, incorporated in 1844, is an early rural-style 

burial ground. In 1862, the Allegheny Cemetery Association set 

aside a lot in Section 33 for the free burial of U.S. soldiers who 

died during the Civil War. Some 236 Union soldiers and several 

Confederate prisoners were eventually interred here. In 1875, 

the federal government obtained a deed for the land.

The next year, the Allegheny County Ladies Memorial 

Association erected a monument in the lot. Pittsburgh artist 

Fred Mayer designed the 16-foot-tall sandstone sculpture 

composed of an allegorical figure of “Grief” atop a pedestal. 

Bas-relief carvings of soldiers and sailors alternate with bronze 

plaques on the pedestal. Four carved mortars—small, blunt 

artillery—anchor the base.

The graves in this lot feature standard government-issued 

marble headstones. Union dead are marked by a rounded-top 

design approved in 1873, and Confederate dead by pointedtop headstones, first used in 1901.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
ALTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War Alton

In spring 1861, pro-Confederate militia in St. Louis, Missouri, 

threatened to capture the U.S. arsenal there. Union forces 

in Illinois commandeered the steamboat City of Alton, sailed 

south, and at midnight on April 25, tied up at the St. Louis

wharf. Under the command of Capt. James B. Stokes, 

700 volunteer soldiers loaded 21,000 small arms, artillery, 

gunpowder, and ammunition aboard, then steamed back to 

Alton. From there, the supplies went by rail to Springfield, 

Illinois. Later, these would be distributed to Union regiments.

Over the course of the Civil War, some 4,450 Madison County 

residents formed twenty companies in thirteen Illinois 

regiments. The Union Army maintained a garrison and 

hospital in Alton. Women volunteered as nurses and in 1863 

formed the Ladies’ Loyal League of Alton. Members knitted 

socks and organized a fair that raised money to send food 

and other necessities to soldiers. Alton Military Prison, a 

converted state penitentiary, housed Confederate prisoners of 

war from 1862 into 1865. 

Twentieth-century lithograph of steamboats City of Alton (left) and Robert E. Lee (right), 

by Carole Krite. Courtesy Missouri History Museum, St. Louis.

Early twentieth-century view of soldiers’ lot. National Archives and Records Administration. 

National Cemetery

A soldiers’ lot in Alton City Cemetery served as the first burial ground for 

Union soldiers who died in the military hospital and aboard riverboats. 

By 1866 there were 163 graves here, twelve unknown. Because the lot was 

located within the city cemetery, a superintendent was not needed. The 

government paid the city $30 per year to maintain its graves. They were 

marked with permanent marble headstones in the late 1870s.

After lengthy negotiation, the U.S. Army took title to the 0.48-acre 

parcel in 1940. In exchange, it agreed to build a rostrum. An Art Decostyle entrance with speaker’s stand was completed in 1941 using Works 

Projects Administration funds in excess of $20,000. During this time, 

forty-nine Union soldiers interred elsewhere in the city cemetery were 

moved here. In 1948, the lot was designated a national cemetery.

Grand Army of the 

 Republic Monument

In 1890, Alton Post No. 441 of the 

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a 

Union veterans’ organization, erected a 

monument overlooking the soldiers’ lot. 

The monument consisted of an artillery 

tube atop a rough-faced granite base.

One side was inscribed “The Union Dead,” 

the other “Dulce et decorum est pro patria 

mori” (It is sweet and glorious to die for 

one’s country). 

Early twentieth-century view of GAR monument and wooden flagpole, 

neither of which survive. National Archives and Records Administration.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
ANNAPOLIS NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War Annapolis

In April 1861, Gen. Benjamin Butler and his Massachusetts 

troops entered the Maryland capital to ensure the state remained 

in the Union. The U.S. Army then formed the Department of 

Annapolis, headed by Butler, to secure communication between 

the North and Washington, D.C. By summer, the U.S. Naval 

Academy was converted into a hospital. As Civil War fighting 

along the eastern seaboard intensified, St. John’s College became 

a second hospital. 

Annapolis also served as a parole camp. Union and Confederate 

forces exchanged prisoners on a one-for-one basis. Some were 

confined, others paroled and released. Paroled soldiers swore 

an oath to not take up arms until they were formally exchanged. 

Union authorities wanted their men available as soon as they 

were exchanged, so the U.S. Army housed the parolees in camps 

instead of allowing them to go home. At one time, Camp Parole 

near Annapolis housed 25,000 Union soldiers awaiting exchange.

Camp Parole near Annapolis, 1865. Library of Congress.

U.S. Naval Academy buildings used as a U.S. General Hospital during the war, c. 1864. 

Library of Congress. 

National Cemetery 

In 1862, the government leased 4 acres from Judge Nicholas 

Brewer. This land became Annapolis National Cemetery. 

Men who died at Camp Parole or the city’s military hospitals 

occupy most of the graves. An 1868 army inspection listed 

2,661 burials, including seven civilians, three female nurses, 

one Russian sailor, and one child. By the 1874 inspection, 

the list had been revised to 2,482 burials, including 211 

unknowns and fourteen citizens. In the 1910s, a federal 

commission identified a few Confederate prisoner-of-war 

dead buried in the cemetery, and their graves were marked 

with distinctive pointed-top headstones.

The irregular-shaped cemetery occupies rolling land enclosed 

by a stone wall. Originally burial sections were separated by 

grass paths, and a central drive extended from the main gate, 

around the flagstaff mound, to the opposite wall. The original 

1871 lodge was razed and replaced in 1940 with a Colonial 

Revival-style building. The old gates, too narrow for modern 

automobile access, were replaced at the same time. 

Postcard view of Annapolis National Cemetery, c. 1912, showing entrance, lodge, and tool house. 

National Cemetery Administration.

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ASHLAND SOLDIERS’ LOT

Mourners at Alexandria National Cemetery, Virginia, c. 1865. After 1873, standard marble 

headstones replaced the wood headboards seen here. Miller, Photographic History of the 

Civil War (1910).

Civil War Dead

An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died 

in the Civil War (1861-1865). As the death toll rose, the U.S. 

government struggled with the urgent but unplanned need 

to bury fallen Union troops. This propelled the creation of a 

national cemetery system.

On September 11, 1861, the War Department directed officers 

to keep “accurate and permanent records of deceased soldiers.” 

Federal authority to create military burial grounds came in an 

Omnibus Act of July 17, 1862. Cemetery sites were chosen where 

troops were concentrated: camps, hospitals, battlefields, railroad 

hubs. By 1872, 74 national cemeteries and several soldiers’ lots 

contained 305,492 remains. About 45 percent were unknown.

The U.S. government established soldiers’ lots at private 

cemeteries in northern states. National cemeteries, in contrast, 

were built throughout the South where most Civil War action 

occurred. While the army reported dozens of lots containing 

Union dead in the 1870s, the National Cemetery Administration 

maintains only fifteen. The number of graves ranges from less 

than ten to nearly 400 in these lots.

Carlisle at War

After Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, South 

Carolina, in April 1861, the men of Carlisle responded 

to the national call to put down the southern rebellion. 

Four companies of Pennsylvania infantry and five cavalry 

companies were organized here. Carlisle Army Barracks, 

just outside of town, included a Quartermaster and 

Ordnance Depot, and U.S. Cavalry training facility.

The Civil War reached Carlisle in June 1863. Confederate

cavalry briefly occupied the town, taking from its citizenry 

supplies for both men and horses. Soon after, Confederate 

infantry arrived at the deserted U.S. Army barracks. Within 

a few days the rested and fed Confederates departed.

On July 1, Union forces set up artillery in Carlisle. When 

Confederate forces arrived and demanded their surrender, 

they declined. The Confederates burned Carlisle Barracks 

that night and departed. After the Battle of Gettysburg, 

50 miles to the south, buildings at Dickenson College and 

many others in town served as temporary hospitals. 

Confederate forces attack Carlisle. Harper’s Weekly Magazine (July 25, 1863).

Detail from Atlas of Cumberland 

County, Pennsylvania (1872) showing 

Ashland Cemetery. The soldiers’ 

lot is located on the west perimeter. 

Above: View of south end of lot in 1935. 

The mass grave is located beyond the 

cannon. National Archives and Records 

Administration. 

Military Burials

Ashland Cemetery was established in 1865 on 12 acres. The 

soldiers’ lot was acquired by the federal government in March 

1866. An 1870 army inspection reported thirty-eight graves in 

the rectangular 0.2-acre lot. In May 1871, burials from Carlisle 

Barracks Post Cemetery were moved here. More than 300 sets 

of remains were recovered, far more than expected. 

In the 1930s, the army tried to determine the number of 

unknown dead buried in the north end of the lot in order to 

erect a monument on the mass grave. Eventually, a standard 

government headstone, inscribed “500 Unknown U.S. Soldiers,”

was installed. Later research identified thirty-five of the dead. 

A granite monument with a bronze plaque inscribed with these

names replaced the headstone in 1960.

Today, the soldiers’ lot contains twenty-three individual 

graves. Civil War Medal of Honor recipient Pvt. Jacob Cart, 

7th Pennsylvania Reserve Infantry, is memorialized here. He 

captured a Confederate regimental flag at Fredericksburg, 

Virginia, on December 13, 1862 (Section 22, Row D, Site 24).

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs

National Cemetery Administration

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for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov
BALL’S BLUFF NATIONAL CEMETERY

Battle of Ball’s Bluff 

On October 20, 1861, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, 

commander of the Army of the Potomac, ordered 

Brig. Gen. Charles P. Stone to scout Confederate forces on 

the Virginia side of the Potomac River near Leesburg.

Early on the morning of October 21, Union forces crossed 

the river to attack what was reported to be an unguarded 

Confederate camp. Instead, they came upon Southern 

troops under the command of Confederate Col. Nathan 

“Shanks” Evans and fighting ensued. 

Robert Knox Sneden’s map of the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, 1861. Union forces are shown in purple, 

Confederate in red. Virginia Historical Society.

Union soldiers recover comrades’ bodies from the Potomac River, c. 1861. Library of Congress. 

Senator Baker’s Command

Stone ordered Col. Edward Baker, a U.S. senator, to Ball’s Bluff 

to take charge of Union forces. Baker attempted to reinforce 

the troops but was delayed crossing the Potomac River. Only 

four small boats were available to transport soldiers. This extra 

time allowed Evans to call in additional Confederate forces 

from Leesburg. By late afternoon Baker was dead. Panicked 

Union soldiers retreated. Many drowned as they tried to swim 

across the river. The Union dead were buried on the battlefield 

in shallow, hastily dug graves.

Creating a National Cemetery

In April 1862, a surgeon with the Pennsylvania Volunteers was 

sent to Ball’s Bluff to identify their dead. He reported graves in 

poor condition scattered on the bluff, and that it was impossible 

to “determine the State to which the bodies had belonged.” 

In 1865, Lt. Col. James M. Moore, U.S. Army, recommended 

the “remains be disinterred, and removed to a suitable site on 

the bluff; and their graves be marked Unknown United States 

Soldiers, killed October 21st, 1861.”

By 1871, the remains of fifty-four soldiers had been interred 

in twenty-five graves arranged in a semi-circle around a 

central path. A red sandstone wall was built to enclose the 

cemetery. Attempts to have the remains moved to Arlington 

National Cemetery, the last in 1882, were ultimately rejected. 

Pvt. James Allen, Co. H, 15th Massachusetts Infantry, is the 

only known burial in the second-smallest national cemetery. 

The battlefield and cemetery were designated a National 

Historic Landmark in 1984.

Cemetery landscape plan, 1902. National Archives and Records Administration. 

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs

National Cemetery Administration

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for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov
BARRANCAS NATIONAL CEMETERY

Early U.S. Military Presence 

In 1825, President John Quincy Adams ordered 

the creation of a naval station at Pensacola, Florida 

Territory. The Pensacola Navy Yard opened the 

following year. 

The first U.S. Naval Hospital was built here to treat 

victims of malaria, yellow fever, and other tropical 

diseases common to the Gulf Coast. A cemetery 

was established soon after. 

The War Department improved the naval defenses 

in 1839 by building Fort Barrancas near the small 

hospital cemetery.

Civil War Pensacola 

As Southern states were voting to secede from the Union, the 

small federal garrison at Pensacola abandoned mainland forts. 

Troops fled to Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island in the Gulf 

of Mexico. In February 1861, Confederate troops commanded 

by Gen. Braxton Bragg occupied the abandoned U.S. forts, 

including Fort Barrancas and the Pensacola Navy Yard. An 

uneasy truce held until April 12, 1861, when Confederate 

troops fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, and the Civil War 

began. Confederate forces attacked Fort Pickens on October 9, 

1861. They captured an outlying Union camp but not the fort. 

Union batteries shelled the ships ferrying Confederate soldiers 

back to Pensacola. In early 1862, Confederate forces retreated 

to Mobile, Alabama. The U.S. Navy then held Pensacola for the 

remainder of the war. 

Fort Barrancas, June 1861. Library of Congress. 

Confederates encamped near Pensacola Navy Yard, spring 1861. Library of Congress. 

National Cemetery

In 1868, the Quartermaster Department advised that the 

hospital cemetery be expanded to create Barrancas National 

Cemetery. Troops who died in Florida during the Civil War 

were reinterred in the 7-acre cemetery—soldiers on the west side 

and sailors on the east. Remains from coastal Escambia, Jackson, 

and Washington counties were later buried here. Seventy-two

Confederate soldiers who died during the South’s brief 

occupation of Pensacola are also interred here.

National cemetery entrance and brick wall are visible beyond the original wood gates, 1904. 

National Archives and Records Administration. 

The cemetery superintendent lived at Fort Barrancas until the 

U.S. Army constructed a lodge on the grounds in 1868. An 

8-foot-tall brick wall was erected around the cemetery the next 

year. The cemetery continued to change in the twentieth century. 

A replacement lodge was built in 1904 and razed in 1996. 

In 1950, the U.S. Navy transferred 20-plus acres to the army to 

expand the cemetery. It contained Warrington Cemetery, a burial 

ground the navy created in 1935 when it consolidated several 

civilian cemeteries scattered through the navy yard. No burials 

have occurred in the civilian cemetery since. 

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BATH NATIONAL CEMETERY

Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home

In 1872, the New York legislature passed an unfunded 

bill to create the New York Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home. 

The Grand Army of the Republic, a Union Army 

veterans group, raised money to construct the first 

three buildings. The State Home served its first meal on 

Christmas Day 1878.

The campus grew to contain more than 100 structures 

on almost 400 acres. In 1906, the population reached 

2,187. By 1928, the death rate of aging Civil War 

veterans reduced the resident population to 192. 

The New York State Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home, from the Home’s letterhead, 1881. 

National Archives and Records Administration.

In 1929, the federal government assumed responsibility 

for the facility and it became the Bath Branch of the 

National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. It was 

the last of eleven National Homes designated since 1865. 

The National Homes were merged with the U.S. Veterans 

Bureau and Bureau of Pensions to form the Veterans 

Administration (now the U.S. Department of Veterans 

Affairs) in 1930. 

Postcard view of the 1894 monument and cemetery, 1911. National Cemetery Administration.

National Cemetery

The first burial was Pvt. William C. Terrell in 1879. By 1912, an 

estimated 4,225 Civil War veterans lay in the cemetery, including 

former members of U.S. Colored Troops. Among those interred here 

is Pvt. Robert Knox Sneden, who chronicled the Civil War in colorful 

drawings and maps.

Sneden served in the Army of the Potomac as a topographical engineer. 

In November 1863 he was captured and spent thirteen months in 

Confederate prisons, including Andersonville, Georgia. After his 

December 1864 release, the army discharged him. Sneden returned 

to New York City and compiled a memoir and scrapbook of images 

documenting his military service. He entered the State Home in 1904, 

and died there in 1918 (Section J, Row 11, Grave 14).

Rebel Battery in the Potomac River, 1862, by Pvt. Robert Knox Sneden. Virginia Historical Society.

Medal of Honor Recipients

Five Civil War recipients of the Medal of Honor are 

buried in the cemetery. First bestowed in 1863, it is 

the highest award for military valor in the U.S. Armed 

Services. For acts above and beyond the call of duty, 

1,522 individuals who served in the Civil War received 

the medal.

Pvt. George Grueb, 158th New 

York Infantry, was commended for 

gallantry at the Battle of Chaffin’s 

Farm, Virginia, September 29, 1864 

(Section A, Row 2, Grave 3).

Sgt. John Kiggins, 149th New York 

Infantry, saved men from friendly 

fire at Lookout Mountain, 

Tennessee, November 24, 1863 

(Section H, Row 32, Grave 9).

Pvt. George Ladd, 22nd New 

York Cavalry, captured a 

Confederate color guard, flag, 

and horse at Waynesboro, 

Virginia, March 2, 1865 

(Section C, Row 6, Grave 6).

Sgt. Charles E. Morse, 62nd New York Infantry, seized 

the colors from a wounded sergeant and, though soon 

injured, carried them during the Battle of the Wilderness, 

Virginia, May 5, 1864 (Section J, Row 4, Grave 24).

Seaman James Roberts, U.S.S. Agawam, was among 

the crew of a powder boat detonated near Fort Fisher, 

North Carolina, December 23, 1864 (Section I, Row 26, 

Grave 2). 

Civil War Army Medal of Honor. 

Gettysburg National Military Park. 

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BATON ROUGE NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War Baton Rouge

Control of the Mississippi River and New Orleans was vital to 

the Union war effort. In April 1862, Union gunboats steamed 

up the river. The vessels evaded the guns of Confederate-held 

forts located below New Orleans, and the city surrendered 

without a fight on April 28. 

Union vessels anchored at Baton Rouge, March 1863. Library of Congress.

Knowing that Baton Rouge would fall next, Louisiana Gov. 

Thomas O. Moore ordered that all cotton stored in the city be 

moved or burned. Residents of the capital city fled as barges 

of blazing cotton were set adrift on the river. The Union Army 

captured Baton Rouge on May 7, 1862. 

That August, the ironclad gunboat C.S.S. Arkansas and infantry 

commanded by Confederate Gen. John C. Breckinridge 

attempted to retake the city. On August 5, the Confederates 

successfully pushed Union troops to the city’s outskirts. When 

fighting resumed the next day, the Union held the line and 

the Confederates retreated. Baton Rouge remained in federal 

control for the rest of the war.

Postcard view of cemetery, after 1910. National Cemetery Administration. 

National Cemetery 

Union soldiers killed in the Battle of Baton Rouge were 

the first burials here. Soldiers and sailors who died in city 

hospitals followed. The property was designated Baton 

Rouge National Cemetery in 1867. 

The federal government enlarged the cemetery by purchasing 

an additional 8 acres. The U.S. Army removed the remains 

of soldiers buried in Plaquemine and Iberville parishes and 

Camden, Arkansas, and reinterred them here. 

Improvements in the 1870s included a Second Empire-style 

brick superintendent’s lodge, flagstaff, and gun monuments 

flanking the entry road. The lodge was replaced in 1931. 

Section 3 contains several private, pre-Civil War burials from 

the old Baton Rouge Army Post Cemetery. In 1882, remains 

from that cemetery were exhumed and reinterred here. 

Massachusetts Monument 

Massachusetts funded a monument to honor its Civil War 

troops—thirteen infantry regiments and seven artillery 

batteries—who served in the U.S. Army Department of the 

Gulf. The 40-foot-tall granite obelisk was built by J. N. White 

and Sons of Quincy, Massachusetts, at a cost of $5,000. 

On November 15, 1909, Massachusetts Gov. Ebenezer 

Draper, with fifty-nine officials and Union veterans, travelled 

to Baton Rouge to dedicate the monument. Louisiana Gov. 

Jared Y. Sanders and Baton Rouge Mayor Robert L. Pruyn 

participated in a ceremony that included music, speeches, a 

military salute, and the playing of “Taps.”

Dedication of the Massachusetts Monument, 1909. John Teunisson Photograph Collection, 

Louisiana State Museum.

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BAXTER SPRINGS SOLDIERS’ LOT

Mourners at Alexandria National Cemetery, Virginia, c. 1865. After 1873, standard marble 

headstones replaced the wood headboards seen here. Miller, Photographic History of the 

Civil War (1910).

Civil War Dead

An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died 

in the Civil War (1861-1865). As the death toll rose, the U.S. 

government struggled with the urgent but unplanned need 

to bury fallen Union troops. This propelled the creation of a 

national cemetery system.

On September 11, 1861, the War Department directed officers 

to keep “accurate and permanent records of deceased soldiers.” 

Federal authority to create military burial grounds came in an 

Omnibus Act of July 17, 1862. Cemetery sites were chosen where 

troops were concentrated: camps, hospitals, battlefields, railroad 

hubs. By 1872, 74 national cemeteries and several soldiers’ lots 

contained 305,492 remains. About 45 percent were unknown.

The U.S. government established soldiers’ lots at private 

cemeteries in northern states. National cemeteries, in contrast, 

were built throughout the South where most Civil War action 

occurred. While the army reported dozens of lots containing 

Union dead in the 1870s, the National Cemetery Administration 

maintains only fifteen. The number of graves ranges from less 

than ten to nearly 400 in these lots.

Battle of Baxter Springs

On October 6, 1863, Confederate guerrilla William Clarke 

Quantrill planned a two-pronged attack on Fort Blair, a 

Union garrison near Baxter Springs, Kansas. One group of 

about 450 Confederates attacked from the east. The assault 

surprised the small Union post. Many soldiers were outside 

the fort at the time, but Lt. James B. Pond was able to rally 

his men and defend the fort.

A second group, led by Quantrill, got lost on the way to the 

fort. However, they encountered a detachment of Union 

soldiers escorting Gen. James G. Blunt, the U.S. district 

commander. The latter saw Quantrill’s men but, because 

most wore captured Union uniforms, their allegiance was 

unclear. The guerrillas charged and, after a brief exchange 

of gunfire, broke the Union line. Blunt lost more than 

eighty men, many executed after they had surrendered. 

Nearly 100 Union soldiers were killed in action that day. 

Seven weeks before they attacked Fort Blair, William Clarke Quantrill and his men raided 

Lawrence, Kansas. They killed 150 civilians and burned the town. Harper’s Weekly 

Magazine (September 5, 1863).

Soldiers’ lot plan, 1900. National Cemetery 

Administration. Undated photograph of the 

monument funded by the federal government. 

National Archives and Records Administration. 

Soldiers’ Lot

The Union dead were buried in Baxter Springs’ city cemetery. 

The U.S. government had planned to remove these remains to 

the new national cemetery in Springfield, Missouri. However, 

residents petitioned to retain and care for the graves. Between 

1869 and 1887, the City of Baxter Springs incrementally 

donated the 0.7-acre soldiers’ lot to the United States. In 1873, 

the mayor requested artillery pieces to be installed here as 

ornamental features. The U.S. Army Ordnance Department 

supplied the four 32-pounder cannon tubes that still flank the 

central monument.

The 27-foot-tall granite monument honoring the soldiers killed 

in the 1863 Battle of Baxter Springs was dedicated on Decoration 

(Memorial) Day 1886. Congress allotted $4,000 to build it. The 

figure of a Union soldier at parade rest stands on a pedestal 

inscribed with 163 names of soldiers and civilians buried here. 

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BEAUFORT NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War Beaufort

Soon after the Civil War began in April 1861, 

Confederate troops fortified the city of Beaufort. Fort 

Walker on Hilton Head Island and Fort Beauregard 

on St. Phillips Island protected the approach to Port 

Royal Bay. 

On the morning of November 7, 1861, a Union 

fleet of seventeen gunboats pounded the forts with 

artillery fire. By late afternoon, the Confederates 

had abandoned both islands.

Union Hospital No. 7 at Beaufort, c. 1865. Library of Congress. 

The Union Navy gained control of one of the best 

harbors on the Atlantic coast. Its blockading fleet 

could resupply and repair in protected waters. 

Beaufort, upriver from the islands, was transformed 

into a naval station, hospital center, and Union 

Army headquarters. 

Cemetery entrance, 1904, showing the first permanent superintendent lodge, 1881 (right), which replaced the 

temporary wood lodge, c. 1867 (left). The older building was built across the street from the cemetery (foreground), and 

later moved inside the cemetery to be used as an outbuilding. National Archives and Records Administration. 

National Cemetery

Beaufort National Cemetery was established in 1863. The U.S. Army 

Quartermaster General’s Office laid out the 22 acres in sections that radiate 

outward from a central plaza to form a half circle. Of the 9,226 interments 

here in 1874, about half were known. Many of the unknown dead were Union 

prisoners of war originally buried at Camp Lawton in Georgia.

New construction in the 1870s included a Second Empire-style lodge for the 

superintendent and a brick wall to enclose the cemetery. The existing Dutch 

Colonial Revival-style lodge was built in 1934. Although it has grown in size, 

the cemetery retains many of its original design features.

There are two Civil War monuments. The Union Soldiers Monument, a 

20-foot-tall granite obelisk, was erected through the efforts of Mrs. Eliza 

McGuffin Potter in 1870. The second, a marble tablet on a raised brick 

base, lists the names of 175 soldiers who Mrs. Potter attended as a nurse in 

Beaufort hospitals. 

U.S. Colored Troops

Beginning in March 1863, the federal government 

began recruiting black men for the Union Army. A 

few months later, the War Department created the 

Bureau of United States Colored Troops (USCT). 

USCT regiments fought in battles and engagements 

from Virginia to Texas. There are more than 1,700 

USCT soldiers buried here. 

In the late 1980s, the remains of nineteen soldiers, 

determined by archaeologists to be members of the 

all-black 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, 

were discovered on Folly Island near Charleston. 

In 1989, the remains were reinterred with full 

military honors between Section 56 and the back 

wall of the cemetery.

USCT reenactor pauses at coffins that contain the remains of black soldiers 

discovered on Folly Island, South Carolina, prior to reburial on Memorial Day 

1989. National Cemetery Administration. 

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BEVERLY NATIONAL CEMETERY

Beverly Hospital 

Two years into the Civil War, Philadelphia hospitals 

were filled with sick and wounded soldiers. To relieve 

the overcrowding, in 1864 the federal government 

established a military hospital in nearby Beverly. The 

New Jersey facility served soldiers requiring hospital 

care, and those recovering but not yet fit for active duty. 

The ailing arrived from Philadelphia aboard the steamer 

John A. Warner. According to local lore, the citizens of 

Beverly met the boat at the wharf and helped transport 

soldiers to the hospital. Church bells tolled in welcome, 

and women served food and coffee. 

The hospital accommodated 

up to 2,500 patients at a time. 

It closed in 1865.

Nurse and wounded Union soldier. Hospital Sketches and Camp and Fireside Stories (1869).

An 1898 view of the superintendent’s lodge, erected 1879, and in front of it, the New Jersey Soldiers’ 

Monument on a mound. National Archives and Records Administration. 

National Cemetery

In August 1864, a private citizen donated to the federal 

government land that became Beverly National Cemetery. 

Pvt. William Haskell, Company K, 24th Massachusetts Infantry, 

was the first burial on August 29, 1864. By the end of the war 

147 soldiers lay here, seven unknown.

One Civil War recipient of the Medal of Honor is buried in the 

cemetery: First Sgt. Bernard A. Strausbaugh (Strasbaugh), 3rd 

Maryland Infantry. First bestowed in 1863, it is the highest award 

for military valor in the U.S. Armed Services. For acts above and 

beyond the call of duty, 1,522 individuals who served in the Civil 

War received the medal. 

On June 17, 1864, Strausbaugh was injured recapturing the 

2nd Pennsylvania Provisional Artillery colors at Petersburg, 

Virginia. He died in a Beverly hospital on November 5, 1864 

(Section 1, Grave 102).

Soldiers’ Monument

On June 25, 1875, a roaring artillery salute ended a ceremony 

to dedicate an imposing marble monument at the cemetery. 

National Guard units, local dignitaries, and the New Jersey 

governor participated. The state appropriated $10,000 to build 

the monument. Nearly 60 feet tall, topped with a standing 

soldier, it was inscribed: “Erected by the State of New Jersey 

in Memory of her Patriot Dead.” The monument remained in 

place for more than seventy years. It was taken down in the 

1950s after it became unstable. The figure and part of the base 

now stand in front of the American Legion Post 115 building a 

few blocks north of the cemetery.

Above, New Jersey Soldiers’ Monument, c. 1898. 

National Archives and Records Administration.

Right, the monument as it appeared in 2014. 

Courtesy of Bill Brookover. 

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CAMP BUTLER NATIONAL CEMETERY

Camp Butler in 1862. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Union Training Camp

The State of Illinois established Camp Butler in August 1861 

in response to President Abraham Lincoln’s second call for 

volunteers to suppress the rebellion. Named for William 

Butler, the state treasurer, its location on Clear Lake was 

unfortunate. By October measles and typhoid swept the camp. 

Men who died were buried near the infantry encampment.

In December 1861, the military relocated to higher ground 

six miles southwest of Springfield. The new locale was served 

by reliable road and rail connections. Union troops departed 

Camp Butler in early February 1862. Until fall 1863, the facility 

served as a prison camp for Confederates.

After the last prisoners left, Camp Butler resumed its role 

as a Union training camp. Over the course of the Civil War, 

more than 200,000 Union soldiers passed through it. The 

camp formally closed on June 19, 1866. 

National Cemetery

The original 6.5-acre cemetery was created in 1862. More than 

700 Union soldiers who died in Camp Butler Hospital were 

buried here, along with a similar number of Confederate 

prisoners. Unlike most national cemeteries established after 

the Civil War, the first interments were not arranged in regular 

rows. Rather, graves were “dug as most convenient.”

For nearly a decade, a picket fence separated Union graves in 

the “cemetery proper” from Confederate graves. By the 1870s, 

a brick wall enclosed the entire property. All graves were 

marked temporarily with wooden headboards. Permanent 

headstones for Union graves were installed after 1873 and for 

Confederate graves in 1908.

The graves of unknown soldiers originally featured small, 

square marble markers. In 1938, the army replaced these with 

upright headstones to create a uniform appearance.

Pre-1908 view of cemetery showing the original superintendent’s lodge, flagpole mound, and 

unknown graves with square markers. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Ceremonial area with flagpole and cannon monuments, 1933. The original octagonal rostrum, left, 

was replaced in 1939. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Superintendents

An 1867 law directed the secretary of war to appoint a 

“meritorious and trustworthy” superintendent to manage each 

national cemetery. To qualify for the position, an individual 

must have been an army enlisted man disabled in service. A 

later change to the law allowed any honorably mustered-out or 

discharged commissioned officer or enlisted man to serve.

James McCaulley, who lost an arm while serving in the 

25th Indiana Infantry, was the first superintendent here. 

He saw the first permanent lodge constructed and flagstaff 

installed. Stone gateposts flanking the entrance supported 

an iron archway that read “National Cemetery.” 

From 1906 to 1930, Spanish-American War veteran George 

W. Ford, an African American, served as superintendent. He 

oversaw construction of the current lodge. Ford died in 1939 

and is buried in Section 3, Grave 869.

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CONFEDERATE BURIALS IN THE NATIONAL CEMETERY

Camp Butler Prison Camp

On February 16, 1862, Fort Donelson, a Confederate 

stronghold on the Cumberland River west of Clarksville, 

Tennessee, surrendered. Faced with 15,000 prisoners, the 

U.S. Army converted several training camps, including Camp 

Butler, into military prisons; it received 2,000 prisoners.

An additional 1,000 prisoners arrived in April 1862, after 

the capture of Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River, near 

New Madrid, Missouri. Beginning in September, prisoners 

were sent south for exchange for Union prisoners; the camp 

was empty by October. In early 1863, an estimated 1,665 

Confederate soldiers captured in Arkansas and Tennessee, 

arrived at Camp Butler.

Barracks were often full, forcing prisoners to live in tents. 

Illness reached epidemic proportions—pneumonia was a 

constant problem. When the last Confederate prisoners 

departed on May 19, 1863, more than 800 of their comrades 

had been buried in the prison cemetery, victims of inadequate 

facilities, poor sanitation, and disease.

Camp Butler, c. 1862. National Archives and Records Administration.

The Confederate section in 1939. National Archives and Records Administration.

Prison Dead

Prisoners who died at Camp Butler were interred in an old 

cornfield northeast of the camp, near the graves of Union 

soldiers. 

Like Union dead, prisoners were buried in individual coffins 

and placed in graves marked with headboards or stakes. All 

Confederate prisoners buried at Camp Butler are in their 

original graves.

The post burial ground at Camp Butler became a national 

cemetery in 1862. An 1868 U.S. Army inspection report 

explained the layout: “The burials were made from the 

hospitals at Camp Butler as the deaths occurred, and do not 

seem to have been made according to any regular plan or 

order; but the graves were dug as most convenient.”

In 1908, the Commission for Marking Graves of Confederate 

Dead erected the pointed-top marble headstones that still 

mark the graves.

Toward Reconciliation

On May 30, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic decorated 

Union and Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Thirty years later President William McKinley proclaimed:

The Union is once more the common altar of our love and 

loyalty, our devotion and sacrifice . . . Every soldier’s grave 

made during our unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to American 

valor . . . in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in 

the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers.

The War Department created the Confederate section 

at Arlington in 1901, and marked the graves with 

distinctive pointed-top marble headstones. Five years 

later, Congress created the Commission for Marking 

Graves of Confederate Dead to identify and mark the 

graves of Confederates who died in Northern prisons. 

Its mission was later expanded to encompass all national 

cemeteries that contained Confederate burials.

Four former Confederate officers headed the 

Commission over its lifetime. By 1916, it had marked 

in excess of 25,500 graves and erected monuments in 

locations where individual graves could not be identified.

In 1930, the War Department authorized the addition 

of the Southern Cross of Honor to the Confederate 

headstone.

North Alton Confederate Cemetery 

Monument, 1909, Alton, Ill.

Original Commission headstone (left) and 

headstone with Southern Cross of Honor (right).

facilities, poor sanitation, and disease.

36x24 Confederate Burials Camp Butler

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CAMP CHASE CONFEDERATE CEMETERY

Camp Chase, c. 1864. Ohio Historical Society.

Camp Chase Prison 

When President Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers to 

suppress the Southern rebellion in April 1861, thousands of 

men rushed to Camp Jackson in Columbus, Ohio. Authorities 

established Camp Chase after volunteers overwhelmed Camp 

Jackson, which had been hastily set up in a city park. Camp 

Chase remained a Union training camp throughout the war 

but assumed another function in June 1861, when the first 

prisoner arrived. By November, Camp Chase held nearly 300 

prisoners, many of them Northern civilians charged with 

aiding the Confederacy.

On February 16, 1862, Fort Donelson, a Confederate 

stronghold on the Cumberland River west of Clarksville, 

Tennessee, surrendered. Faced with housing 15,000 prisoners, 

the federal government turned several training camps, 

including Camp Chase, into prison camps. When prisoner 

exchanges ceased in summer 1863, the Camp Chase population 

exploded to more than 2,000 men. Camp Chase operated 

for the duration of the war, but by July 1865 all remaining 

prisoners had been released.

The Prison Cemetery 

By the time Camp Chase closed in 1865, more than 2,000 

Confederate soldiers were buried here in graves marked 

with wooden headboards. After the war, family and friends 

removed 126 bodies. Later, the remains of ninety-nine 

Confederates buried in Columbus City Cemetery and at Camp

Dennison, near Cincinnati, were reinterred here. In 1879, the

U.S. government bought the property.

Privately funded improvements and annual memorial 

observances began in 1893 under the direction of William 

Knauss, a former 

Union soldier. Knauss 

hired Henry Briggs, 

a local farmer, to 

maintain the cemetery. 

He also installed the 

memorial boulder. 

Knauss formed the 

Camp Chase Memorial 

Association to solicit 

funds to decorate the 

Confederate graves 

and erect a formal 

monument. The 

existing granite arch 

topped by a zinc soldier 

was erected in 1902.

In 1908, after determining that individual graves could 

be identified, the Commission for Marking Graves of 

Confederate Dead installed headstones. The Commission also 

erected metal fencing atop the stone wall and the decorative 

entrance gate to better secure the cemetery.

The monument, c. 1940. Urns on either side of the soldier 

were replaced later. National Archives and Records 

Administration.

Toward Reconciliation

On May 30, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic decorated 

Union and Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Thirty years later President William McKinley proclaimed:

The Union is once more the common altar of our love and 

loyalty, our devotion and sacrifice . . . Every soldier’s grave 

made during our unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to American 

valor . . . in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in 

the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers.

The War Department created the Confederate section 

at Arlington in 1901, and marked the graves with 

distinctive pointed-top marble headstones. Five years 

later, Congress created the Commission for Marking 

Graves of Confederate Dead to identify and mark the 

graves of Confederates who died in Northern prisons. 

Its mission was later expanded to encompass all national 

cemeteries that contained Confederate burials.

Four former Confederate officers headed the 

Commission over its lifetime. By 1916, it had marked 

in excess of 25,500 graves and erected monuments in 

locations where individual graves could not be identified.

In 1930, the War Department authorized the addition 

of the Southern Cross of Honor to the Confederate 

headstone.

North Alton Confederate Cemetery 

Monument, 1909, Alton, Ill.

Original Commission headstone (left) and 

headstone with Southern Cross of Honor (right).

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CAMP NELSON NATIONAL CEMETERY

U.S. Colored Troops barracks at Camp Nelson, c. 1865. National Archives and Records 

Administration. 

Camp Nelson

Gen. Ambrose Burnside, commander of the U.S. Army 

Department of the Ohio, established Camp Nelson in 

June 1863. It occupied a ridge above the Kentucky River 

about 20 miles south of Lexington. The Union depot 

provisioned the army’s invasion of East Tennessee, 

then the Western Theater. Camp Nelson provided 

mules, horses, and other quartermaster and commissary 

supplies. Nelson General Hospital and a Soldiers’ Home 

administered by the U.S. Sanitary Commission were 

established here.

Camp Nelson became an important recruiting and 

training camp for U.S. Colored Troops (USCT). Many

enslaved men who came to enlist brought their families. 

The army responded by building a large refugee camp 

to shelter them. More than 10,000 USCT passed through 

Camp Nelson, the third-largest USCT recruiting center 

established during the Civil War.

“Harvest of Death” 

Early in 1866, Capt. E. B. Whitman began gathering information 

in preparation for the reinterment of Union soldiers buried in 

the Military Division of Tennessee. This huge district included 

Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee. 

Captain Whitman, later lieutenant colonel, placed newspaper 

notices seeking locations of Union graves. Citizens, chaplains, 

soldiers, and officers replied. Whitman made three major 

expeditions across the region, stopping at hundreds of battlefields 

and engagement sites. Because of his work, thousands of Union 

dead were moved to twelve new national cemeteries. 

In May 1869, Whitman submitted a detailed summary of this 

difficult project to the quartermaster general. The report 

contained sketches and site plans of each cemetery, and data 

on interments and service affiliations.

Camp Nelson National Cemetery, from Brvt. Lt. Col. E. B. Whitman’s final report, c. 1869. Whitman 

used the phrase “Harvest of Death” in his exhaustive report to describe the work of collecting the dead. 

National Archives and Records Administration. 

National Cemetery

Prior to 1869, ten federally established or public cemeteries in 

Kentucky contained the remains of Union soldiers. The work of 

reinterring the dead was almost complete when the army changed 

its plan and reduced the number of cemeteries in the state to six. 

Cemetery gate, 1904. The cast-iron plaques contain information about the establishment of the 

national cemeteries (left) and the rules of behavior for visitors (right). National Archives and 

Records Administration. 

Camp Nelson National Cemetery, the largest, had been 

established to bury soldiers who died in camp. In 1867, the 

U.S. Army Quartermaster General’s Office moved remains 

here from Covington, Frankfort, London, Perryville, and 

Richmond, Kentucky. As a result, the cemetery more than 

doubled to 6.5 acres. 

Two years later, it contained 3,638 Union graves, including 

867 USCT. Fewer than one-third of the dead were unknown. By 

1874, the government had purchased another 3 acres and built a 

Second Empire-style lodge for the superintendent and his family. 

By law, the secretary of war appointed a “meritorious and 

trustworthy” superintendent to manage the cemetery. 

Ewald Schneider, who served in the 5th U.S. Artillery, was 

the first superintendent here. He lost a leg at the Battle of 

Chickamauga (Georgia) on September 19, 1863. 

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CAVE HILL NATIONAL CEMETERY

In September 1862, Union Maj. Gen. William “Bull” Nelson ordered women and children out 

of Louisville. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (October 18, 1862). 

Civil War Louisville

When the Civil War began, Louisville was the largest city in 

Kentucky and the twelfth largest in the nation. Because its 

commercial and industrial economy was not dependent on 

slave labor, less than 10 percent of the city’s population was 

enslaved. A major transportation hub, Louisville railroads 

connected it to other Kentucky cities, as well as Cincinnati, 

Ohio, to the east and Nashville, Tennessee, to the south. The 

Ohio River provided another transportation route. More 

than 100,000 Union soldiers passed through the city either 

by railroad or river. 

By 1862, Louisville was vital to the Union war effort. The 

Louisville & Nashville (L&N) Railroad carried supplies from 

northern states to Union troops in Tennessee and beyond. 

After the October 1862 Battle of Perryville, several hundred 

Confederate prisoners were confined in the city. Wounded 

Union soldiers were treated in Louisville’s nineteen military 

hospitals. Many soldiers who died of wounds or sickness 

were buried here. 

“Harvest of Death”

Early in 1866, Capt. E. B. Whitman began gathering 

information in preparation for the reinterment of Union 

soldiers buried in the Military Division of Tennessee. 

This huge district included Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, 

Mississippi, and Tennessee. 

Captain Whitman, later lieutenant colonel, placed 

newspaper notices seeking locations of Union graves. 

Citizens, chaplains, soldiers, and officers replied. Whitman 

made three major expeditions across the region, stopping 

at hundreds of battlefields and engagement sites. Because 

of his work, thousands of Union dead were moved to 

twelve new national cemeteries. 

In May 1869, Whitman submitted a detailed summary of 

this difficult project to the quartermaster general. The 

report contained sketches and site plans of each cemetery, 

and data on interments and service affiliations. 

Drawing of Soldiers’ Lot, later designated a national cemetery, at Cave Hill Cemetery, c. 1866.

National Archives and Records Administration.

Superintendent’s lodge, 1882. The Second Empire-style building, constructed in 1877 outside the 

cemetery wall, was sold in 1938. National Archives and Records Administration. 

National Cemetery

Prior to 1869, ten federally established or public cemeteries in 

Kentucky contained the remains of Union soldiers. The work of 

reinterring the dead was almost complete when the army changed 

its plan and reduced the number of cemeteries in the state to six. 

The private Cave Hill Cemetery, established 1848, had donated a 

half acre to the government for the burial of Union dead in 1861. 

Federal acquisitions between 1863 and 1868 brought the size 

of the lot to 2.9 acres. By 1869, the national cemetery contained 

3,910 interments. Only 563 were unknown. The remains came 

from several Kentucky locales including Henderson, Owensboro, 

and battlefields and sites along the L&N Railroad between here 

and Woodsonville, Hart County. 

One of the nation’s oldest Civil War monuments, honoring 

soldiers of the 32nd Indiana Infantry, was moved here in 1867. 

The Union Soldiers and Sailors Monument Association dedicated 

a memorial to the unknown dead buried in the national cemetery 

on July 25, 1914. 

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CHATTANOOGA NATIONAL CEMETERY

The Battle of Chattanooga, L. Prang & Co., 1880. Library of Congress. 

Civil War Chattanooga

Following a defeat at Chickamauga, Georgia, 

in September 1863, the Union Army retreated 

to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Confederate forces 

laid siege to the city, and for a month both sides 

tried to gain the advantage. Union Gen. Ulysses 

S. Grant secured a supply line into the city and 

in mid-November devised a plan to break the 

Confederate line on nearby Missionary Ridge.

In a series of engagements that began November 23,

1863, Grant’s troops were victorious. Two days 

later they attacked Missionary Ridge. The assault 

succeeded once Union troops were able to scale 

the ridge and pierce the Confederate line. The 

Confederates retreated down the east side of the 

ridge, ending the battle on November 25. 

National Cemetery

Gen. George H. Thomas established a 

cemetery here on December 25, 1863, 

“to provide a proper resting place for 

the remains of the brave men who fell 

upon the fields” of Chattanooga. 

The grounds, some 120 acres southwest 

of the city, were huge in comparison to 

other early military cemeteries. A stone 

wall enclosed 75 acres, where four miles 

of roadway meandered through eighteen 

picturesque burial sections. A central 

hill was reserved for the flagstaff and 

cannon monuments. The natural 

terrain influenced the landscape design, 

resulting in irregular-shaped sections 

that still define the cemetery. 

In 1867, this was designated Chattanooga

National Cemetery. The 1874 army 

inspection reported 12,928 interments 

here, 4,860 unknown.

There are two Civil War monuments. 

Members of the 4th Army Corps erected

a granite obelisk (between Sections C 

and F) in 1868 to honor fallen comrades. 

In 1880, a 32-foot-tall Neoclassical 

archway was erected at the original 

cemetery entrance. It is one of five 

monumental arches the army built in 

southern national cemeteries. 

Watercolor depiction of Section E, c. 1870s. 

National Archives and Records Administration. 

Andrews and eight raiders are buried in Section H. In 1890, the State of Ohio erected a 

monument here that features a bronze replica of the General locomotive. This postcard 

shows surviving raiders at the monument in 1908. National Cemetery Administration. 

Andrews Raid

On April 12, 1862, Kentucky civilian James J. Andrews led a daring 

raid. Andrews, another civilian, and twenty Union soldiers from the 

2nd, 21st, and 33rd Ohio infantries made their way to Big Shanty 

(Kennesaw), Georgia, and stole the locomotive General. As the 

raiders steamed north toward Chattanooga, they burned railroad 

bridges, cut telegraph lines, and tore up track.

Relentless pursuit, bad weather, and poor luck ended their mission. 

Confederate forces eventually captured all the men. After being 

tried, Andrews and seven others were hanged as spies. Some raiders 

escaped. Others were exchanged for Confederate prisoners. Nineteen 

soldiers received the Medal of Honor. Andrews and the other civilian 

were not eligible for the commendation. 

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CITY POINT NATIONAL CEMETERY

“The busiest place in Dixie”

City Point, Virginia, played a significant role in the final year 

of the Civil War. General-in-Chief of the Union Army Ulysses 

S. Grant established his headquarters here on June 15, 1864. 

Union ships sailed supplies up the James River to this hamlet 

north of Petersburg. 

The massive supply depot included more than 280 buildings 

that housed facilities and services essential to keeping the 

Union Army combat ready. Deliveries flowed in to support the 

100,000 men and 65,000 animals Grant employed in the siege 

of Petersburg. The Quartermaster Corps built eight wharves, 

which covered 8 acres and included 100,000 square feet of 

warehouse space. The magnitude of river traffic at City Point 

made it, briefly, one of the busiest ports in the world. 

The Union Army also established hospital facilities at City 

Point in 1864. At first the wounded were housed in 1,200 

tents. Later the army constructed ninety frame buildings 

capable of holding 5,400 men. The hospital complex included 

a water tower, ice house, dining hall and kitchens. By 1865, the 

complex had treated 29,000 patients.

Thousands of men, many former slaves, unload supplies on the wharf at City Point, c. 1864. 

Library of Congress.

National Cemetery

During the Civil War, Union and Confederate armies fought 

numerous battles for control of Richmond. Thousands 

of Union soldiers perished. They are now buried in City 

Point National Cemetery and six other national cemeteries 

established in the Richmond-Petersburg area in 1866. Most of 

the 6,909 burials were moved here from hospital cemeteries, 

including the old City Point burial ground, Point of Rocks 

Cemetery in Chesterfield County, and Harrison’s Landing in 

Charles City County. 

Rear of the original lodge at City Point sometime before it was razed in 1928. National Archives 

and Records Administration.

Unlike most Richmond-area national cemeteries where greater 

numbers of unknown dead are interred, only 1,400 unknowns 

are here. More than 1,100 Confederate soldiers, who died in 

nearby hospitals after the Union occupation, lie here, most in 

Section C. 

In the 1950s, several more Civil War soldiers were laid to rest 

in the cemetery. Work undertaken in a vacant lot in Hopewell, 

Virginia, in 1955, uncovered the graves of seventeen Union 

and Confederate soldiers. Four years later, construction crews 

working on Interstate 95 unearthed the remains of two 

Union soldiers. 

Army of the James

Beginning in March 1863, the federal government began 

actively recruiting black men for the U.S. Army. In May of the 

following year, the War Department created the Bureau of 

United States Colored Troops (USCT). These regiments fought 

in battles and engagements from Virginia to Texas. Originally, 

USCT regiments were assigned to both the X and XVIII Corps 

of the Army of the James, but were consolidated into the XXV 

Corps in December 1864. More than 1,300 USCT soldiers, 

both known and unknown, were buried here.

In 1865, a 20-foot-tall marble obelisk was erected at the 

cemetery under the direction of Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler 

and others. It honors the dead who served in the Army of 

the James. The badges of the XVIII Corps (trefoil cross), 

X Corps (four-bastioned fort), and XXIV Corps (heart) 

decorate the monument.

Members of the 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, c. 1865. The regiment was part of the Army of the 

James under Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler. Library of Congress. 

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COLD HARBOR NATIONAL CEMETERY

“Grant’s slaughter pen” 

Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army stood between Union 

Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Richmond, the Confederate 

capital. Grant ordered his cavalry to take and hold the vital 

crossroads known as Cold Harbor. On May 31, 1864, they 

succeeded, and that night both sides built fortifications. 

The next day, six Union divisions attacked. One New York 

soldier called it hell “turned up sideways.” The Union lost 

2,200 men, took 750 prisoners, and gained nothing.

A Union battery at the Battle of Cold Harbor, June 1864, Library of Congress. 

Grant planned another assault for the next morning, but 

everything went wrong. Union soldiers, maneuvering in 

the dark, did not reach their positions until dawn, and he 

postponed the attack one day to June 3. The delay allowed 

Lee to strengthen the Confederate line. Before sunrise, 50,000 

Union infantry charged. An hour later 7,000 Union soldiers 

lay dead or wounded. Grant later wrote, “I have always 

regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made.” 

The Union offensive on Richmond ended at Cold Harbor and 

Grant moved on to Petersburg, Virginia.

Depiction of the cemetery with headboards. Harper’s Weekly, October 1866.

National Cemetery

During the Civil War, thousands of Union soldiers perished in battles 

fought for control of Richmond. They are now buried in Cold Harbor 

National Cemetery and six other national cemeteries established in the 

Richmond-Petersburg area in 1866. Here lie soldiers who died at the 

battles of Mechanicsville, Savage Station, and many other nearby sites.

The 1.4-acre cemetery is divided into quadrants with a flagstaff 

mound at the center. It was enclosed by a brick wall in 1871. A Second 

Empire-style lodge built in the 1870s stands at the entrance. The 

remains of 889 unknown Union soldiers are interred in two trenches 

along the north wall.

Medal of Honor recipient Augustus Barry, a sergeant-major with the 

16th U.S. Infantry, was wounded in 1864 at the Battle of Kennesaw 

Mountain, Georgia. Berry’s commendation was for “conspicuous 

gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the 

call of duty.” In 1867, he was appointed the cemetery superintendent; 

four years later he was buried in Section A, Grave 309. 

Monuments

The first monument, a white marble sarcophagus, 

was erected in 1877 to mark trench burials containing 

the unknown dead. The citizens of New York and 

Pennsylvania erected monuments in 1909. The 

first is inscribed with the names of 219 men of the 

8th New York Heavy Artillery who died fighting 

at Cold Harbor. The second, a 30-foot-tall granite

shaft topped by a standing soldier, honors the 

sacrifice made nearby by Pennsylvania troops. 

Dedication of the Pennsylvania Monument, attended by surviving veterans and 

others, 1909. National Cemetery Administration.

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CONFEDERATE MOUND

Camp Douglas Prison 

Camp Douglas was established as a Union training camp 

on the south side of Chicago. When Fort Donelson, a 

Confederate stronghold on the Cumberland River west of 

Clarksville, Tennessee, surrendered in February 1862, the 

federal government hastily converted Camp Douglas and 

other training camps into military prisons. More than 26,000 

Confederate prisoners passed through Camp Douglas; more 

than 4,000 died there.

Men who died at Camp Douglas were buried at City Cemetery, 

now Lincoln Park, and at a smallpox cemetery. In late 1865, 

when local ordinances forced the U.S. Army to move the 

remains of an estimated 5,000 Confederate prisoners buried 

in the city, the federal government purchased this 5-acre lot in 

Oak Woods Cemetery. The remains of 655 Confederates and 

at least twelve Union guards from the smallpox cemetery were 

reinterred in Oak Woods. Two years later, the army moved an 

additional 3,384 bodies here from the City Cemetery. This lot 

became known as Confederate Mound.

Camp Douglas, c. 1864. Miller’s Photographic History of the Civil War. 

The unveiling of the monument in 1895. Library of Congress.

The 1895 Monument 

In 1887, the War Department approved an Ex-Confederate 

Association of Chicago proposal to place a memorial at 

Confederate Mound. John C. Underwood, a former 

Confederate officer, designed the memorial and raised funds 

to erect it. The army supplied four artillery pieces and 

enough projectiles to create six pyramidal stacks around the 

monument. The May 30 dedication in 1895 was a lavish 

spectacle witnessed by an estimated 100,000 people.

In 1911, the Commission for Marking Graves of Confederate 

Dead hired Van Amringe Granite Company of Boston, 

Massachusetts, to raise the nearly 40 foot monument and 

place it on a new base surrounded by a low mound. The 

mound features sixteen bronze plaques containing the names 

of 4,275 Confederate soldiers that the Commission was able

to document as having perished at Camp Douglas.

Toward Reconciliation

On May 30, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic decorated 

Union and Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Thirty years later President William McKinley proclaimed:

The Union is once more the common altar of our love and 

loyalty, our devotion and sacrifice . . . Every soldier’s grave 

made during our unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to American 

valor . . . in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in 

the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers.

The War Department created the Confederate section 

at Arlington in 1901, and marked the graves with 

distinctive pointed-top marble headstones. Five years 

later, Congress created the Commission for Marking 

Graves of Confederate Dead to identify and mark the 

graves of Confederates who died in Northern prisons. 

Its mission was later expanded to encompass all national 

cemeteries that contained Confederate burials.

Four former Confederate officers headed the 

Commission over its lifetime. By 1916, it had marked 

in excess of 25,500 graves and erected monuments in 

locations where individual graves could not be identified.

In 1930, the War Department authorized the addition 

of the Southern Cross of Honor to the Confederate 

headstone.

North Alton Confederate Cemetery 

Monument, 1909, Alton, Ill.

Original Commission headstone (left) and 

headstone with Southern Cross of Honor (right).

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CONFEDERATE STOCKADE CEMETERY

Confederate Prison 

On November 15, 1861, the War Department leased one 

half of Johnson’s Island, in Sandusky Bay, Ohio, and began 

constructing a 15-acre prison camp on the southeast shore. 

When complete, the prison complex included a 14-foot-tall 

board stockade that enclosed thirteen barracks, one of which 

served as a hospital. Each barracks had two external kitchens. 

Forty structures outside the complex housed prison staff. A 

redoubt with artillery looked down on the prison to guard 

against insurrection.

The redoubt at Johnson’s Island, c. 1863. Miller’s Photographic History of the Civil War.

In June 1862, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton ordered 

that all Confederate officers held at Camp Chase prison in 

Columbus, Ohio, be moved to Johnson’s Island. It became the 

official prison for Confederate officers; however, non-officers 

were held there, and officers were interned elsewhere.

Over the course of the war, about 12,000 prisoners were 

confined on Johnson’s Island. Compared to other Civil War 

prison facilities, a remarkably low number—239—died, 

despite the harsh climate and remote location. The first 

recorded death was David T. J. Wood on May 6, 1862; William 

Michael, who died in June 1865, the month the prison closed, 

was the last.

Confederate Stockade Cemetery, c. 1901. Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

The Cemetery 

Prisoners who died at Johnson’s Island were buried in a 

cemetery about a half mile from the prison. The soft, loamy 

island soil made digging easy, but 4-5 feet below ground was 

solid bedrock, which prevented burials at customary levels of 

6 feet. Each grave was marked with a wooden headboard.

After the war, friends or relatives removed more than twenty 

bodies. Marble headstones—206 total—were erected in 1890 

through the efforts of a group of Georgia journalists who 

visited the cemetery and reported in state newspapers the lack 

of permanent markers. Many of these headstones remain in 

place today.

The cemetery after the headstones were placed, pre-1910. Sandusky Library Archives Research 

Center.

Mary Patton Hudson 

In 1905, the Robert Patton Chapter, United Daughters of the 

Confederacy (UDC), bought the cemetery and adjacent lot from 

private owners. This purchase linked the cemetery and Mary 

Patton Hudson, the chapter’s leader, for more than twenty years. 

Mrs. Hudson, known for her determination, worked diligently 

on behalf of the cemetery. After the Commission for Marking 

Graves of Confederate Dead was authorized in 1906, Mrs. 

Hudson immediately began lobbying for cemetery improvements 

including a new fence. Commissioner William Elliott declined to 

pay to enclose a cemetery the federal government did not own. 

Mrs. Hudson refused to relinquish the property.

To honor the soldiers buried on Johnson’s Island, Mrs. Hudson 

raised the money to erect a large monument in 1910—a bronze 

statue of a Confederate soldier sculpted by Moses Ezekiel. Her 

crusade to improve and beautify the cemetery continued until 

her death in 1920. In 1931, the UDC donated the cemetery to 

the U.S. government.

Unveiling “The Lookout” statue in 1910. 

Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

Mary Patton Hudson, c. 1905. Mrs. Hudson sent this photograph to 

Commissioner Elliott, “So he would know who he was talking to.” 

National Archives and Records Administration.

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for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
CONGRESSIONAL CEMETERY GOVERNMENT LOTS

Civil War Washington City

Over the course of the Civil War, the nation’s capital was 

transformed. The dignified government city Pierre Charles 

L’Enfant laid out in 1791 was hardened into a sprawling 

military center. Encircled by strong defenses, the District of 

Columbia was among the most-heavily fortified cities in the 

world from 1861-1865. 

As fighting continued and Union casualties rose, the U.S. 

Army created a medical center to care for injured soldiers 

flooding the city. A lone hospital served the city in April 1861. 

Five years later, there were 100 or more. The two largest 

hospitals—Freedman and Lincoln—each housed in excess of 

2,000 patients. Armory Square, Carver, Emory, and Mount 

Pleasant hospitals each contained 1,000 or more beds.

Washington City’s population skyrocketed when 30,000 

fugitive slaves arrived in search of freedom and opportunity. 

When the Compensated Emancipation Act became law 

on April 16, 1862, it became the first emancipated city in 

America. Thousands of freedmen enlisted here and served in 

the U.S. Colored Troops.

A ward in Armory Square Hospital, Washington, D.C., c. 1863. Library of Congress.

Watercolor of Congressional Cemetery by Benjamin Latrobe, c. 1812. Considered America’s first 

architect, Latrobe is credited with the cenotaph design seen here. Originally painted white, the 

geometrical memorial markers were constructed from Aquia sandstone. Library of Congress. 

The Burial Ground 

Congressional Cemetery was established as Washington Parish 

Burial Ground in 1807. It started on 4.5 acres in the southeast 

quadrant of the city bounded by E, G, 18th, and 19th streets. In 

1816, the landowner, Christ Church, identified 100 gravesites

in which to bury U.S. Congress members who died in the city. 

Eligibility later extended to other government officials.

About 1820, it became the practice here to memorialize 

notables with a “cenotaph.” A headstone marks a grave; a 

cenotaph usually does not. Of the 169 cenotaphs here, about 

fifty mark a burial. By 1876, Arlington National Cemetery in 

Virginia surpassed Congressional Cemetery as the preferred

destination for deceased national leaders. 

U.S. government property within Congressional Cemetery is 

made up of many separate lots—806 sites contain 469 burials. 

These are marked with government-issued headstones, 

cenotaphs, or other private memorial objects.

Civil War Burials

In 1868, the U.S. Army reported seventy-nine Union 

soldiers interred in Congressional Cemetery. The men likely 

died at military facilities nearby. Most Union soldiers who 

died in the Washington area were buried in the national 

cemetery established in August 1861 at the Soldiers’ Home 

(now Armed Forces Retirement Home, Washington, D.C.), 

and after 1863 at Arlington National Cemetery.

Above: Arsenal Monument, c. 1913. 

Right: Plate 18, Faehtz and Pratt, 

Real Estate Directory of the City of 

Washington (1874). Washingtoniana 

Division and Map Collection, D.C. Public 

Library. Inset: Contract notice from The 

(Washington) Evening Star, November 

26, 1864. Library of Congress.

A government lot in Congressional became the final 

resting place of young women killed in the June 17, 1864, 

Washington Arsenal explosion. Their funeral, attended by 

President Abraham Lincoln and hundreds of mourners, took 

place two days later. Fifteen victims were buried in Range 

97-98, Sites 142-146; two others were interred in family plots 

in the cemetery. A year after the tragedy, the 26-foot-tall, 

white marble Arsenal Monument was erected to honor the 

women. Funded by private donations and designed by Lot 

Flannery, it is inscribed with the names of the twenty-one 

victims below the allegorical female figure of “Grief.” 

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Black box is approximate 

location of arsenal burial lot. 

Green areas are cenotaph 

locations. Other government 

lots are widely scattered.
CORINTH NATIONAL CEMETERY

Union soldiers and supplies at the Corinth railroad depot, c. 1862. Library of Congress. 

Civil War Corinth

Corinth was founded in the 1850s at the crossing of the 

Memphis and Charleston, and the Mobile and Ohio 

railroads. During the Civil War, Union and Confederate 

forces fought for control of this important railroad center. 

After Nashville, Tennessee, fell to the Union in early 

1862, Confederate forces withdrew south to the town. 

After their defeat at Shiloh in April, Confederate troops 

again retreated to Corinth where they came under siege. 

Eventually Union forces captured the town and spent 

months fortifying it.

In October 1862, Confederate Gen. Earl Van Dorn tried 

to retake Corinth. His troops pushed Union forces from 

the outer fortification into the town center but they were 

ultimately repelled by artillery and small arms fire. The 

Union Army left Corinth in January 1864, leaving behind 

burned buildings and damaged rail lines.

“Harvest of Death”

Early in 1866, Capt. E. B. Whitman began gathering information 

in preparation for the reinterment of Union soldiers buried in the 

Military Division of Tennessee. This huge district included Alabama, 

Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

Captain Whitman, later lieutenant colonel, placed newspaper notices 

seeking information on the locations of Union graves. Citizens, 

chaplains, soldiers, and officers replied.

Corinth National Cemetery, from Brvt. Lt. Col. E. B. Whitman’s final report, c. 1869. Whitman used 

the phrase “Harvest of Death” in his exhaustive report to describe the work of collecting the dead. 

National Archives and Records Administration.

Whitman made three major expeditions across the region, stopping 

at hundreds of battlefields and engagement sites. Because of 

his work, thousands of Union dead were moved to twelve new 

national cemeteries. 

In May 1869, Whitman submitted a detailed summary of this 

difficult project to the quartermaster general. The report contained

sketches and site plans of each cemetery, and data on interments 

and service affiliations.

National Cemetery

In 1866, the U.S. government purchased 20 acres, less than 

a mile southeast of the city, on which to establish Corinth 

National Cemetery. Remains from northern Mississippi, 

Alabama, and Tennessee were reinterred here by state 

affiliation. Whitman’s 1869 cemetery plan indicates that 

soldiers from Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and 

Wisconsin were buried in Sections A-D. Unknown soldiers 

were buried on the east and west perimeters. Dead from 

the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads, some 50 miles to the south, 

were interred by the cemetery entrance. 

An 1867 law directed the secretary of war to appoint a 

“meritorious and trustworthy” superintendent to manage 

each national cemetery. Corinth’s first superintendent 

was Joseph Berrigan, formerly a private with the 43rd New 

York Infantry.

In the 1870s, the U.S. Army placed marble headstones on 

the graves, and erected a brick lodge for the superintendent. 

The lodge was replaced in 1934.

Groundskeeping among unknown grave markers at Corinth, 1892. National Archives 

and Records Administration. 

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CROWN HILL NATIONAL CEMETERY

City Hospital in Indianapolis, also known as the Military Hospital, treated Union soldiers during 

the Civil War, 1908. W. H. Bass Photo Company Collection, Indiana Historical Society.

Civil War Indianapolis 

Indiana Governor Oliver Morton responded quickly to 

President Abraham Lincoln’s 1861 call for 75,000 volunteers 

to help suppress the southern rebellion. Thousands of 

Hoosiers assembled in Indianapolis. Camp Morton, named 

for the governor, was established at the old fairgrounds. 

Indiana troops served in every theater of action. As the war 

progressed, Camp Morton became a prisoner-of-war camp, 

housing thousands of Confederates. City Hospital treated both 

Confederate prisoners and Union soldiers.

Citizens of Indianapolis celebrated when the Confederate 

capital at Richmond, Virginia, fell on April 3, 1865, and when 

Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9. 

Despair replaced joy when Lincoln was assassinated six days 

later. The president’s body lay in state for eighteen hours at 

the Indianapolis capitol building on April 30.

National Cemetery

More than 700 Union soldiers who died in city hospitals were 

originally buried in Greenlawn Cemetery. In November 1866,

the federal government hired local undertaker William Weaver 

to supervise removal of the dead. Weaver’s men relocated the 

remains of 712 soldiers from Greenlawn to this cemetery. All 

but thirty-six were identified. 

The new national cemetery occupied 1.4 acres (now Section 

10) within Crown Hill Cemetery. The government paid $5,000 

for the lot. On May 30, 1868, the first Decoration (Memorial) 

Day observance at Crown Hill National Cemetery was held. 

Some 1,000 people participated in a program that featured 

speeches, music, and decorating graves. 

The U.S. Army installed two gun monuments and a flagstaff

in the early 1870s, and plaques featuring stanzas from the 

poem “Bivouac of the Dead” in the 1880s. 

In 2011, land adjacent to the national cemetery that contains 

many Civil War dead (Section 9), was donated to the federal

government. Combined, these 2.5 acres hold the graves of 

2,043 veterans and their dependents.

Crown Hill Cemetery west entrance in 1901, D. R. Clark, photographer. Courtesy of Crown 

Hill Cemetery. 

Detail of Crown Hill National Cemetery layout, 1893, showing 

location of the federal cemetery within the private cemetery. 

National Archives and Records Administration. 

Woman’s Relief 

Corps Monument

The Woman’s Relief Corps, auxiliary of 

the Maj. Robert Anderson Post No. 369, 

Grand Army of the Republic, received 

permission to erect a monument here in 

November 1888. Local stonecutter James 

F. Needler produced the eagle-topped 

limestone pedestal. It was dedicated

on Memorial Day 1889.

Drawing of Woman’s Relief Corps Monument, 1888. 

National Archives and Records Administration. 

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CROWN HILL CONFEDERATE CEMETERY

Confederate prisoners at Camp Morton, c. 1864. Library of Congress.

Camp Morton 

Camp Morton, a training camp, was established on the 

Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis after President 

Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the 

Southern rebellion. Thousands of Indiana volunteers trained 

at the camp in 1861 before leaving for active duty.

On February 16, 1862, Fort Donelson, a Confederate 

stronghold on the Cumberland River west of Clarksville, 

Tennessee, surrendered. Suddenly, the Union army had 15,000 

Confederate prisoners and no place to house them. Indiana 

Governor Oliver Morton offered to take 3,000 prisoners at 

Camp Morton; from this time, it functioned as a prison.

In preparation for the prisoners’ arrival, soldiers constructed 

a tall fence around barracks buildings, built stout gates, and 

dug latrines. When the Confederates arrived without winter 

clothing or blankets, the women of Indianapolis donated both.

A prisoner exchange emptied the camp in summer 1862, but 

it was repopulated in January 1863. The population fluctuated 

until the camp closed in June 1865. But more than 1,600 

Confederates remained in Indianapolis’s Greenlawn Cemetery.

Greenlawn Cemetery 

The State of Indiana purchased five lots in Greenlawn 

Cemetery in 1862 for prisoner burials. A local undertaker 

charged $3.50 for each wooden coffin. Prisoners dug burial 

trenches and placed the coffins side-by-side. Numbered 

headboards marked graves. After the war, some remains were 

removed by friends or relatives. In 1870, some unclaimed 

remains were moved to a different cemetery lot owned by the 

federal government.

In 1906, when the Commission for Marking Graves of 

Confederate Dead visited Greenlawn Cemetery, it discovered 

some burials had been 

moved and the land 

converted into a city 

park. As individual graves 

could not be identified, 

a single monument was 

authorized for the site. 

Van Amringe Granite 

Company of Boston, 

Massachusetts, completed 

the impressive monument 

in 1909. Bronze plaques 

listed the names of 1,616 

Confederate dead.

The area around the government lot continued to develop. 

The United Daughters of the Confederacy and Southern Club 

of Indianapolis petitioned the federal government to move 

the Confederate monument to Garfield Park. The monument 

moved in 1928, but the graves remained. In 1931, the 

Confederate remains were disinterred and moved to Crown 

Hill Cemetery. Here they were marked by a modest monument. 

Ten bronze name plaques, and a bronze inscription plaque 

affixed to the monument, were installed in 1993.

Monument at Greenlawn Cemetery, 1910. National 

Archives and Records Administration.

Toward Reconciliation

On May 30, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic decorated 

Union and Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Thirty years later President William McKinley proclaimed:

The Union is once more the common altar of our love and 

loyalty, our devotion and sacrifice . . . Every soldier’s grave 

made during our unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to American 

valor . . . in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in 

the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers.

The War Department created the Confederate section 

at Arlington in 1901, and marked the graves with 

distinctive pointed-top marble headstones. Five years 

later, Congress created the Commission for Marking 

Graves of Confederate Dead to identify and mark the 

graves of Confederates who died in Northern prisons. 

Its mission was later expanded to encompass all national 

cemeteries that contained Confederate burials.

Four former Confederate officers headed the 

Commission over its lifetime. By 1916, it had marked 

in excess of 25,500 graves and erected monuments in 

locations where individual graves could not be identified.

In 1930, the War Department authorized the addition 

of the Southern Cross of Honor to the Confederate 

headstone.

North Alton Confederate Cemetery 

Monument, 1909, Alton, Ill.

Original Commission headstone (left) and 

headstone with Southern Cross of Honor (right).

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CULPEPER NATIONAL CEMETERY

Seat of War

Railroads connecting Washington, D.C., and Richmond crossed 

Culpeper County, Virginia, so this area witnessed major Civil 

War battles. Both Union and Confederate armies occupied this 

area throughout the war. In 1861, the Confederates established 

a supply depot and training base here. In August 1862, Union 

Gen. John Pope marched the Army of Virginia into Culpeper 

County and engaged Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson at the 

Battle of Cedar Mountain, but failed to secure a Union victory. 

In fall 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee wintered in Culpeper County. 

Brandy Station, the largest Civil War cavalry battle, was fought 

here in June 1863. Neither side claimed victory. After General 

Lee’s defeat at Gettysburg the next month, Confederate troops 

returned to Culpeper to regroup. 

As a result of the second Battle of Rappahannock Station in 

November 1863, the Union Army of the Potomac pushed 

General Lee out of the county and wintered here. The following 

spring, Ulysses S. Grant, the new Union general-in-chief, 

launched his Overland Campaign from Culpeper, moving the 

war southward to Petersburg and Richmond.

Culpeper, summer 1862. Library of Congress. 

National Cemetery

In 1867, the federal government bought 6 acres from Edward B. 

Hill, the brother of Confederate Gen. A. P. Hill, to create Culpeper 

National Cemetery. Here lie the Union soldiers who died at the 

battles of Cedar Mountain, Brandy Station, Trevilian Station; in the 

Gordonville Confederate hospital; and many other sites in Culpeper, 

Page, and Rappahannock counties. 

This 1906 view shows the lodge, flagstaff and enclosure wall. National Cemetery Administration.

The original cemetery featured four burial sections laid out in a square. 

A flagstaff mound at the end of the main drive marked the center. 

In the 1870s, permanent marble headstones replaced temporary 

headboards on the 1,355 Civil War graves. Construction of a brick 

enclosure wall and a Second Empire-style lodge at the entrance 

followed. The cemetery has grown to more than 29 acres.

An 1872 law directed the secretary of war to appoint a superintendent 

for each national cemetery from among “meritorious and trustworthy 

soldiers, either commissioned officers or enlisted men of the Volunteer 

or Regular Army.” To qualify, an individual must have been honorably 

mustered out or discharged from the service of the United States.

Monuments

The cemetery contains five monuments 

erected between 1893 and 1910 by veterans’ 

organizations. The oldest honors the service of 

the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry at the nearby 

Battle of Cedar Mountain. The last and largest, 

funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 

commemorates the Civil War service of all 

Pennsylvanians. Other monuments honor the 

10th Maine Infantry Regiment, 28th New York 

Infantry Regiment, and the 7th Ohio Infantry 

Regiment; all fought at Cedar Mountain.

The Pennsylvania Monument just before it was unveiled on October 17, 1912. 

National Archives and Records Administration.

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CYPRESS HILLS NATIONAL CEMETERY

New York City Hospitals

During the Civil War, several New York City-area general 

hospitals treated sick and wounded Union troops. 

Among them were Fort Columbus, Ladies’ Home, 

Officers’ on Bedloe Island, St. Joseph’s, and Transit. One 

of the largest was Grant General Hospital at Fort Totten 

on Willet’s Point. The U.S. Army converted the fort into 

a hospital that could accommodate nearly 1,300 patients.

DeCamp General Hospital on David’s Island was an 

extensive facility with twenty buildings that held 1,700 

beds. In the summer months patients were often moved 

outside to sleep in tents that afforded access to fresh 

air and sunshine, which doctors believed essential to 

healing. The July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg and later 

fighting resulted in thousands of patients being sent to 

New York hospitals. 

DeCamp General Hospital, c. 1864. Regulations of DeCamp General Hospital. 

National Cemetery

Established in 1862, Cypress Hills National Cemetery was 

originally confined to the small Union Grounds lot within the 

private Cypress Hills Cemetery. Some 3,400 Union soldiers and 

356 Confederate prisoners who died in New York City hospitals 

were buried there. 

By the 1880s, Union Grounds was nearly full. In 1884, the War 

Department purchased this tract of more than 15 acres, a mile to 

the south on Jamaica Avenue. It is the largest of three separate 

tracts that make up the national cemetery today.

Soon after acquiring this land, the army installed a two-story 

brick lodge, access road, decorative iron gates and flagstaff. 

Union soldiers originally buried at Fort Hamilton, Governor’s 

Island, and Fort Wadsworth in New York City, and Mount Hope 

Cemetery in Otisville, New York, were reinterred here. This move 

raised the number of Union dead in the national cemetery to 

5,222; of these, 373 were unknown.

Cemetery plan, showing Union Grounds (lower left) and the larger Jamaica Avenue property, 1892. 

National Archives and Record Administration. 

Medal of Honor Recipients

Five Civil War recipients of the Medal of Honor are 

buried in the cemetery. First bestowed in 1863, it is 

the highest award for military valor in the U.S. Armed 

Services. For acts above and beyond the call of duty, 

1,522 individuals who served in the Civil War received 

the medal.

John Cooper, coxswain on the 

U.S.S. Brooklyn, for bravery 

during the Battle of Mobile Bay,

August 5, 1864. He received 

a second commendation on 

April 26, 1865, for risking his

life to save another when a 

powder magazine exploded 

(Section 2, Grave 5022).

Edward (Edwin) S. Martin, 

quartermaster on the U.S.S. 

Galena, for bravery during the 

Battle of Mobile Bay, August 5, 

1864 (Section 2, Grave 5966).

Sgt. Valentine Rossbach 

(Rossback), 34th New York 

Battery, for bravery at the Battle 

of Spotsylvania, May 12, 1864 

(Section 2, Grave 5427).

Pvt. John Schiller, 158th New York Infantry, for bravery 

at the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm, Virginia, September 29-30, 

1864 (Section 5, Grave 3).

Pvt. James Webb, 5th New York Infantry, for courage 

under fire at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Virginia, 

August 28-30, 1862 (Section 2, Grave 7401).

Civil War Navy Medal of Honor.

Naval History and Heritage Command.

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CYPRESS HILLS NATIONAL CEMETERY

DeCamp General Hospital, c. 1864. Regulations of DeCamp General Hospital. 

New York City Hospitals 

During the Civil War, several New York City-area 

general hospitals treated sick and wounded Union 

troops. Among them were Fort Columbus, Ladies’ 

Home, Officers’ on Bedloe Island, St. Joseph’s, 

and Transit. One of the largest was Grant General 

Hospital at Fort Totten on Willet’s Point. The U.S. 

Army converted the fort into a hospital that could 

accommodate nearly 1,300 patients.

DeCamp General Hospital on David’s Island was 

an extensive facility with twenty buildings that held 

1,700 beds. In the summer months patients were often 

moved outside to sleep in tents that afforded access 

to fresh air and sunshine, which doctors believed 

essential to healing. The July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg 

and later fighting resulted in thousands of patients 

being sent to New York hospitals. 

National Cemetery

Cypress Hills National Cemetery was established in 1862 with this lot 

of almost 3 acres. Known as Union Grounds, it is one of three separate 

tracts that make up the federal cemetery today. A brick superintendent’s 

lodge occupied the southeast corner of Union Grounds in 1871. Here lie 

nearly 3,400 Union soldiers and 356 Confederate prisoners who died in 

New York City hospitals during the Civil War. 

Union Grounds ran out of burial space in the 1880s. In 1884, the War 

Department expanded the national cemetery by purchasing more than 

15 acres to the south. Soon after, the army developed the new property 

with a two-story lodge, access road, and flagstaff. It razed the Union 

Grounds lodge. 

Union soldiers originally buried at Fort Hamilton, Governor’s Island, 

and Fort Wadsworth in New York City, and Mount Hope Cemetery in 

Otisville, New York, were reinterred in the new Jamaica Avenue tract. 

This move raised the number of Union dead in the national cemetery to 

5,222; of these, 373 were unknown.

Union Grounds, c. 1880, with lodge in background at right. National Records and Archives Administration.

Col. Benjamin Ringold

Born in Germany, Col. Benjamin Ringold lived in the 

United States for many years before the Civil War. He 

was commissioned on January 4, 1862, as captain and 

commander of Company A, 103rd New York Volunteers. 

Ringold quickly rose to the rank of colonel before 

being killed in May 1863 near Suffolk, Virginia. His 

body lay in state at city hall before burial in Brooklyn’s 

Green-Wood Cemetery.

Colonel Ringold’s remains 

were moved to Union Grounds 

in April 1883 (Grave 3846). 

A month later, the Veterans 

Association of the 103rd 

Regiment dedicated a 

20-foot-tall granite 

obelisk to him on the 

crest of the hill overlooking 

the national cemetery.

The ceremony was 

attended by Civil War 

veterans including 

former members of 

the regiment, several 

Grand Army of the 

Republic posts, and 

Brooklyn residents.

Col. Benjamin Ringold, c. 1862. 

MOLLUS-Massachusetts 

Commandery Collection, U.S. Army 

Heritage and Education Center.

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CONFEDERATE BURIALS IN THE NATIONAL CEMETERY

36x24 Confederate Burials - NY City

New York City in the Civil War 

New York City saw no Civil War battles but many Union 

soldiers passed through it. Before the war ended, the city 

housed thousands of Confederate soldiers in its prisons and 

hospitals. Many soldiers, from both sides, died and are buried 

here.

Prison facilities including the Toombs, Bedloe’s (Liberty) 

Island, Hart’s Island, Fort Lafayette, Governors Island, Fort 

Schuyler, Riker’s Island, Fort Columbus, and Castle Williams 

all held Confederate soldiers. De Camp General Hospital on 

David’s Island, though not a prison, treated thousands of 

Confederates wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg. The Hart’s 

Island facility was the last established and the largest of New 

York City’s prisons. At no time during its short operation, 

April to July 1865, did it hold fewer than 3,000 prisoners.

The Toombs Prison complex occupied an entire city block in lower Manhattan, c. 1896. Library 

of Congress.

The Confederate Dead 

Within the private cemetery of the same name, Cypress Hills 

National Cemetery was established in 1862 for Union soldiers 

who died in New York City-area hospitals. It was among the 

first national cemeteries Congress created. As the number of 

Confederate prisoners of war increased, so did the casualties. 

The federal cemetery had sufficient burial space, so the U.S. 

Army began interring Confederate dead here, too.

Memorial Day, 1899. Brooklyn Museum Archives, Lantern Slide Collection. 

Unlike many other national cemeteries where Confederates are 

buried in separate sections, here they are intermingled among 

the Union dead. Union or Confederate, soldiers were interred 

in the order the cemetery caretaker received them. Many 

Confederates were buried here at the time of their death. Some 

remains were reinterred here from Hart’s Island and David’s 

Island; others came from Rhode Island cemeteries.

In 1908, the Commission for Marking Graves of Confederate 

Dead discovered that Confederate graves at Cypress Hills 

National Cemetery were marked with “substantial headstones.” 

It was determined that by “adding the requisite inscriptions 

they were deemed satisfactory markers.” These headstones 

were replaced with the standard Confederate-style 

headstones in 1934. 

Toward Reconciliation

On May 30, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic decorated 

Union and Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Thirty years later President William McKinley proclaimed:

The Union is once more the common altar of our love and 

loyalty, our devotion and sacrifice . . . Every soldier’s grave 

made during our unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to American 

valor . . . in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in 

the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers.

The War Department created the Confederate section 

at Arlington in 1901, and marked the graves with 

distinctive pointed-top marble headstones. Five years 

later, Congress created the Commission for Marking 

Graves of Confederate Dead to identify and mark the 

graves of Confederates who died in Northern prisons. 

Its mission was later expanded to encompass all national 

cemeteries that contained Confederate burials.

Four former Confederate officers headed the 

Commission over its lifetime. By 1916, it had marked 

in excess of 25,500 graves and erected monuments in 

locations where individual graves could not be identified.

In 1930, the War Department authorized the addition 

of the Southern Cross of Honor to the Confederate 

headstone.

North Alton Confederate Cemetery 

Monument, 1909, Alton, Ill.

Original Commission headstone (left) and 

headstone with Southern Cross of Honor (right).

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

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DANVILLE NATIONAL CEMETERY

Confederate Military Prison at Danville, Virginia, c. 1865. Library of Congress. 

Danville Military Prison

Civil War prisoner-of-war facilities in Richmond, the 

Confederate capital, were overflowing by mid-1863. To alleviate 

the situation, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee ordered a new 

prison established in Danville. 

In November, 4,000 Union prisoners arrived at the facility—

six brick warehouses in the city’s business district. Prisoners 

were forbidden to look out windows, or use the first floor or 

the grounds, and could use the latrine only in groups of six.

A small pox epidemic in winter 1863-64 killed many prisoners. 

A Confederate inspector reported in January 1865: 

The prisons at this post are in a very bad condition, dirty, 

filled with vermin, little or no ventilation. . .The mortality 

at the prison, about five per day, is caused, no doubt, 

by the insufficiency of food (the ration entire being only 

a pound and a half of corn bread a day). . . This state 

of things is truly horrible, and demands the immediate 

attention of higher authorities.

National Cemetery

Danville National Cemetery was established in 1866 on 

3.5 acres adjacent to Greenhill Cemetery. Almost all burials 

were Union prisoners who died in the Danville military prison. 

According to an 1868 army inspection report, the cemetery 

contained 1,312 interments—only 147 were unknown. 

In 1873, the cemetery land was formally deeded to the United 

States by the City of Danville and resident Thomas D. Stokes. 

The following year, the federal government built a stone 

superintendent’s lodge and enclosed the cemetery with a stone 

wall. A central flagstaff and gun monument were installed 

before 1892. The existing Dutch Colonial Revival-style lodge 

was built in 1928 to replace the original.

Cemetery plan, 1892. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Cemetery tool house and well house, prior to 1934. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Cemetery Superintendent

By law, the secretary of war appointed a 

“meritorious and trustworthy” superintendent 

to manage the cemetery. To qualify for the 

position, the individual had to have been 

an enlisted man disabled in service. These 

restrictions were loosened in 1872 to allow any 

man honorably discharged from U.S. service 

to serve as a cemetery superintendent. 

This employment was one way the federal 

government assisted injured veterans who 

faced an uncertain future after the Civil War. 

Many lived with their families in the lodges. 

Francis O’Donohoe, formerly a sergeant in 

the 5th New York Infantry, was appointed the 

first superintendent here.

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DANVILLE NATIONAL CEMETERY

“One Great Hospital”

Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg invaded central Kentucky in 

summer 1862 with the goal of occupying it and mobilizing more 

troops for the South. Union Gen. Don Carlos Buell met Bragg’s 

troops at Perryville, 10 miles west of here. The October 8, 1862, 

Battle of Perryville resulted in 7,000 casualties, a number that 

overwhelmed the hamlet with dead and wounded.

Union troops enter Danville just before the October 8, 1862, Battle of Perryville. Harper’s Weekly

(November 8, 1862).

Wounded Union soldiers were taken to nearby towns, 

including Danville. Centre College became the main hospital. 

However, most every available building—courthouse, churches, 

shops, businesses, stables, and homes—was employed to care 

for more than 4,000 men. One Indiana doctor wrote, “Danville 

was one great hospital.” The Union Army occupied Centre 

College through June 1863. Many soldiers died of wounds. 

More succumbed to typhoid fever, dysentery, and pneumonia. 

To keep up with the pace and number of deaths, soldiers were 

assigned to perform burial duty.

Danville National Cemetery, from Brvt. Lt. Col. E. B. Whitman’s final report, c. 1869. Whitman used the phrase “Harvest of Death” in his exhaustive report to describe the work of collecting 

the dead. National Archives and Records Administration. 

“Harvest of Death”

Early in 1866, Capt. E. B. Whitman began gathering information 

in preparation for the reinterment of Union soldiers buried in 

the Military Division of Tennessee. This huge district included 

Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee. 

Captain Whitman, later lieutenant colonel, placed newspaper 

notices seeking locations of Union graves. Citizens, chaplains, 

soldiers, and officers replied.

Whitman made three major expeditions across the region, 

stopping at hundreds of battlefields and engagement sites. 

Because of his work, thousands of Union dead were moved to 

twelve new national cemeteries. In May 1869, Whitman submitted 

a detailed summary of this difficult project to the quartermaster 

general. The report contained sketches and site plans of each 

cemetery, and data on interments and service affiliations. 

Danville National Cemetery, c. 1940. Headstones in the private Danville 

Cemetery are visible in photograph, back right. National Cemetery Administration. 

National Cemetery

Prior to 1869, ten federally established or public cemeteries 

in Kentucky contained the remains of Union soldiers. The 

work of reinterring the dead was almost complete when 

the army changed its plan and reduced the number of 

cemeteries in the state to six. 

Soldiers who died in Danville hospitals were buried in 

the northwest corner of the city cemetery (now Bellevue 

Cemetery), established in the 1840s. In June 1868, the 

city deeded sixteen lots to the government. By 1874, the 

new national cemetery contained 358 burials, including 

fourteen soldiers removed from nearby Hustonville 

and Millersburg. 

The city cemetery association maintained these sections 

as the number of graves did not warrant a full-time federal 

superintendent. The army installed blocks inscribed with 

‘U.S.’ at the corners of the national cemetery to identify 

property boundaries. Later it added a flagstaff and four 

cast-iron plaques featuring General Orders No. 80, which 

laid out rules for visitors, and three stanzas from the poem 

“Bivouac of the Dead.”

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
DANVILLE NATIONAL CEMETERY

National Home

Construction of the Danville Branch of the National Home 

for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS) began in early 

1898. The first resident, Charles Butler, arrived October 13. 

The home’s sprawling 325-acre campus included every 

facility that aging veterans might require. The men lived 

in barracks and dined in a mess hall. Protestant and 

Catholic chapels served spiritual needs. The sick were 

treated in a hospital.

The campus operated a farm and shops devoted to printing, 

painting, machinery, tinwork, and harness making. Veterans 

staffed all of them. Entertainment included a library, opera 

house, amusement hall, and bandstand. The government 

never envisioned National Homes as charity. They were 

available to veterans as a reward for military service. 

The National Homes merged with the U.S. Veterans Bureau

and Bureau of Pensions to form the Veterans Administration 

(now U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) in 1930. The 

facility continues to serve veterans as the VA Illiana Health 

Care System. 

National Home barracks under construction, March 1898. University of Illinois at 

Urbana-Champaign Library.

First Decoration (Memorial) Day at the National Home, May 30, 1899. University of Illinois 

at Urbana-Champaign Library.

NHDVS Cemetery

The first cemetery was located northwest of here. Martin Branch, 

formerly in the 60th U.S. Colored Infantry, who died in January 

1899, was the first interment. Two years later, the government 

acquired 30 acres east of the main NHDVS complex and opened 

the existing cemetery. It was designed so graves formed concentric 

circles radiating from the center. 

The remains of ninety-nine veterans were 

moved from the old Danville burial ground and 

reinterred here. It was designated a national 

cemetery in 1973, and listed in the National 

Register of Historic Places in 1992.

One Civil War Medal of Honor recipient is buried 

here. First Lt. Morton A. Read, 8th New York 

Cavalry, captured the 1st Texas Infantry flag at the 

Battle of Appomattox Station, Virginia, April 8, 

1865 (Section 10, Grave 3033).

Civil War Army Medal of Honor. 

Gettysburg National Military Park.

Soldiers’ Monument

A 20-foot-tall Soldiers’ Monument is located at 

the center of the cemetery. The bronze soldier was 

created by sculptor W. Noble Clark of Maine.

Clark designed numerous figures for military 

monuments. This one is also used in the 100th 

Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers Monument, 

erected on Antietam Battlefield in September 1904.

The Danville monument was dedicated on 

Memorial Day 1917. The inscribed granite base

reads, “In memory of the men who offered their 

life in defense of their country.”

“In the private soldier I seem 

to see typified the union of

purpose, the union of valor

and the union of probity. . .” 

Capt. W. H. Underwood, 

dedication of the bronze figure 

at Antietam. Pennsylvania at 

Antietam (1906).

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
DAYTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Central Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, c. 1877. The Soldiers 

Monument is visible in upper right. Library of Congress. 

National Home 

President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill in March 1865 

that funded the National Home for Disabled Volunteer 

Soldiers (NHDVS). The Central Branch in Dayton, one 

of the original three, opened in September 1867. Ten years 

later the 355-acre campus had 132 buildings. The modern 

campus boasted steam heat, gas lights, a sewage system, 

four lakes, and paved roads. A 250-acre farm worked by 

resident veterans helped feed those who lived here. 

By 1884, the Central Branch housed 7,000 veterans. It 

was the largest facility of its kind in the world. As a tourist 

attraction, it drew more than 600,000 visitors a year. 

The National Homes were merged with the U.S. Veterans 

Bureau and the Bureau of Pensions to form the Veterans 

Administration (now U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) 

in 1930. Today, the Dayton VA Medical Center carries on 

the tradition of care that began in 1867. In 2012 the 

VA campus, including the cemetery, was designated a 

National Historic Landmark.

Infantry, captured an enemy flag at Sailor’s 

Pvt. Charles A. Taggart, 37th Massachusetts 

above and beyond the call of duty, 1,522 individuals who 

served in the Civil War received the medal.

Dayton Veterans Affairs Archive.

Cemetery and Monument

The first Civil War veteran was buried here in 1867, the last in 

1947. Design of the original 52.8-acre cemetery is attributed to 

William B. Earnshaw, a former U.S. Army chaplain. Earnshaw 

joined the Central Branch staff in 1867 and served until his death 

in 1885. The focal point of the cemetery 

is the hill where the Soldiers 

Monument is easily seen.

The monument’s cornerstone was 

laid during an elaborate ceremony 

on July 4, 1873. A procession of 

veterans, dignitaries, and citizens 

led to the cemetery where they sang 

patriotic songs. Officials placed a 

time capsule in the base. 

On September 12, 1877, the 

monument was unveiled before 

a crowd of 20,000. President 

Rutherford B. Hayes, Ohioan 

and former Union general, spoke. 

Four marble figures representing 

artillery, cavalry, infantry, and navy 

were added to the base later.

Part of a tunnel linking the hospital 

(razed) and cemetery survives. 

The property became a national 

cemetery in 1973. 

Soldiers Monument before 

it was completed in 1877. 

Dayton Veterans Affairs Archive.

Temporary wooden headboards, c. 1870s. Dayton Veterans Affairs Archive. 

Civil War Army Medal of Honor (below). Gettysburg National Military Park. 

Three Civil War recipients of the Medal of Honor are 

buried here. First bestowed in 1863, it is the highest award 

for military valor in the U.S. Armed Services. For acts 

above and beyond the call of duty, 1,522 individuals who 

served in the Civil War received the medal.

Second Lt. Henry W. Downs, 8th Vermont 

Infantry, twice crossed an open field under 

fire and returned with ammunition at 

Winchester, Virginia, September 19, 1864 

(Section Q, Grave 24).

Seaman John H. James manned his gun 

on the U.S.S. Richmond with skill and 

courage at Mobile Bay, Alabama, 

August 5, 1864 (Section 1, Grave 58).

Pvt. Charles A. Taggart, 37th Massachusetts 

Infantry, captured an enemy flag at Sailor’s 

Creek, Virginia, April 6, 1865 (Section R, Grave 14).

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
FAYETTEVILLE NATIONAL CEMETERY

An 1889 lithograph depicting the Battle of Pea Ridge, March 6-8, 1862. Library of Congress.

Civil War in Northern Arkansas

The first battle in Arkansas occurred on February 16, 1862, 

at Big Sugar Creek just south of the Missouri border. The 

next day, Union Gen. Samuel Curtis’ Army of the Southwest 

continued its southward march. 

The invasion culminated in the Battle of Pea Ridge 

three weeks later. Curtis defeated Gen. Earl Van Dorn’s

Confederate forces, which retreated east across the 

Mississippi River. The Battle at Prairie Grove in early 

December, also a Confederate defeat, left northern 

Arkansas firmly in Union control.

After the victory at Prairie Grove, federal troops occupied 

Fayetteville. In April 1863, Confederate troops attacked 

the city. They held the town briefly while the engagement 

continued, but eventually were forced to retreat. Except 

for a few months in summer 1863, Union forces occupied 

Fayetteville throughout the war. 

National Cemetery

The U.S. Army established Fayetteville National Cemetery in 1867. 

Remains were brought here from the battlefields of Pea Ridge, 

Prairie Grove, Cane Hill, and Fayetteville.

The Quartermaster Department created a compass-rose design 

for the roughly square cemetery lot. A circular grass walkway 

enclosed the burial sections and six interior walks provided 

access to the central flagpole. These walkways defined distinct 

burial sections.

Six sections were 

designated for 

soldiers from 

Arkansas, Illinois, 

Indiana, Iowa, 

Kansas, Missouri, 

Wisconsin, and for 

“Indian” soldiers. 

Diamond-shaped 

areas near the 

center were 

set aside for 

monuments. 

Officers were 

interred in 

triangular 

sections within the 

interior walkways.

By law, the secretary of war appointed a “meritorious and 

trustworthy” superintendent to manage the cemetery. To qualify

for the position, an individual must have been an army enlisted 

man disabled in service. Josiah Nutting, formerly a private in the 

19th Maine Infantry, was named superintendent in September 1867.

Quartermaster Department sketch plan for cemetery, 1869. 

National Archives and Records Administration. 

The cemetery in 1903. The lodge, rostrum, and most of the wall were removed in the late 

twentieth century. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Cemetery Changes

In the 1870s, the federal government undertook improvements 

to the cemetery. Permanent marble headstones replaced 

temporary wooden headboards. A brick wall was constructed 

to enclose the cemetery, and a Second Empire-style lodge 

was erected for the superintendent and his family. Areas 

intended for monuments were planted with flowers and 

shrubs. In 1894, a brick-and-iron rostrum was completed 

for ceremonial events.

As the cemetery expanded over the years to provide additional 

burial space, original features have been removed. The 

compass-rose design was lost as walkways filled with graves. 

The lodge and rostrum were razed, and only a fragment of 

the boundary wall exists.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
FINN’S POINT NATIONAL CEMETERY

Fort Delaware

Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island, in the Delaware River, was part 

of a system of permanent fortifications built between 1817 and 1861 

to protect the U.S. coastline. Built over ten years, the fort protected 

the ports of Philadelphia and Wilmington. It was the largest and 

most powerful of the coastal strongholds. When fully armed, Fort 

Delaware was equipped with more than 150 cannon. 

With Abraham Lincoln’s election as president in November 1860, 

“slave states” began to agitate toward secession. Voters in Delaware 

rejected Lincoln and overwhelmingly supported the southern 

Democratic candidate. Nonetheless, on January 3, 1861, the state 

legislature unanimously rejected secession. 

When Jefferson Davis became president of the Confederate States of 

America a month later, only twenty-one soldiers, without artillery, 

were posted at Fort Delaware. By June, the garrison had grown 

to 250 soldiers with forty-seven artillery pieces. However, it soon 

became clear the Confederate navy was not a threat. 

In July 1861, eight Confederate prisoners of war arrived at the fort. 

It served as a prison for the rest of the war.

Fort Delaware, from sheet music “Sounds of Fort Delaware,” 1864. Library of Congress. 

Burying Union Dead 

Union soldiers, many of whom were prison guards, died 

at Fort Delaware. They were buried in a post cemetery 

established outside the fort walls on Pea Patch Island.

The wall and gate in 1903. National Archives and Records Administration. 

In addition to the island cemetery, the U.S. Army established 

a cemetery at Finns Point, New Jersey, in 1863, for the burial 

of Confederate prisoners who died at Fort Delaware. The 

remains of more than 2,000 prisoners and ten guards were 

transported from the island and buried here during the 

course of the Civil War. 

In May 1875, the governor of Virginia wrote the secretary 

of war requesting information about Confederate graves on 

government land. This letter initiated an inspection of the 

Finns Point and Pea Patch Island cemeteries. 

The Union Monument, 1933 (above), and 

concept drawing signed by Quartermaster 

General Montgomery C. Meigs (right). 

National Archives and Records Administration.

As a result, the federal government decided to remove 

all burials from the island. By November the remains of 

209 Confederate prisoners and 135 Union soldiers were 

reinterred here at Finn’s Point National Cemetery.

In 1878, the army completed the Second Empire-style 

superintendent’s lodge. A year later the government erected 

a simple marble obelisk dedicated to the 135 federal soldiers 

buried in the cemetery. It is inscribed with the names of 105 

known dead. A cast-concrete temple-shaped structure was 

built to shelter the monument in 1936.

The 4.5-acre cemetery was 

enclosed by a stone wall in 

the 1880s. Cast-iron tablets 

bearing stanzas of the poem 

“Bivouac of the Dead” were 

also placed on the grounds.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
CONFEDERATE BURIALS IN THE NATIONAL CEMETERY

The Fort Delaware Prison 

The federal government constructed Fort Delaware between 

1848 and 1859. Located on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware 

River, the fort was built to defend Philadelphia.

In the second year of the Civil War, Fort Delaware’s role 

changed. After the Union’s March 23, 1862 victory at the 

Battle of Kernstown, Virginia, 248 prisoners of war arrived at 

the fort. They were the first of more than 30,000 Confederate 

soldiers imprisoned at Fort Delaware during the war. The last 

prisoner was freed in 1866.

Located northwest of the fort, the prison consisted of a 

barracks and hospital enclosed by a tall plank fence. The 

8-acre compound was divided into two areas, the larger for 

enlisted men and the smaller for officers. 

Overcrowding, poor diet, lack of clean drinking water, and 

swampy ground that bred mosquitos contributed to a high 

rate of disease. Over a single three-month period, diarrhea, 

pneumonia, scurvy, typhoid, dysentery and other illnesses 

claimed more than 12 percent of the prison population.

Confederate prisoners arriving at Fort Delaware, June 1863. Fort Delaware Society.

The prison barracks, c. 1864. Fort Delaware Society.

Burying the Dead 

Initially, most prisoners who died at Fort Delaware were buried 

on the island, quickly filling up the fort cemetery. Pea Patch 

Island’s high water table made it a particularly undesirable 

location for a permanent cemetery. The U.S. government 

owned land on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River at 

Finns Point near the Fort Mott military reservation; in 1863, a 

new cemetery was established here.

A former Confederate prisoner recalled the burial procedure 

used: “... the dead were placed in pine boxes and sent in 

steamboats. Holes were dug, about 6 feet square, and into these 

we placed as many as possible, usually about 12. Whenever 

we found names we would mark the spot in some way. It 

was an awful task.” After the war, Pea Patch Island burials 

were removed to the U.S. cemetery on Finns Point, which was 

designated a national cemetery in October 1875.

When the Commission for Marking Graves of Confederate 

Dead traveled to the national cemetery in August 1906, they 

learned that documentation to mark individual graves was not 

available. Two years later, the Commission proposed erecting 

a single monument. The Van Amringe Granite Company 

of Boston, Massachusetts, completed the nearly 83-foot-tall 

obelisk in spring 1910.

Toward Reconciliation

On May 30, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic decorated 

Union and Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Thirty years later President William McKinley proclaimed:

The Union is once more the common altar of our love and 

loyalty, our devotion and sacrifice . . . Every soldier’s grave 

made during our unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to American 

valor . . . in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in 

the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers.

The War Department created the Confederate section 

at Arlington in 1901, and marked the graves with 

distinctive pointed-top marble headstones. Five years 

later, Congress created the Commission for Marking 

Graves of Confederate Dead to identify and mark the 

graves of Confederates who died in Northern prisons. 

Its mission was later expanded to encompass all national 

cemeteries that contained Confederate burials.

Four former Confederate officers headed the 

Commission over its lifetime. By 1916, it had marked 

in excess of 25,500 graves and erected monuments in 

locations where individual graves could not be identified.

In 1930, the War Department authorized the addition 

of the Southern Cross of Honor to the Confederate 

headstone.

North Alton Confederate Cemetery 

Monument, 1909, Alton, Ill.

Original Commission headstone (left) and 

headstone with Southern Cross of Honor (right).

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

National Cemetery Administration

36x24 Confederate Burials - The Fort Delaware

To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov
FLORENCE NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War Florence

When Atlanta fell to the Union Army in September 1864, 

Gen. William T. Sherman began his “March to the Sea.” Fearing

the Union Army would free prisoners held in southern 

Georgia, Confederate authorities moved them. Some 10,000 

Union prisoners of war were relocated to the unfinished 

Florence Military Prison in October.

A 16-foot-tall log stockade enclosed the hospital, tents, and other 

simple structures. A swampy stream running through the 23-acre 

prison provided the only source of water.

During the six months the prison operated, more than 25 percent 

of the 12,000 prisoners died. The bodies were buried in one of two 

nearby cemeteries. Former prisoner Robert H. Kellogg recalled: 

[The dead] were piled one upon another until the wagon was 

filled. A party of prisoners was at work every day digging 

trenches where the bodies of the dead soldiers were to be laid. 

Florence Military Prison, 1864, by Pvt. Robert Knox Sneden. Virginia Historical Society. 

Postcard view of cemetery, c. 1923. National Archives and Records Administration.

National Cemetery

In 1865, the U.S. Army quartermaster general designated 

the original 3.76-acre prison cemetery as Florence National 

Cemetery. It contains not only the bodies of Union 

prisoners who died in Florence, but soldiers removed 

from Charleston, Cheraw, Darlington, and Marion, 

South Carolina. 

By 1874, of the remains of 2,969 men here, only 168 were

known. The federal government had erected a brick

superintendent’s lodge, flagstaff, and two gun monuments. 

In 1877, a brick wall enclosed the cemetery. A second 

lodge was built in 1906, but the army removed it in 1970. 

The secretary of war, by law, appointed a “meritorious and 

trustworthy” man to manage each cemetery. To qualify, an 

individual must have been an army enlisted man disabled in 

service. Phillip R. R. M. Sattes was the first superintendent 

at Florence. While a private in the 1st Kentucky Infantry 

(U.S.), Sattes was twice wounded in action.

“The Lone Woman’s Grave”

For decades, the only woman buried at this national cemetery 

was Florena Budwin—likely an alias. Purportedly married to a 

Union officer from Pennsylvania, Budwin disguised herself as 

a man in order to enlist. 

She and her husband were said to have been confined at 

Georgia’s Andersonville Prison, where he died. She was 

moved with other Union prisoners to Florence in fall 1864. 

When she fell ill, the camp doctor discovered her secret. 

Budwin was moved into quarters separate from the men. 

Sympathetic women of Florence gave her food and clothing. 

After recovering, she remained at the prison as a nurse. 

Budwin died in January 1865 and was 

buried here (Section D, Grave 2480). Her 

story fascinated the public, and it appeared 

in newspapers nationwide for years. 

Left, National Tribune (Washington, DC), December 6, 

1888. Center, The Watchman and Southern (Sumter, 

SC), December 19, 1888. Right, The Daily Independent

(Helena, MT), June 24, 1890. Library of Congress.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
FOREST HILL SOLDIERS’ LOT

Mourners at Alexandria National Cemetery, Virginia, c. 1865. After 1873, standard marble 

headstones replaced the wood headboards seen here. Miller, Photographic History of the 

Civil War (1910).

Civil War Dead

An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died 

in the Civil War (1861-1865). As the death toll rose, the U.S. 

government struggled with the urgent but unplanned need 

to bury fallen Union troops. This propelled the creation of a 

national cemetery system.

On September 11, 1861, the War Department directed officers 

to keep “accurate and permanent records of deceased soldiers.” 

Federal authority to create military burial grounds came in an 

Omnibus Act of July 17, 1862. Cemetery sites were chosen where 

troops were concentrated: camps, hospitals, battlefields, railroad 

hubs. By 1872, 74 national cemeteries and several soldiers’ lots 

contained 305,492 remains. About 45 percent were unknown.

The U.S. government established soldiers’ lots at private 

cemeteries in northern states. National cemeteries, in contrast, 

were built throughout the South where most Civil War action 

occurred. While the army reported dozens of lots containing 

Union dead in the 1870s, the National Cemetery Administration 

maintains only fifteen. The number of graves ranges from less 

than ten to nearly 400 in these lots.

Harvey U.S. General Hospital

In spring 1862, Wisconsin Gov. Louis P. Harvey traveled 

south to visit the state’s volunteer soldiers who were 

being treated in hospitals near the fighting. On April 19, 

while crossing from one boat to another at Savannah, 

Tennessee, Harvey fell in the river and drowned. After his 

death, Harvey’s widow, Cordelia, was appointed the state 

sanitary agent. Mrs. Harvey worked tirelessly to provide for 

Wisconsin’s troops during the Civil War. 

She toured hospitals in the South and saw the appalling 

conditions soldiers endured. In 1863, she persuaded 

President Abraham Lincoln to establish a general hospital 

in Madison. Harvey U.S. General Hospital opened in a 

three-story octagonal house built for former Gov. Leonard 

Farwell. A branch hospital at nearby Camp Randall was 

also set up. In December 1864, the complex reported that it 

was treating 587 patients. After the war, the general hospital 

became the Wisconsin Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home.

Orphans’ Home, 1870. It closed in 1874, after the last children had aged out 

of care. Wisconsin Historical Society, WHS-2690. 

24 15

25

20

14

37 43

35

41

12 38 19

23

18

16 11

36

10

40

9

4 17

33

21

22

28 26

27

3

1

5

6 7 50

44 8 39 42 32

2

30 31

29

34

rest house

and office

shop

maintenance

Speedway Road

Virginia Terrace

Eton Ridge

Rugby Road

Hollister Avenue

forest hill

cemetery

15

20

14

37 43

35

41

12 38 19

16 11

36

10

40

9

17

6 7 50

44 39 42

Forest Hill Cemetery plan, soldiers’ lot shaded green. Undated photograph of “Soldiers’ Rest.” 

National Archives and Records Administration. 

Soldiers’ Lot

The City of Madison purchased land in 1857 to establish Forest 

Hill Cemetery. Section 34 of this 140-acre cemetery, set aside for 

Union dead in 1862, was initially known as “Soldiers’ Rest.” Its 

240 interments include troops who died while training at Camp 

Randall. The remainder died at Harvey U.S. General Hospital. 

The city deeded the 0.36-acre lot to the federal government in 

1866. The government acquired a second, smaller parcel in Forest 

Hill Cemetery in 1908. 

The soldiers’ lot contains two Civil War memorials. The 

Wisconsin Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home Monument was erected in 

1873. The marble obelisk is inscribed with the names of eight 

orphans who died at the home. Flanking it are the children’s 

graves marked with headstones bearing their initials. 

In 1891, the Woman’s Relief Corps No. 37 erected a large 

boulder inscribed “To the Unknown Dead.” The corps—an 

auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans 

organization—was founded in 1883 to perpetuate the memory 

of the men who saved the Union.

became the Wisconsin Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
FOREST HOME SOLDIERS’ LOT

Mourners at Alexandria National Cemetery, Virginia, c. 1865. After 1873, standard marble 

headstones replaced the wood headboards seen here. Miller, Photographic History of the 

Civil War (1910).

Civil War Dead

An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died 

in the Civil War (1861-1865). As the death toll rose, the U.S. 

government struggled with the urgent but unplanned need 

to bury fallen Union troops. This propelled the creation of a 

national cemetery system.

On September 11, 1861, the War Department directed officers 

to keep “accurate and permanent records of deceased soldiers.” 

Federal authority to create military burial grounds came in an 

Omnibus Act of July 17, 1862. Cemetery sites were chosen where 

troops were concentrated: camps, hospitals, battlefields, railroad 

hubs. By 1872, 74 national cemeteries and several soldiers’ lots 

contained 305,492 remains. About 45 percent were unknown.

The U.S. government established soldiers’ lots at private 

cemeteries in northern states. National cemeteries, in contrast, 

were built throughout the South where most Civil War action 

occurred. While the army reported dozens of lots containing 

Union dead in the 1870s, the National Cemetery Administration 

maintains only fifteen. The number of graves ranges from less 

than ten to nearly 400 in these lots.

Milwaukee at War 

On April 15, 1861, citizens of Milwaukee met to answer 

President Abraham Lincoln’s call for troops to suppress 

the southern rebellion. Less than ten days later, the 

1st Wisconsin Infantry mustered in at nearby Camp 

Scott. It was the first of six regiments raised in the city.

Soon after the Civil War began, the Milwaukee Ladies 

Association formed. They worked tirelessly to send supplies 

to recuperating soldiers. In 1862, the association split 

into the Wisconsin Soldiers’ Aid Society—a U.S. Sanitary 

Commission branch (predecessor to the American Red 

Cross)—and the Wisconsin Soldiers’ Home Society. The 

latter provided food, temporary lodging, and medical care 

to soldiers from its West Water Street storefronts. 

In 1866, Milwaukee was selected as a site for a National 

Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS). The 

Wisconsin Soldiers’ Home Society transferred its assets 

to support land purchase and building construction. The 

Northwestern Branch NHDVS opened to needy veterans 

the following year.

Undated photograph of Union soldiers on the Milwaukee courthouse lawn. Courtesy of the 

Milwaukee County Historical Society.

Forest Home Cemetery plan with 

soldiers’ lot shaded green. Silas 

Chapman, publisher (1871). Library 

of Congress. Above: Undated 

photograph of soldiers’ lot before 

headstones were installed. National 

Archives and Records Administration.

Soldiers’ Lot

Forest Home Cemetery was established by St. Paul’s Episcopal 

Church in 1850 on 72 acres located about 4 miles southwest of 

downtown Milwaukee. It was the first rural-style cemetery in 

the region, and it would grow to nearly 200 acres.

An 1868 War Department inspection of national cemeteries 

detailed twenty-four Union troops buried in a soldiers’ lot 

here. All had died in the Milwaukee general hospital. The 

report also listed forty-one soldiers in private lots. The federal 

government purchased the soldiers’ lot (Block 5, Section 24) 

from St. Paul’s for $525 in 1872. There are twenty-one marked 

graves here today.

A second lot at Forest Home Cemetery contains the remains 

of veterans who died at the Milwaukee NHDVS between 1867 

and 1871. That year, a cemetery was established at the home. It 

became Wood National Cemetery in 1973.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
FORT GIBSON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Barracks at Fort Gibson. Fort Gibson: A Brief History, by Grant Foreman. Copyright 1936 University 

of Oklahoma Press. Reproduced with permission. All Rights reserved. 

Civil War Fort Gibson

The U.S. Army established a post here in 1824 and named it for 

Col. George Gibson, the army’s first commissary general. 

Thirty-three years later, the federal government turned the fort 

over to the Cherokee Nation, which established a town at this site.

Soon after the Civil War began in 1861, Confederate troops seized the 

old fort. Union forces regained possession in early 1863, and by 

mid-April approximately 3,150 soldiers were stationed at Fort 

Gibson. Troops included three regiments of Indian Home Guards, 

four companies of Kansas cavalry, and a battery of artillery. The 1st 

Kansas Colored Infantry joined them soon after. Strategically located 

on the Arkansas River and a military road, Fort Gibson became the 

most important Union stronghold in Indian Territory (Oklahoma).

On July 1-2, 1863, Fort Gibson troops engaged a Confederate force 

that threatened supply wagons at Cabin Creek. They clashed again 

July 17 at Honey Springs, the largest Civil War battle in Oklahoma. 

It was the first time black soldiers in regimental strength carried 

out a successful offensive against Confederate troops. 

National Cemetery 

Soldiers and family members who died at Fort Gibson were 

buried in one of three small post cemeteries established 

between 1824 and 1857. Most died from accidents or 

disease—the fort endured several yellow fever epidemics. 

When the U.S. Army abandoned Fort Gibson, it left the 

cemeteries in place. 

Reoccupation of the garrison during the Civil War meant 

more interments. In 1868, a new Fort Gibson National 

Cemetery was established on land formerly part of the 

larger military reservation. It was laid out in four sections 

with a central officers’ circle and flagpole. In 1871, there 

were 2,123 graves in the cemetery—156 known Union 

soldiers and 1,967 dead associated with the post.

Undated view of cemetery showing private headstones in the officers’ circle. National 

Archives and Records Administration. 

Second Empire-style lodge and wall, 1903. National Archives and Records Administration. 

In 1872, Secretary of War William W. Belknap directed 

the quartermaster general to relocate the dead from Fort 

Washita, Fort Towson, and Fort Arbuckle in southern 

Oklahoma to this cemetery. The remains of Union 

soldiers from other battlefields and sites in Oklahoma, 

Kansas, and Missouri were eventually reinterred here, 

too. By 1874, the cemetery contained 2,296 graves, of 

which only 194 were known. 

The U.S. Army permanently abandoned Fort Gibson in 

1890, but retained control of the 7-acre national cemetery. 

It was enclosed by a sandstone wall that matched the 

Second Empire-style lodge completed in 1878. This lodge, 

which housed the superintendent and his family, was 

replaced by a Dutch Colonial-style brick structure in 

1934. An administration building now occupies the site. 

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
FORT HARRISON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Fort Harrison after its capture on September 29, 1864. Library of Congress. 

New Market Heights

Fort Harrison was the strongest point in the Confederate 

defense line and the key to Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler’s 

plan to capture Richmond, the Confederate capital. The 

Confederate fort was held by less than 200 soldiers who 

manned the fort’s artillery and protected the walls. 

On September 29, 1864, the Union captured the fort 

and another attack took nearby New Market Heights. 

The next day, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee 

organized a counterattack to retake the fort. The 

Confederate assault failed. 

Fort Harrison was renamed Fort Burnham in honor of 

Union Brig. Gen. Hiram Burnham, who was killed in 

the fighting that September day. 

The flagstaff and artillery monument c. 1940. National Archives and Records Administration.

During the Civil War, thousands of Union soldiers perished in 

battles fought for control of Richmond. They are now buried 

in Fort Harrison National Cemetery and six other national 

cemeteries established in the Richmond-Petersburg area in 1866.

When the cemetery was established in May, it contained the 

remains of 814 soldiers—more than half were unknown. 

Today, this 1.6-acre cemetery contains the remains of 1,522 

individuals, including four Confederate soldiers. Many of the 

dead are U.S. Colored Troops killed in the assault on New 

Market Heights.

In 1872, the U.S. Army built a stone Second Empire-style lodge 

for the superintendent, followed a few years later with a brick 

enclosure wall. Other cemetery improvements included a central 

flagpole mound and artillery monument—a cannon barrel planted 

upright in the ground topped by a cannon ball. 

Medal of Honor Recipient 

Pvt. George A. Buchanan, Co. G, 148th New 

York Infantry, received the Medal of Honor for his 

actions at New Market Heights. Serving in advance 

of the Union skirmish line, Buchanan drove 

Confederate artillerists from their guns. He died 

of wounds received on October 2, 1864 

(Section A, Grave 224). 

Civil War Army Medal of Honor. 

Gettysburg National Military Park. 

The assault on Fort Harrison, September 29, 1864. Harper’s Weekly, October 22, 1864. 

National Cemetery

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FORT LEAVENWORTH NATIONAL CEMETERY

Fort Leavenworth, 1867. Library of Congress. 

Civil War Fort Leavenworth

Fort Leavenworth was established in Kansas Territory in 

1827 by Col. Henry Leavenworth. It is one of the oldest 

continuously operating military posts west of the Mississippi 

River. With the start of the Civil War, it became the main 

supply depot for the region. Wagon trains, some more than 

200 carts long, delivered vital supplies to forts including 

Scott, Gibson, and Smith—the latter more than 330 miles 

south in Arkansas. The fort was also a recruiting and 

training center for soldiers.

Despite entering the Union as the thirty-fourth state in 

January 1861, Kansas was home to a strong pro-Confederate 

faction. Fort Leavenworth soon became a refuge for 

pro-Union supporters—white, black, and American Indian—

seeking protection. In July 1862, Gen. James Lane organized 

early companies of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry here. 

Confederate Gen. Sterling Price failed to capture Fort 

Leavenworth in 1864, when Union troops led by Gen. Samuel 

Curtis defeated his army at the Battle of Westport, near 

Kansas City. 

National Cemetery

Soon after Fort Leavenworth was established, the U.S. Army created 

two cemeteries—one for officers, one for enlisted men. In 1858, remains 

from both were moved to new ground that, in 1862, was designated Fort 

Leavenworth National Cemetery. By 1874, a stone wall enclosed the 9-acre 

cemetery that contained two gun monuments. At the time, some 1,377 dead 

were buried here, including 398 known Union soldiers and sailors, 

752 unknown Union soldiers, and 227 known citizens, women, and 

children. The superintendent and his family lived in a stone SecondEmpire-style lodge until 1905, when it was replaced with a new building. 

The graves of two noted soldiers are marked by private headstones. 

Colonel Leavenworth, who died in 1834 in Indian Territory (Oklahoma), 

was originally buried in New York. His remains were moved here in 1902 

and marked with a granite shaft (Section 2, Grave 3215). Col. Edward 

Hatch enlisted in the volunteer army during the Civil War and later served 

in the Regular Army (Section A-OFF, Grave 2204). Men of the all-black 

9th U.S. Cavalry who served under Hatch during the Indian Wars funded 

his granite pedestal-style marker. 

Colonel Leavenworth’s grave marker, 1933, before the eagle was added to the top 

in 1956. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Thomas W. Custer

One Civil War Medal of Honor recipient is buried here. 

Second Lt. Thomas W. Custer, 6th Michigan Cavalry, was the

first man twice awarded the nation’s highest military decoration.

Custer captured enemy flags on two separate occasions during 

the last days of the war in April 1865. The second time, at the 

Battle of Sailor’s Creek, Virginia, he was severely wounded and his 

horse shot from under him. The younger brother of Gen. George 

Armstrong Custer, Thomas died at the Battle of Little Big Horn 

on June 25, 1876. Initially buried on that battlefield, Custer’s 

remains were reinterred here in 1877 (Section A, Grave 1488). 

first man twice awarded the nation’s highest military decoration.

Custer captured enemy flags on two separate occasions during 

Battle of Sailor’s Creek, Virginia, he was severely wounded and his 

horse shot from under him. The younger brother of Gen. George 

Armstrong Custer, Thomas died at the Battle of Little Big Horn 

Thomas W. Custer (center) with his brother, George Armstrong, 

and sister-in-law, Libby Custer, 1865. Library of Congress. 

Civil War Army Medal of Honor. 

Gettysburg National Military Park. 

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FORT MCPHERSON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Fort McPherson, 1865. The Battle of Atlanta (1910). 

Frontier Fort

In 1863, the U.S. Army sent Gen. George M. O’Brien to select the 

site for a fort to protect the growing transcontinental railroad and 

settlers migrating west. Perched above Cottonwood Canyon in 

the Nebraska Territory, Fort McKean was renamed in 1866 for 

Union Gen. James B. McPherson, who was killed in the 1864 

Battle of Atlanta. Soldiers posted here were actively engaged 

with various American Indian tribes from 1864 until the army 

abandoned the fort. 

Two significant expeditions embarked from Fort McPherson. 

Lt. Col. George A. Custer led the 7th U.S. Cavalry in a campaign 

against tribes in Kansas in 1868. The following year, Maj. Eugene 

Carr led the 5th U.S. Cavalry to defeat the Cheyenne at the Battle 

of Blue Summit Springs. 

For seventeen years, the garrison protected wagon trains, 

stagecoaches, and mail and telegraph lines. Completion of the 

transcontinental railroad in 1869 transformed the area. Wagon 

traffic declined and American Indians were pushed farther 

west. In 1880 the U.S. Army vacated Fort McPherson.

National Cemetery

Fort McPherson National Cemetery, established in October 

1873, evolved from an existing post cemetery. The army 

used a 107-acre tract to consolidate the dead removed from 

frontier posts it had abandoned. The first remains came 

from Fort Kearney, Nebraska, and Fort Sedgwick, Colorado. 

By 1874, the remains of 389 U.S. soldiers, 271 of them 

unidentified, had been reinterred. Between 1878 and 

1947, remains from twenty-three more military posts in 

Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming were 

reburied here. 

An undated photograph of Decoration (Memorial) Day at the cemetery. Nebraska State 

Historical Society, NE RG2608-2926b.

Lodge and cemetery, 1903. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Per an 1867 law, the secretary of war appointed a 

“meritorious and trustworthy” superintendent to manage 

the cemetery. To qualify for the position, the individual had 

to have been an enlisted man disabled in service. These 

rules were loosened in 1872 to allow any man honorably 

discharged from the service of the United States to serve as a 

cemetery superintendent. 

The first superintendent, assigned here on March 9, 1874, 

was George Griffin, formerly a captain in the 1st District 

of Columbia Cavalry. The army constructed a lodge for the 

superintendent and his family two years later.

In 1920, the U.S. Army determined that the property was 

too large for a national cemetery. As a result, much of the 

undeveloped land was transferred to private ownership. 

The federal government retained 20 acres. 

0009_Fort McPherson NC_5-19

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FORT SCOTT NATIONAL CEMETERY

Fort Scott as it appeared in the 1890s. Courtesy Kansas State Historical Society.

Civil War Fort Scott

Fort Scott, founded 1842, was named for former commanderin-chief of the U.S. Army, Gen. Winfield Scott. The army 

abandoned the fort in 1853, but the Civil War prompted 

federal troops to return in 1862. Fort Scott became the 

headquarters of the Department of Kansas and an important 

supply depot. Pro-Union supporters in Kansas—white, black, 

and American Indian—also found refuge here. 

The first black regiment recruited in a Northern state, the 

1st Kansas Colored Infantry, mustered into service at Fort Scott 

on January 13, 1863. The 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry was 

organized here in fall 1863 before departing for Arkansas. 

Prior to this, in late October 1862, a group of 224 Union soldiers, 

seven officers, and several scouts—men who later served in the 

1st Kansas Colored Infantry—left Fort Scott for Missouri in 

search of Confederates. They quickly found them. At Island 

Mound fighting lasted two days. The 1st Kansas “fought like 

tigers,” reported a Union lieutenant. It was the first of many 

battles where the regiment excelled. 

National Cemetery

From 1842 to 1853, seventeen individuals were buried in 

the Fort Scott post cemetery. When the fort was reoccupied 

in 1862, the U.S. Army established a new area as Fort Scott 

National Cemetery for the interment of Union soldiers. 

An 1867 law directed the secretary of war to appoint a 

“meritorious and trustworthy” superintendent to manage 

the national cemetery. To qualify for the position, the 

individual had to have been an enlisted man disabled in 

service. These restrictions were loosened over time. Absalom 

Hyde, formerly a captain in the 16th Kansas Cavalry, was 

named superintendent here in July 1868. 

The U.S. Army improved the cemetery in the 1870s. A 

stone wall enclosed the 5-acre property, which contained 

492 interments, including fourteen Confederate prisoners. 

A brick Second Empire-style lodge housed the superintendent

and his family. Prior to its completion, the superintendent 

lived in town.

Several notable Civil War soldiers are buried or memorialized

in the cemetery. A large sandstone boulder marks the grave 

of Capt. Eugene F. Ware, 7th Iowa Cavalry, who worked as a 

lawyer and author, known as “Ironquill,” after the war. He 

died in 1911 (west end of Sections 10 and 13, Grave 1).

Also buried here are sixteen American Indian soldiers who 

enlisted in Union Indian Home Guard during the Civil War. 

These regiments were made up of loyal refugees who came to 

Kansas from Indian Territory (Oklahoma) in 1861 and 1862. 

The men served as scouts for other Union regiments.

A granite monument dedicated to soldiers of the 1st Kansas 

Colored Infantry and the 2nd Kansas Battery was erected 

here in 1984. It is inscribed with the names of eighteen men 

Postcard view of cemetery entrance, c. 1900. National Cemetery Administration. killed in battle near Sherwood, Missouri, on May 18, 1863.

Undated photograph of the superintendent’s family near the lodge and a 20-pounder Parrott 

rifle. National Archives and Records Administration.

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FORT SMITH NATIONAL CEMETERY

Fort Smith, 1865. Courtesy of the Fort Smith National Historic Site. 

Civil War Fort Smith

In 1817, the U.S. Army sent a detachment of soldiers to 

Arkansas Territory to keep the peace between the Osage 

and Cherokee nations. They built a post on the shore of the 

Arkansas River and named it for Gen. Thomas A. Smith. 

The army abandoned Fort Smith in 1825 but returned in 

1836. A federal garrison held Fort Smith until April 23, 1861, 

when the Arkansas militia seized it. Union forces retook the 

fort in September 1863 and held it for the rest of the war.

Fort Smith became an important supply depot and outpost at 

the edge of Indian Territory. In 1865, a council meeting at Fort 

Smith was held to negotiate between the federal government 

and tribes that had sided with the Confederacy. The council 

reestablished treaties between those tribes and the government. 

National Cemetery

Post Surgeon Thomas Russell, who died in 1819, was the first 

interment at Fort Smith. The 5.5-acre cemetery served the 

garrisons, both Union and Confederate, during the Civil War. 

In 1867, it became one of three national cemeteries established 

in Arkansas. In addition to U.S. soldiers, burials include several 

hundred Confederates and more than 160 civilians who died at 

the fort.

In the 1870s, the U.S. Army Quartermaster General’s Office 

constructed a brick lodge and wall, and placed permanent 

marble headstones on the graves. In 1898, a tornado swept 

through Fort Smith and caused extensive damage. The wall was 

rebuilt in stone, and the lodge was replaced with the current 

two-story building in 1904. When a new entrance was erected 

in 1942, the old iron gates were moved into the cemetery. Over 

the years, the cemetery has expanded to more than 32 acres. 

The lodge in 1941. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Judge Parker

Isaac Charles Parker was born on October 15, 1838, in 

Ohio. In 1859, he became a lawyer and moved to 

St. Joseph, Missouri. Parker resigned from his position 

as city attorney in 1861 to join the Union Army. After the 

Civil War, he was elected county prosecutor and later 

served two terms in the U.S. Congress. On March 18, 

1875, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him judge of 

the Western District of Arkansas, based in Fort Smith.

Isaac C. Parker, c. 1875. 

Library of Congress. 

Judge Parker held court six days a week, often hearing 

cases for ten hours each day. He presided over an 

unusually large number of cases with a mandatory 

death sentence. Although personally opposed to capital 

punishment, federal law required Parker to hand down 

the death sentence if the jury returned a guilty verdict 

for crimes of rape or murder. 

Parker served until shortly before his death on 

November 17, 1896, and was buried in this cemetery 

(Section 9, Grave 4000). In the years after his death he 

was often referred to as the “Hanging Judge.”

the years, the cemetery has expanded to more than 32 acres. 

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CONFEDERATE BURIALS IN THE NATIONAL CEMETERY

The Confederate Occupation 

The War Department established Fort Smith in 1817 and 

occupied it until April 23, 1861. Learning that the Arkansas 

militia was advancing, the garrison retreated, taking arms 

and supplies from the fort with them. Hours later, Arkansas 

Volunteers led by Col. Solon Borland, a former U.S. senator, 

marched into Fort Smith and took 

possession in the name of the state of 

Arkansas.

Fort Smith’s location, transportation 

and communications network, 

and storage facilities made it an 

important supply depot. Over the 

next thirty months, Confederates 

launched military expeditions from 

this location. As the Union army 

approached Fort Smith on August 31, 

1863, the Confederates withdrew.

During the occupation, Confederates buried their soldiers 

in the existing post cemetery. In 1867, the post cemetery was 

designated Fort Smith National Cemetery.

Solon Borland, Democratic 

Senator from Arkansas, 1848-

1853. Library of Congress.

Fort Smith, Arkansas, c. 1855. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

The Confederate Monument 

Sometime after Fort Smith National 

Cemetery was established, former 

Confederate general James F. Fagan 

and Dr. Elias Duval decided to erect a 

memorial here honoring Confederate 

dead buried in the cemetery including 

Gens. Alexander E. Steen and James 

McIntosh. Fagan and Duval, aided by 

the women of Fort Smith, raised money 

for the memorial and sometime before 

1898, “a modest, yet appropriate shaft” 

was erected in Section 2. A tornado in 

January 1898 destroyed the memorial and caused considerable 

damage to the cemetery.

The United Confederate 

Veterans and the United 

Daughters of the Confederacy 

raised money to replace the 

monument, and in 1901 they 

submitted the design to the War 

Department. The design was 

rejected because the inscription 

violated government policy 

that text be “without praise and 

without censure.” The proposed 

monument was eventually 

erected on the Sebastian County 

courthouse lawn, where it 

stands today. About 1904, the 

War Department replaced the 

destroyed monument with a 

small marble obelisk.

James F. Fagan, c. 1880.

Arkansas History Commission.

The Fort Smith Confederate Monument 

on the courthouse lawn, 1960. Arkansas 

History Commission. 

Fort Smith National Cemetery 

The largest group of Confederate burials in Fort Smith National 

Cemetery is in Section 3; other interments are scattered 

throughout Sections 1, 2, 4 and 8. Many graves contain two or 

more burials, and some as many as thirty individuals.

Confederate headstones, c. 1934, with the Southern Cross of Honor. The 1904 monument is in the 

background. National Cemetery Administration. 

The Confederate Headstones

The distinctive pointed-top headstones on the Confederate 

graves were installed after 1930. That year, the War Department 

authorized the addition of the Southern Cross of Honor to 

the Confederate headstone. The United Daughters of the 

Confederacy created the cross medal in 1898 and bestowed it 

upon Confederate veterans or their families. The emblem on the 

headstone is a simplified version of what appears on the medal.

36x24 Confederate Burials The Confederate Occupation

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GLENDALE NATIONAL CEMETERY

Battle of Glendale, also known as Frayser’s Farm. The Century War Book, 1894.

Battle of Glendale

Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee assumed command of the Army 

of Northern Virginia in June 1862. His first actions were a series 

of assaults on Union forces that were moving toward Richmond, 

Virginia, the Confederate capital.

Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac, 

some 100,000 strong, was within 5 miles of Richmond. A defeat 

at Gaines Mill in late June forced McClellan to fall back. Hoping 

to trap McClellan, Lee ordered Maj. Gen. James Longstreet 

forward. The two forces met near Glendale on June 30. Fighting 

was fierce. A Union officer wrote, “It was muzzle to muzzle, and 

powder actually burned the faces of the opposing men.” 

Hours of bloody fighting ended as night fell. Confederate forces 

captured six Union guns and a few acres of woods but failed to halt 

McClellan’s retreat. Lee and McClellan each lost approximately 

3,500 men in the engagement. The Battle of Glendale was the fifth 

action Lee undertook in what became known as “The Seven Days 

Battles.” Glendale was a loss for both sides.

National Cemetery

During the Civil War, Union and Confederate armies fought 

numerous battles for control of Richmond. Thousands of 

Union soldiers perished. They are now buried in Glendale 

National Cemetery and six national cemeteries established in 

the Richmond-Petersburg area in 1866. 

Here lie the remains of 1,192 soldiers who died on the 

battlefields of Glendale and Malvern Hill, in hospitals at 

Harrison’s Landing, and elsewhere in the vicinity. The names 

of only 234 were known.

Cemetery plan, 1892. National Archives and Records Administration.

Cemetery entrance, 1904. National Archives and Records Administration.

The Cemetery Develops

When the cemetery was created, it was a little less than 2 acres. 

It featured walkways radiating out from a central flagstaff 

mound. The design divided the burials, in rows of concentric 

circles, into four sections. 

By the 1870s, the U.S. Army reported several improvements. 

A brick Second Empire-style lodge, the superintendent’s 

home and office, was constructed. An inverted cannon was 

installed in the walkway between the lodge and flagstaff. A 

a bronze plaque with the number of known and unknown 

burials was affixed to the gun monument. A stone wall 

enclosed the cemetery.

An 1872 law directed the secretary of war to appoint a 

superintendent for each national cemetery from among 

“meritorious and trustworthy soldiers, either commissioned 

officers or enlisted men of the Volunteer or Regular Army.” 

To qualify, an individual must have been honorably mustered 

out or discharged from the service of the United States. 

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GRAFTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

A State Forged from War

On April 17, 1861, just days after President Abraham Lincoln’s 

order to seize Fort Sumter in South Carolina, a convention of 

Virginia officials met to back a bill that would let Virginians 

vote on secession from the Union. Many delegates from western 

Virginia withdrew from the convention and vowed to form a 

state government loyal to the Union.

After the victory at the Battle of Philippi on June 3, 1861, Union 

forces occupied northwestern Virginia. Secure from Confederate 

interference, a new convention met in Wheeling and formed 

the Restored Government of Virginia, which President Lincoln 

recognized as the state’s legitimate government. 

The U.S. Constitution allows for the formation of a new state from 

an existing one if the original state consents. Since the federal 

government accepted the Restored Government as Virginia’s 

legal authority, the state granted itself permission. On June 20, 

1863, West Virginia was officially created with the provision 

that slavery would gradually be abolished in the new state.

Battle of Philippi, June 3, 1861. The Soldier in Our Civil War (1895).

National Cemetery

Grafton National Cemetery was established in 1867. The 

site was chosen for its proximity to existing Union burials in 

the private Maple Avenue Cemetery. Remains were brought 

here from Wheeling, Rich Mountain, and elsewhere in West 

Virginia and eastern Kentucky. 

The rugged terrain challenged the Quartermaster General’s 

staff. They terraced the 3.5-acre cemetery into three levels. A 

central path connected the terraces and a stone wall was built 

to enclose the grounds.

On June 14, 1868, Union veterans, townspeople, and local 

and state dignitaries gathered to dedicate the picturesque 

cemetery. West Virginia’s first governor, Arthur Boreman, 

spoke. The original 1,254 interments were almost equally 

known and unknown dead. The cemetery contains more 

than 2,100 burials today. 

Cemetery in 1904. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Memorial Day

Grafton first hosted Memorial Day ceremonies in spring 

1869. That year, the mayor asked residents to observe “flower 

strewing day” alongside Civil War veterans. The program grew 

over the years. School children still march in a parade to the 

cemetery carrying flowers and American flags for placement 

on the graves. 

In 1882, local Union veterans formed a chapter of the Grand 

Army of the Republic (GAR). “Flower strewing day” officially 

became Decoration Day (later Memorial Day) when the 

GAR adopted the formal name. Grafton became known as 

“Memorial City” as the annual event gained recognition.

Memorial Day parade in Grafton, c. 1900. Private Collection.

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GREEN MOUNT SOLDIERS’ LOT

Mourners at Alexandria National Cemetery, Virginia, c. 1865. After 1873, standard marble 

headstones replaced the wood headboards seen here. Miller, Photographic History of the 

Civil War (1910).

Civil War Dead

An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died 

in the Civil War (1861-1865). As the death toll rose, the U.S. 

government struggled with the urgent but unplanned need 

to bury fallen Union troops. This propelled the creation of a 

national cemetery system.

On September 11, 1861, the War Department directed officers 

to keep “accurate and permanent records of deceased soldiers.” 

Federal authority to create military burial grounds came in an 

Omnibus Act of July 17, 1862. Cemetery sites were chosen where 

troops were concentrated: camps, hospitals, battlefields, railroad 

hubs. By 1872, 74 national cemeteries and several soldiers’ lots 

contained 305,492 remains. About 45 percent were unknown.

The U.S. government established soldiers’ lots at private 

cemeteries in northern states. National cemeteries, in contrast, 

were built throughout the South where most Civil War action 

occurred. While the army reported dozens of lots containing 

Union dead in the 1870s, the National Cemetery Administration 

maintains only fifteen. The number of graves ranges from less 

than ten to nearly 400 in these lots.

Vermont at War

On April 23, 1861, eleven days after Confederate forces assaulted 

Fort Sumter in South Carolina, Gov. Erastus Fairbanks asked 

Vermont legislators to help fund the federal response. “The 

United States government must be sustained and the rebellion 

suppressed,” he said. After a brief debate, the state legislature 

appropriated $1 million to the Civil War effort. Montpelier raised 

only one regiment, but Vermont’s capital city was home to one of 

the state’s three U.S. General Hospitals.

Sloan General Hospital, the smallest but most modern of the 

three, opened in June 1864. Vermont Surgeon General Samuel 

Thayer Jr. chose the site on a hill near a good spring and with 

access to the railroad. The hospital’s 496 beds were divided 

among twelve buildings. The complex included an administration 

building, dead house, and chapel. It opened after the Battle of 

Cold Harbor, Virginia (May 31-June 12, 1864), and was among 

the first hospitals to care for more patients with battle wounds 

than disease. 

During the Civil War, Vermont’s three general hospitals cared for 

8,574 patients. Sloan closed in December 1865. In just more than 

eighteen months, 1,670 patients were treated here. Of the 174 who 

died, some were buried in town.

Sloan General Hospital, Montpelier, c. 1865. Courtesy of Special Collections, Bailey/Howe 

Library, University of Vermont. 

Green Mount Cemetery plan showing 

soldiers’ lot shaded green. Insets: Plan 

and photograph of soldiers’ lot, 1954; the 

private headstones in the first row were 

replaced with standard government-issued 

ones. National Cemetery Administration.

Soldiers’ Lot

Green Mount Cemetery was established in 1854 on 

35 acres in Montpelier. The city deeded 450-square-feet

in this cemetery to the federal government on March 28, 

1866. The Lot 324 reservation, located along the front 

of the cemetery, is identified by square granite corner 

markers inscribed with “U.S.”

Two graves containing Union soldiers were here in 1868, 

and the number doubled in 1874. The eight interments 

recorded today make it one of the National Cemetery 

Administration’s smallest soldiers’ lots. 

The graves are marked by standard, round-topped 

government-issued marble headstones. This design was 

approved by the secretary of war in 1873 to mark the 

graves of known Union soldiers.

Green Mount Cemetery plan showing 

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HAMPTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

The Fort, Battles & Hospitals

The Hampton, Virginia-area saw many significant Civil 

War events. At Fort Monroe in 1861, Maj. Gen. Benjamin 

Butler declared three slaves seeking protection behind 

Union lines to be “contraband of war.” Butler’s precedent 

helped free enslaved persons before President Abraham 

Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 

January 1863. 

Also in 1862, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan used Fort 

Monroe as his Peninsular Campaign base. At nearby 

Hampton Roads, the U.S.S Monitor and C.S.S. Merrimac

fought to a draw in the first engagement between ironclad 

warships. Later, Butler launched his 1864 Richmond 

campaign from the fort.

Troops in these and other campaigns often returned to 

Hampton as casualties. Chesapeake Military Hospital and 

Hampton Military Hospital, with a total of 1,800 beds, 

treated sick and wounded officers and enlisted men.

Fort Monroe as it appeared c. 1861. Library of Congress. 

National Cemetery

The U.S. Army established Hampton National Cemetery in 1866 about 

two miles from Fort Monroe. The Southern Branch of the National 

Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, opened in 1870, used this cemetery 

when residents died. 

Detail of an 1892 cemetery plan showing the two cemetery tracts, Soldiers Home and Fort Monroe. Hatched areas 

show the original (left) and new (right) cemetery properties. National Archives and Records Administration.

By 1874, the 11-acre cemetery contained 5,209 individuals, including 83 

citizens, women, and children; 475 of the graves were unknown. Land 

to the east was purchased in 1892 to provide additional burial space. 

This “Phoebus Section” was expanded again in 1894 and 1934. A Second 

Empire-style superintendent’s lodge was finished in 1872; it was replaced 

in 1940. 

Sections D and E contain the remains of 272 Confederate prisoners of war. 

The soldiers were held at various Tidewater Virginia locations including 

Fort Monroe, Newport News, and Portsmouth. Both sections contain 

granite blocks inscribed “To Our Confederate Dead.”

Medal of Honor Recipients

Six Civil War recipients of the Medal of Honor are 

buried here. Created in 1863, the medal is the highest 

award for military valor in the U.S. Armed Services. 

For acts above and beyond the call of duty, 1,522 

individuals who served in the Civil War received the 

medal.

Michael Cassidy, landsman on the U.S.S. Lackawanna, 

August 5, 1864 (Phoebus Section B, Grave 9503).

James R. Garrison, coal heaver on the U.S.S. Hartford, 

August 5, 1864 (Phoebus Section B, Grave 9523).

Sgt. Alfred B. Hilton, Company H, 4th U.S. Colored 

Infantry, September 29, 1864 (Hampton Section E, 

Grave 1231).

First Lt. Harry (Henry) J. Mandy, 

Company B, 4th New York 

Cavalry, August 15, 1864 (Phoebus 

Section C, Grave 8709).

Pvt. Charles Veale, Company 

D, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, 

September 29, 1864 (Hampton 

Section F, Grave 5097).

David Warren, coxswain on the 

U.S.S. Monticello, June 23-25, 1864 

(Phoebus Section C, Grave 7972).

Civil War Army Medal of Honor.

Gettysburg National Military Park. 

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HAMPTON VAMC NATIONAL CEMETERY

National Soldiers’ Home 

In 1870, the federal government bought the building that 

had served as Chesapeake Military Hospital during the Civil 

War. It became the Southern Branch of the National Home 

for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, the fourth such facility. 

This Tidewater Virginia site was authorized for Civil 

War veterans, including former U.S. Colored Troops, who 

required a milder climate than other National Homes, at the 

time, located in Maine, Ohio, and Wisconsin. 

The old hospital became part of a sprawling campus. Its 

buildings included a theater, library, chapel, and beer hall. 

Operated like the military, barracks at the National Home had 

company designations and men wore uniforms. It was initially 

open to disabled veterans of the Mexican and Civil wars who 

received pensions of less than $16 per month. 

Hospital building at the Southern Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 

1902. Library of Congress.

Newspaper headlines from the 

Daily Press, Newport News, 

Virginia, August 1(front) and 

16 (back),1899. 

Yellow Fever Scare

In 1899, more than 3,700 veterans resided at the Southern 

Branch. On July 29 that year, the chief surgeon sought the 

services of a yellow fever expert. Doctors quarantined the 

National Home and the adjacent town of Phoebus. 

Authorities relocated 1,500 veterans, nearly half of the National 

Home population. Men occupied tents set up on the grounds 

while residence halls were fumigated and bed linens were 

disinfected or burned. The decisive actions by medical 

authorities controlled the spread of the disease. About forty 

cases of yellow fever were confirmed at the Home; of those 

thirteen died.

The Cemetery

An earlier yellow fever outbreak had killed more than 2,000 

people in Hampton. Thus, medical authorities and local, state, 

and federal government officials took an epidemic threat 

seriously. Though Hampton National Cemetery was just 

outside the National Home, the quarantine forbade anyone 

from leaving the campus. Home officials were forced to create

a new cemetery on the grounds.

By September 1899, twenty Civil War and Mexican War 

veterans were buried in the small cemetery, including eight 

yellow fever victims. The rest died of other causes during the 

quarantine. Two civilians who died in 1909 and 1912 brought 

the total number of graves to twenty-two. 

Established as the result of a short-lived health crisis at the 

National Home, the smallest national cemetery has no lodge 

or enclosing wall. It has been erroneously called the “SpanishAmerican War” cemetery because the yellow fever outbreak 

occurred while the United States was engaged in that war. 

National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers campus at the time of the 1899 yellow fever 

outbreak. Annual Report of the Marine Hospital Service. Note the cemetery gate at bottom left, that 

led to Hampton National Cemetery. The new cemetery was established near the morgue, circled.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs

National Cemetery Administration

To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov
HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL CEMETERY

Aerial view of the Battle Mountain Sanitarium, c. 1955. Hot Springs Public Library.

Battle Mountain Sanitarium

Veterans and politicians began lobbying for a National Home for 

Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS) at Hot Springs, South Dakota, in 

1890. The U.S. Congress authorized funding in 1902, and construction 

started the next year. Landscape architect George E. Kessler and architect 

Thomas Kimball designed the campus and its elegant buildings. A blend 

of Spanish Colonial Revival and Richardson Romanesque styles, the 

buildings were constructed using local sandstone. 

Unlike other homes established as residential facilities, Battle Mountain 

Sanitarium was a hospital that offered short-term care. Civil War veteran 

Charles Wibert transferred here from the Marion, Indiana, home in 

March 1907. Twenty-five men from the NHDVS at Danville, Illinois, 

soon followed. Within three years of opening, Battle Mountain began to 

specialize in the treatment of tuberculosis.

The National Homes merged with the U.S. Veterans Bureau and the 

Bureau of Pensions to form the Veterans Administration (now U.S. 

Department of Veterans Affairs) in 1930. In 2012, the Hot Springs VA 

Medical Center campus was designated a National Historic Landmark. 

Cemetery and Monument

An 8.65-acre cemetery opened shortly after completion 

of the Battle Mountain Sanitarium hospital. The first 

interment on May 5, 1907, was Civil War veteran Elijah F. 

Williams, formerly of the 1st New Jersey Infantry. 

A 32-foot-tall monument was 

constructed on high ground 

in the southeast corner of 

the cemetery. The sandstone 

obelisk is built in three tiers 

with inscriptions on two faces. 

One reads: “National Home 

Disabled Volunteer Soldiers 

Battle Mountain Sanitarium 

1914.” The other reads: “In 

Memory of the Men Who 

Offered Their Lives in the 

Defense of Their Country.” 

The obelisk is similar to 

those erected at the Eastern 

(Togus, Maine) and Pacific 

(Los Angeles, California) 

National Homes. 

Monument, 2006. Library 

of Congress, HALS SD-1.

Funeral procession, c. 1914. Hot Springs Public Library. 

By 1913, sanitarium protocol called for funerals to start 

at 8 a.m. Each included an honor guard. Able patients 

walked to the cemetery behind a caisson carrying the 

coffin. The service ended with a rifle salute and the 

playing of “Taps.” 

Veterans and their dependents comprise all but two of 

the nearly 1,500 burials here. The other graves, civilian 

employees who died on site in 1918, are 

distinguished by headstones that face a 

different direction than those of veterans. 

The cemetery was designated Hot Springs 

National Cemetery in 1973.

One Civil War Medal of Honor recipient 

is buried here. Corp. Charles L. Russell, 

93rd New York Infantry, captured 

a regimental Confederate flag at 

Spotsylvania, Virginia, May 12, 1864 

(Section 3, Grave 12). 

Civil War Army Medal of Honor. 

Gettysburg National Military Park.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
JEFFERSON BARRACKS NATIONAL CEMETERY

Jefferson Barracks as it appeared in 1861. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper

(June 29, 1861). 

Civil War Jefferson Barracks 

Jefferson Barracks, established by the U.S. Army in 

1826, was in continuous use until 1946. Early in the 

Civil War, both pro-Union and pro-Confederate militia 

occupied St. Louis. Union militia drilled at Jefferson 

Barracks. In May 1861 pro-Confederate forces were 

expelled from the city. 

Throughout the war Jefferson Barracks served as a 

hospital. The army converted existing buildings and 

erected new ones to serve as medical facilities. By the 

end of 1862, more than 5,000 sick and wounded had 

been treated at Jefferson Barracks General Hospital. In 

excess of 18,000 Union soldiers passed through it by 

the time the war ended in 1865. 

National Cemetery

With the hospital came the need for a cemetery. The Jefferson Barracks 

post burial grounds had been in use since August 1827. By the time of the 

Civil War, more than 600 soldiers and civilians had been buried there. 

The national cemetery, established in 1866, was expanded beyond the 

post cemetery. By 1869, it contained more than 10,000 graves, the majority 

known. Among those interred were 1,106 Confederate prisoners of war. 

Two Civil War Medal of Honor recipients are buried 

here. Pvt. Martin Schubert, 26th New York Infantry, 

picked up the colors and carried them until he was 

wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, 

December 13, 1862 (Section 4, Grave 12310).

Corp. Lorenzo D. Immell, 2nd U.S. Artillery, gathered 

abandoned cannon and continued to fire on Confederates 

at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Missouri, August 10, 1861 

(Section 4, Grave 12342).

Civil War Army Medal of Honor. 

Gettysburg National Military Park.

Former cemetery entrance and gatehouse/office, 1933. The superintendent’s lodge is visible beyond the gate. 

National Archives and Records Administration. 

Minnesota Monument in 1933. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Civil War Monuments

Sculptor John K. Daniels of St. Paul, Minnesota, 

designed the female figure holding a laurel wreath, a 

symbol of glory and victory. The monument was erected 

at the intersection of Longstreet and Monument drives. 

Dedicated on May 15, 1922, it honors 164 Minnesota 

soldiers buried here. It is one of five Minnesota 

monuments placed in the national cemeteries.

In the early twentieth century, Annie Wittenmyer 

Tent No. 3, Daughters of [Union] Veterans, erected 

a monument to the unknown Union dead interred at 

Jefferson Barracks.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

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CONFEDERATE BURIALS IN THE NATIONAL CEMETERY 

36x24 Confederate Burials - Military Prison

Military Prisons in St. Louis 

St. Louis had two small Civil War prisons, each housing several hundred 

persons. Gratiot Street Prison was the former McDowell Medical College, 

located near Eighth and Gratiot streets and the Mississippi River. When 

the Civil War began, 

Dr. Joseph Nash 

McDowell left 

St. Louis, eventually 

joining the 

Confederate army. 

The college became 

Gratiot Street Prison 

in December 1861. 

The U.S. Army 

installed bunks and 

stoves in classrooms, 

and the dissecting 

room became a mess 

hall. The building 

could hold 500, but 

often exceeded that 

number. The first 

prisoners arrived on 

Christmas Eve 1861.

A two-and-a-half-story brick building—at the corner of present-day Clark 

Avenue and Broadway—owned by slave dealer Bernard M. Lynch became 

Myrtle Street Prison. The army confiscated “Lynch’s Slave Pen” after 

Lynch fled south. With barred windows, it needed little alteration. Among 

the first prisoners was Max McDowell, a son of Dr. McDowell, who had 

remained in St. Louis to recruit soldiers for Confederate forces.

Both prisons also held civilians, including women and children, deemed 

Confederate sympathizers. Both facilities closed in summer 1865.

Gratiot Street Prison, c. 1865. Miller’s Photographic History of the Civil War.

The Confederate Burials 

Some Confederate prisoners who died at the 

Gratiot and Myrtle Street prisons, or in hospitals, 

were initially buried in Christ Church Cemetery. 

Others were interred by the firm of John A. 

Smithers & Brother at Wesleyan Cemetery. About 

1867, the U.S. Army moved the remains of more 

than 1,000 Confederate prisoners interred in 

St. Louis cemeteries to Jefferson Barracks 

National Cemetery. This included six burials 

removed from Quarantine Island and a prisoner 

removed from Cape Girardeau, Missouri. 

In 1908, the Commission for Marking Graves of 

Confederate Dead placed the distinctive pointedtop headstones on the Confederate graves at the 

national cemetery. Because St. Louis prisons 

also housed Southern sympathizers, many of the 

dead were civilians. 

The Commission 

was only authorized 

to mark the graves 

of soldiers, but the 

War Department 

authorized the use 

of Confederate-style 

headstones to mark 

civilian prisoner 

graves. Among them 

were two women, 

Jane N. Foster (Section 

20, Grave 4613) and 

Nancy J. Vaughn (Section 21, Grave 4815). 

A Confederate headstone on the grave of 

W. J. Arnett, a prisoner of war.

Toward Reconciliation

On May 30, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic decorated 

Union and Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Thirty years later President William McKinley proclaimed:

The Union is once more the common altar of our love and 

loyalty, our devotion and sacrifice . . . Every soldier’s grave 

made during our unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to American 

valor . . . in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in 

the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers.

The War Department created the Confederate section 

at Arlington in 1901, and marked the graves with 

distinctive pointed-top marble headstones. Five years 

later, Congress created the Commission for Marking 

Graves of Confederate Dead to identify and mark the 

graves of Confederates who died in Northern prisons. 

Its mission was later expanded to encompass all national 

cemeteries that contained Confederate burials.

Four former Confederate officers headed the 

Commission over its lifetime. By 1916, it had marked 

in excess of 25,500 graves and erected monuments in 

locations where individual graves could not be identified.

In 1930, the War Department authorized the addition 

of the Southern Cross of Honor to the Confederate 

headstone.

North Alton Confederate Cemetery 

Monument, 1909, Alton, Ill.

Original Commission headstone (left) and 

headstone with Southern Cross of Honor (right).

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

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JEFFERSON CITY NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War Jefferson City 

In spring 1861, Missouri was a slave state divided over the 

issue of secession. An uneasy peace existed between 

pro-Confederate state government militia and Union forces 

headquartered in St. Louis. On June 11, 1861, Union and 

pro-Confederate leaders met in the city. The conference ended 

abruptly when Union Gen. Nathaniel Lyon stormed out of the 

room yelling, “This means war!” 

Four days later, Lyon’s troops marched into Jefferson City, the 

state capital. They found that pro-secessionist government 

officials had departed two days earlier. 

The Union Army established a garrison at Jefferson City that 

operated throughout the war. Soldiers who died in the city 

were buried on land adjacent to the old city cemetery and 

Woodland Cemetery. 

View of Jefferson City from the Missouri River. Barber and Howe, Our Whole Country (1861). 

Courtesy of the Ohio History Connection.

Entrance gate and lodge, 1903. National Archives and Records Administration. 

National Cemetery

In 1867, the federal government purchased the 2 acres 

being used for military burials from Woodland Cemetery. 

This tract was designated a national cemetery. Remains were 

brought here from Chariton, Cooper, Knox, Johnson, and 

Pettis counties.

By 1875, there were 754 interments, including three civilians 

and three Confederate soldiers. The narrow cemetery was 

enclosed with a stone wall, a Second Empire-style lodge was 

built for the superintendent, and a flagstaff installed. 

The east wall was replaced with a wrought-iron fence and the 

stone utility building was completed in 1937. The rostrum 

was added in 1942.

Centralia Monument

On September 27, 1864, Confederate guerrillas led by “Bloody 

Bill” Anderson executed twenty-two Union soldiers returning 

home on furlough at the train station in Centralia, Missouri. 

Union Maj. A. V. E. Johnston, with detachments of companies 

A, G, and H, 39th Missouri Infantry, pursued the guerrillas. 

The U.S. forces were outnumbered. Johnston and 121 men 

were killed. Residents buried some of the dead in a trench 

grave near the railroad station. Others were initially buried 

in the nearby town of Mexico, but were eventually moved to 

Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis. 

By 1868, the Centralia train station burial plot was enclosed 

by a board fence. A monument inscribed with the names 

of 122 officers and enlisted men of the 39th Missouri who 

died in the battle was installed within the enclosure. These 

remains and the monument were moved in 1873 to this 

national cemetery between

Sections 7 and 9.

Illustration of the Centralia 

Massacre, St. Louis 

Republic, August 5, 1900.  

0008_Jefferson City NC_4-30

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
KEOKUK NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War Keokuk

Keokuk, Iowa, was a staging and training ground for seven 

Union regiments. The first soldiers mustered in at Camp 

Ellsworth in May 1861. Later, camps Rankin, Halleck, and 

Lincoln prepared Iowa troops for deployment south. 

Its Mississippi River setting made Keokuk an important 

Union Army hospital center. The first wounded arrived soon 

after the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee, on April 7, 1862. 

A stream of patients continued throughout the war. 

The army set up military hospitals at the College of Physicians 

and Surgeons, Simpson House, Rice’s Hardware Store, and 

the public school. The largest facility was the Estes House, 

a hotel converted into a U.S. General Hospital. Sick and 

wounded troops were treated here from April 17, 1862, until 

October 1, 1865. 

Keokuk on the Mississippi River. Barber and Howe, Our Whole Country (1861). Courtesy of the 

Ohio History Connection.

View of the fenced cemetery with lodge, cannon, and rostrum, 1903. Completed for 

Memorial Day 1873, the rostrum was the first permanent one built in any national cemetery. 

National Archives and Records Administration. 

National Cemetery

Soldiers who died in Keokuk military hospitals were buried in 

an Oakland Cemetery lot. After the war, the city donated the 

lot to the federal government, which expanded it to establish 

Keokuk National Cemetery. By 1871 the 2.5-acre national 

cemetery contained 627 Union dead, only twenty-seven 

unknown. Eight Confederate prisoners of war who died in 

Keokuk are also buried here.

By 1871, an iron fence enclosed the cemetery, upright 

cannon flanked the entrance, and a Second Empire-style 

brick lodge to house the superintendent and his family was 

complete. Four artillery pieces on gun carriages encircled a 

new flagstaff. A summer house was built to provide visitors 

a place to rest and contemplate the solemn landscape. 

Monuments

In 1912, the Woman’s Relief Corps and State of Iowa erected 

a 30-foot-tall granite pedestal topped with a granite statue 

of a Union soldier. The state legislature had appropriated 

$2,000 for this purpose the previous year. The monument is 

dedicated to unknown soldiers buried in the cemetery. 

Sometime after 1929, 

the cornerstone of the 

Estes House Hotel was 

placed in the cemetery. 

Encased in a metal 

box with a glass lid, 

the cornerstone is a 

memorial to soldiers 

who died in Keokuk’s 

U.S. General Hospital 

during the Civil War. 

Undated photograph of the Estes House Hotel 

cornerstone in Keokuk National Cemetery. National 

Cemetery Administration.

Estes House Hotel, used in the Civil War as a hospital, c. 1920. Keokuk Public Library. 

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
KNOXVILLE NATIONAL CEMETERY

Monuments

The first monument erected in the cemetery honors the 

79th New York Volunteer Infantry known as the 

“Highlanders.” Hugh Young, a stonecutter by trade and 

member of the regiment, carved this monument and 

surrounding headstones for his comrades in March 1864.

In 1893, the Tennessee Grand Army of the Republic, 

a Union veterans’ organization, decided to build a 

monument to the state’s Union dead. The cornerstone 

was laid in 1896 during a ceremony that featured a 

parade and speeches. 

The 60-foot-tall, limestone 

tower was dedicated five 

years later. More than 

7,000 donors, most Union 

veterans, contributed to 

the $11,000 cost. Lightning 

toppled the monument in 

1904. It was reconstructed 

and rededicated in 1906. 

The original Union Soldiers 

Monument, c. 1902. A 

statue of a standing soldier 

replaced the ball and eagle 

at the top when it was 

reconstructed four years 

later. Library of Congress. 

National Cemetery

In December 1863, General Burnside ordered Capt. H. S. Chamberlain 

to prepare a cemetery for casualties of the Knoxville fighting. Three years 

later, Capt. E. B. Whitman, who was in charge of establishing national 

cemeteries in the South, described it as:

the only burial ground of Union Soldiers . . . originally laid out and 

constructed to the present time in a manner and on a system that 

renders it suitable to be converted into a National Cemetery . . .

By 1874, there were 3,135 interments in the 10-acre tract. Approximately 

one-third were unknown. Graves were arranged in concentric circles 

around a central flagstaff. A stone wall enclosed the grounds. 

One Civil War Medal of Honor recipient lies here. Pvt. Timothy Spillane, 

16th Pennsylvania Cavalry, received the commendation for gallantry at 

the Battle of Hatcher’s Run, Virginia, February 5-7, 1865. He died in 

Knoxville in 1901 (Section A, Grave 3319).

Lithograph of cemetery, 1864, that emphasizes the Highlander Monument and headstones in Section A. 

Library of Congress. 

Civil War Knoxville 

In an 1861 referendum, 81 percent of East Tennessee 

voters rejected secession. Many in Knoxville, the region’s 

largest city, supported the Union. During the Civil War, 

30,000 East Tennesseans joined the U.S. Army. When 

Union Gen. Ambrose Burnside’s troops arrived in 

Knoxville in 1863, they received a hero’s welcome. 

On November 17, 1863, Confederate forces led by 

Gen. James Longstreet surrounded Knoxville. The city 

was encircled by a strong line of earthworks anchored 

on the Tennessee River. 

Longstreet attacked at Fort Sanders on the western 

edge of the Union line on November 29. The assault 

lasted less than an hour as Union soldiers inflicted 

heavy losses on Confederate troops. The Confederates 

retreated and attempted to lay siege to the city. Longstreet 

withdrew in December, leaving East Tennessee firmly 

in Union hands. 

Fort Sanders, c. 1863. Surrounded by a ditch 8 feet deep, the fort was located near 

Clinch Avenue just north of what is today the University of Tennessee campus. 

Library of Congress. 

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
LEAVENWORTH NATIONAL CEMETERY

Soldiers’ Home in 1887. L. H. Everts, Official Atlas of Kansas (1887). Courtesy of the David 

Rumsey Map Collection.

National Home

The Western Branch of the National Home for Disabled 

Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS) was authorized in 1884. It was the 

first branch west of the Mississippi River and the fifth one to be 

constructed. The City of Leavenworth, Kansas, donated 640 acres 

and funded enhancements to the grounds. The first resident was 

admitted on July 11, 1885.

Minneapolis landscape architect Horace W. S. Cleveland designed 

the park-like grounds. Leavenworth-based contractor James A.

McGonigle constructed the original buildings in a variety of 

then-popular styles. The campus contained barracks, hospitals, 

entertainment, educational, and maintenance facilities. Veterans 

were trained and employed here. 

The National Homes merged with the U.S. Veterans Bureau and 

the Bureau of Pensions to form the Veterans Administration (now 

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) in 1930. Renamed the 

Eisenhower VA Medical Center, it continues to serve veterans. The 

campus was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2011.

Cemetery and Monument

Horace Cleveland likely designed the 113-acre cemetery 

that opened about a year after the National Home. Ruralstyle paths and roads followed the natural topography, 

and a limestone wall enclosed the property. 

Two noteworthy structures were completed in the early 

twentieth century. The “rest house,” 1921, features 

stained-glass and a porch covering a cast-iron temperance 

fountain. In 1936, a Classical Revival-style rostrum with 

fluted Doric columns was built of limestone.

A large limestone obelisk dedicated to all veterans 

was completed in 1919. The cemetery was designated 

Leavenworth National Cemetery in 1973. 

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument was erected on the highest point of the cemetery. 

Library of Congress.

Civil War Army Medal 

of Honor. Gettysburg 

National Military Park.

Postcard view of rest house, c. 1930. National Cemetery Administration.

Medal of Honor Recipients 

Five Civil War soldiers who received the Medal of Honor, and 

were later National Home residents, are buried here.

Pvt. William W. Burritt, 113th Illinois Infantry, for gallantry at 

Vicksburg, Mississippi, April 27, 1863 (Section 16, Grave 7). 

Corp. Daniel A. Dorsey, 33rd Ohio Infantry, 

for actions associated with Andrews Raid near 

Big Shanty, Georgia, April 1862 (Section 11, 

Grave 8).

Sgt. John S. Durham, 1st Wisconsin Infantry, 

for extraordinary heroism at Perryville, Kentucky,

October 8, 1862 (Section 33, Grave 18).

Sgt. William Garrett, 41st Ohio Infantry, 

captured artillery pieces and a Confederate 

regimental flag at Nashville, Tennessee, 

December 16, 1864 (Section 32, Grave 26).

Pvt. John Gray, 5th Ohio Infantry, captured 

artillery at Port Republic, Virginia, June 9,

1862 (Section 9, Grave 23).

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
LEBANON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War Lebanon

In 1860, Lebanon sat at the terminus of a Louisville & 

Nashville Railroad spur line. Turnpikes linked the city to 

Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky. This transportation 

network elevated Lebanon’s strategic importance during 

the Civil War. The city served as a Union Army supply 

depot, recruiting center, and hospital.

In 1861, Col. John Marshall Harlan established Camp 

Crittenden at Lebanon to recruit men for the Union army. 

Confederate Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan’s cavalry 

came through Lebanon on two of his four raids through 

Kentucky. During the second, in July 1863, he briefly 

captured the Union garrison here. 

In spring 1864, Camp Crittenden reopened as a training 

camp for U.S. Colored Troops. More than 2,000 black 

men enlisted in the Union Army at Lebanon. 

Mid-twentieth century photograph of Louisville & Nashville Depot at Lebanon. Some of the 

Union garrison retreated to this building during the 1863 Confederate attack on the city. 

Courtesy of Nash Hayes, Lebanon, Kentucky. 

Lebanon National Cemetery, from Brvt. Lt. Col. E. B. Whitman’s final report, c. 1869. Whitman 

used the phrase “Harvest of Death” in his exhaustive report to describe the work of collecting the 

dead. National Archives and Records Administration. 

“Harvest of Death”

Early in 1866, Capt. E. B. Whitman began gathering 

information in preparation for the reinterment of Union 

soldiers buried in the Military Division of Tennessee. 

This huge district included Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, 

Mississippi, and Tennessee. 

Captain Whitman, later lieutenant colonel, placed newspaper 

notices seeking locations of Union graves. Citizens, 

chaplains, soldiers, and officers replied. Whitman made 

three major expeditions across the region, stopping at 

hundreds of battlefields and engagement sites. Because of 

his work, thousands of Union dead were moved to twelve 

new national cemeteries. 

In May 1869, Whitman submitted a detailed summary of 

this difficult project to the quartermaster general. The report 

contained sketches and site plans of each cemetery, and data 

on interments and service affiliations. 

National Cemetery

Prior to 1869, ten federally established or public cemeteries in 

Kentucky contained the remains of Union soldiers. The work of 

reinterring the dead was almost complete when the army changed 

its plan and reduced the number of cemeteries to six. 

Lebanon National Cemetery was established in 1867. The

407 Union soldiers who died in Lebanon are buried here. 

The remains of another 458 men collected from nearby locales 

increased the number to 865. By 1869 the unusual triangular 

2-acre cemetery was enclosed by a limestone wall and featured 

a flagstaff. The U.S. Army Quartermaster General’s Office later 

provided gun monuments and, in 1875, a Second Empire-style 

lodge to house the superintendent and his family.

Cemetery entrance, 1904. National Archives and Records Administration. 

By law, the secretary of war appointed a “meritorious and 

trustworthy” superintendent to manage the cemetery. The 

cemetery’s first superintendent, Charles Gohe, arrived in 1868. 

Formerly a sergeant in Company F, 19th U.S. Infantry, he had 

previously served as superintendent of Chattanooga National 

Cemetery in Tennessee.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
LEXINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War Lexington

In 1847, Abraham Lincoln traveled to Lexington to 

visit his wife’s family. It was a small county seat but a 

regional economic and cultural center. When the Civil 

War began in 1861, the railroads that linked Lexington 

with Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville, Kentucky, made 

the city a strategic transportation hub. 

The Union Army maintained a supply depot and 

hospitals in Lexington. After the Union defeat at the 

Battle of Richmond (Kentucky) on August 30, 1862, 

Lexington was captured and briefly occupied by 

Confederate troops. 

As a result of a raid by Confederate Brig. Gen. John Hunt

Morgan in 1863, Union authorities built a series of 

fortifications in central Kentucky, including Fort Clay 

in Lexington. The fort’s artillery fired on General 

Morgan’s cavalry when they again raided the city for 

supplies in June 1864. This was the last time Confederate 

forces threatened Lexington. 

Barracks and Fort Clay, c. 1865. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Soldiers’ Lot in Lexington City Cemetery, from Brvt. Lt. Col. E. B. Whitman’s final report, 

c. 1869. Whitman used the phrase “Harvest of Death” in his exhaustive report to describe 

the work of collecting the dead. National Archives and Records Administration.

“Harvest of Death”

Early in 1866, Capt. E. B. Whitman began gathering 

information in preparation for the reinterment of Union 

soldiers buried in the Military Division of Tennessee. 

This huge district included Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, 

Mississippi, and Tennessee. 

Captain Whitman, later lieutenant colonel, placed newspaper 

notices seeking locations of Union graves. Citizens, 

chaplains, soldiers, and officers replied. Whitman made 

three major expeditions across the region, stopping at 

hundreds of battlefields and engagement sites. Because of 

his work, thousands of Union dead were moved to twelve 

new national cemeteries. 

In May 1869, Whitman submitted a detailed summary 

of this difficult project to the quartermaster general. The 

report contained sketches and site plans of each cemetery, 

and data on interments and service affiliations. 

National Cemetery

Prior to 1869, ten federally established or public cemeteries in Kentucky 

contained the remains of Union soldiers. The work of reinterring the 

dead was almost complete when the army changed its plan and reduced 

the number of cemeteries to six. 

Union soldiers who died in Lexington’s army hospitals during the war 

were buried in the City Cemetery. Dead from battlefields at Mount 

Sterling and Cynthiana, and blockhouses and fortifications along the 

Kentucky Central Railroad, were also interred here. The 0.75-acre lot 

became Lexington National Cemetery in 1868. By 1874 it contained 

929 burials, including 105 unknowns.

Drawing of cemetery boundary markers, 1870s. 

National Archives and Records Administration. 

Undated postcard of Lexington National Cemetery. Postcard Collection, 

University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.

White marble posts inscribed with ‘U.S.’ mark 

the national cemetery boundary. The U.S. Army 

Quartermaster General’s Office also installed a 

gun monument and flagstaff. Planted with trees and 

flowering shrubs, the landscape is typical of a ruralstyle cemetery. An army inspector described it as 

“a very pretty cemetery, and . . . kept in fine order.” 

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
LITTLE ROCK NATIONAL CEMETERY

St. John’s Hospital in Little Rock, c. 1870. Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Little Rock. 

Civil War Little Rock

Though Arkansas was one of the last states to secede from 

the Union, pro-Confederate activity began in February 1861, 

when state militia seized the federal arsenal in Little Rock. 

The first major battle in the state occurred in March 1862, 

at Pea Ridge, near the Missouri border. In July, Union forces 

occupied the eastern city of Helena, on the Mississippi 

River. Five months later, the Battle of Prairie Grove near 

Fayetteville, secured Union control of northwest Arkansas.

After the Confederates failed to retake Helena in July 1863, 

the Union Army marched on the state capital of Little Rock. 

Between August 25 and September 10, 1863, forces led by 

Union Gen. Frederick Steele fought a series of engagements 

that ended with the Battle of Bayou Fourche, east of the city. 

General Steele seized Little Rock, the fourth Confederate 

state capital to fall, and Union forces occupied it for the rest 

of the war. 

The army established a hospital at St. John’s College. By 

1865, the hospital had treated nearly 5,000 patients. 

National Cemetery

The Union Army buried their dead in the southeast 

corner of the new city cemetery—now OaklandFraternal Cemetery. In 1868, the federal government 

purchased additional land adjacent to the original 

burials and the 12.1-acre property was designated 

Little Rock National Cemetery. Remains were 

brought here from DeValls Bluff, Lewisburg, Marks 

Mills, Pine Bluff, Princeton, and other Arkansas 

towns and battlefields. About half the 5,409 remains 

were buried as unknowns.

In the 1870s, the U.S. Army Quartermaster General’s Office 

built a lodge for the cemetery superintendent, placed permanent 

marble headstones on graves, and enclosed the cemetery with a 

stone wall. The old Confederate Cemetery, now the Confederate 

Section, was deeded to the federal government in 1913. 

View of cemetery entrance, 

1903, and sketch plan, 1869. 

National Archives and 

Records Administration. 

Minnesota Monument

In 1913, the Minnesota Monument Commission selected St. Paul 

sculptor John K. Daniels to create monuments to be placed in five 

national cemeteries. Daniels designed two monuments that reflected 

Minnesotans’ perception of the noble character of their fallen soldiers, 

and the cause for which they fought. The Little Rock monument honors 

the valor and sacrifice made by thirty-six Minnesota soldiers buried here.

Funded by the state legislature, the bronze figure was dedicated 

September 22, 1916. The ceremony was attended by the Minnesota 

and Arkansas governors, Little Rock’s mayor, and Union and 

Confederate veterans. Minnesota erected identical monuments 

at Andersonville and Memphis national cemeteries. The second 

monument designed by Daniels was placed at Jefferson Barracks and 

Nashville national cemeteries. Veterans and dignitaries at the Minnesota Monument dedication, September 22, 1916.

Minnesota Historical Society.

0005_Little Rock NC_3-4

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CONFEDERATE BURIALS IN THE NATIONAL CEMETERY

The Old Confederate Cemetery 

Confederate forces occupied Little Rock, Arkansas, from 1861 

until September 1863, when the Union Army captured it after 

a forty-day campaign. As they occupied the city, both armies 

reported soldiers dying almost daily from injury or disease. 

Confederate soldiers were buried at Mount Holly Cemetery and 

other sites near the hospitals, including Little Rock City Cemetery, 

now the Oakland Fraternal Cemetery. The U.S. government also 

acquired several adjacent lots in this cemetery. These lots were 

designated Little Rock National Cemetery in 1868.

Little Rock Confederate Cemetery, c. 1911. Souvenir program, 1911 UCV Reunion in Little Rock. 

The Confederate burial ground next to the national cemetery 

was forgotten for many years. Then, in 1884, members of the 

Grand Army of the Republic, the Union veterans’ organization, 

cleared the cemetery and marked graves with small, flat-top 

headstones. Later that year, Mount Holly Cemetery trustees had 

the remains of 640 Confederate soldiers buried at that cemetery 

reinterred here. The next year, the trustees erected a squat obelisk 

monument on the grassy mound above the mass grave. 

Ladies’ Memorial Association 

In June 1884, the city granted the Ladies’ Memorial 

Association (LMA) responsibility for the land 

containing the Confederate burials. The association 

was composed of local women sympathetic to the 

Southern cause whose goal was to honor Confederate 

graves.

In the years that followed, the LMA had Confederate 

remains exhumed from cemeteries in and near Little 

Rock and reinterred here. 

It also permitted burial 

of Confederate veterans 

in the small cemetery and 

helped pay to bury indigent 

veterans who died at the 

Arkansas Confederate 

Home in Little Rock.

Eventually the LMA 

merged with the United 

Daughters of the 

Confederacy (UDC), to 

form Memorial Chapter 

No. 48. The UDC chapter 

maintained the cemetery 

and erected a rostrum 

in 1907 for use during 

Confederate Memorial 

Day ceremonies.

Ladies’ Memorial Associations existed thirty 

years before the UDC. These Southern women 

created Confederate cemeteries, erected 

monuments and decorated graves. LMA 

ribbon, c. 1892. Helena Museum, Helena, Ark. 

The Cemeteries Merge 

On February 7, 1913, the City of Little Rock deeded the 

Confederate cemetery, along with other property, to the 

secretary of war with the restriction that the cemetery only be 

used for the burial of Confederate veterans. The congressional 

act authorizing the 

transfer also required 

that “a suitable gate 

or entryway” be cut 

through the wall 

that separated the 

Confederate and 

national cemeteries, 

and that “organized 

bodies of exConfederates” should 

continue to use the 

cemetery for events. 

The Confederate 

cemetery was to be 

treated with the same 

care as the national one.

A few years after the transfer, the U.S. government furnished 

pointed-top headstones in place of the small flat-top headstones. 

Headstones replaced later are inscribed with the Southern Cross 

of Honor, authorized by the War Department in 1930. The United 

Daughters of the Confederacy created the cross medal in 1898 

and bestowed it upon Confederate veterans or their families. The 

emblem on the headstone is a simplified version of what appears 

on the medal.

Burial restrictions on the Confederate cemetery were revoked 

after 1938, to allow any U.S. veteran to be interred in the former 

Confederate cemetery.

The 1907 rostrum erected by the UDC, 1925. National Archives 

and Records Administration.

years before the UDC. These Southern women 

36x24 Confederate Burials - The Old Confederate

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LOS ANGELES NATIONAL CEMETERY

President William McKinley addresses veterans at the Pacific Branch–National Home for Disabled 

Volunteer Soldiers, May 9, 1901. Los Angeles Public Library. 

National Home

In 1887, the U.S. Congress approved funding for the Pacific 

Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers 

(NHDVS). Three individuals donated land for the 640-acre 

site located 14 miles west of Los Angeles. The first barracks 

opened in December 1888 and filled quickly with Civil War and 

other veterans. Many pitched tents on the unfinished grounds 

awaiting a bed. 

Desperate for space, the early construction was more functional 

than aesthetic. Over time, Mission Revival became the 

predominate architectural style. The National Home built 

a 1-million-gallon reservoir to supply the facility and its 

agricultural operations. This water allowed the home to profit 

from selling its produce. Its location on an interurban railway 

made the National Home a tourist attraction, too. 

The National Homes merged with the U.S. Veterans Bureau and 

the Bureau of Pensions to form the Veterans Administration 

(now U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) in 1930. The Greater 

Los Angeles Healthcare System-West Los Angeles Healthcare 

Center continues to care for veterans today. 

Cemetery

The 20-acre National Home cemetery was established in 1889. 

The first interment was Mexican War veteran Abner Prather, 

formerly of the 4th Indiana Infantry. The cemetery was 

designated Los Angeles National Cemetery in 1973. 

There are two monuments from the National Home’s early 

years. The 27-foot-tall, three-tier granite obelisk memorializes 

all veterans. Similar obelisks are found at other NHDVS 

branches. The second is a Union soldier mounted on a 

boulder. The painted, cast-zinc figure originally stood atop a 

campus water fountain that was dedicated in 1896. When the 

fountain was razed in the 1940s, the zinc figure was relocated 

to the cemetery.

(Section 34, Grave I-11).

Corp. Luther Kaltenbach, 12th Iowa Infantry, 

Infantry, for gallantry in the assault on Fort 

Pvt. Charles W. Rundle, 116th Illinois Infantry, 

led a “volunteer storming party” at Vicksburg, 

Postcard view of National Home water fountain c. 1910. National Cemetery Administration.

Below, Civil War Army Medal of Honor. Gettysburg National Military Park. 

Five Civil War Medal of Honor recipients, 

later NHDVS residents, are buried here. 

Corp. Luther Kaltenbach, 12th Iowa Infantry, 

captured a 44th Mississippi Infantry flag at 

Nashville, Tennessee, December 16, 1864 

(Section 43, Grave A-15).

Color Sgt. George McKee, 89th New York 

Infantry, for gallantry in the assault on Fort 

Gregg at Petersburg, Virginia, April 2, 1865

(Section 1, Grave G-2).

Pvt. Charles W. Rundle, 116th Illinois Infantry, 

led a “volunteer storming party” at Vicksburg, 

Mississippi, May 22, 1863 (Section 34, Grave I-11).

Coxswain Timothy Sullivan, U.S.S. Louisville, for attention to 

duty, bravery, and coolness in action (Section 18, Grave H-2).

Pvt. James Sweeney, 1st Vermont Cavalry, captured a North 

Carolina flag, ambulance, and three officers at Cedar Creek, 

Postcard view of funeral at Pacific Branch, c. 1915. National Cemetery Administration. Virginia, October 19, 1864 (Section 78, Grave P-3).

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LOUDON PARK NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War Baltimore

Slavery was legal in Maryland, but the state was divided over 

secession and the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln 

called for volunteers to suppress the Confederate rebellion on 

April 15, 1861. Four days later, Massachusetts troops stopped 

in Baltimore en route to the U.S. capital. Pro-Confederate 

residents shouted insults, threw rocks, and otherwise attacked 

the soldiers. The soldiers fired into the crowd, killing dozens 

of civilians and wounding many more. On May 13, Lincoln 

ordered Union forces to occupy Baltimore. They remained 

throughout the war. Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor 

became a prison for disloyal Maryland civilians and captured 

Confederate soldiers.

Pro-Union Baltimore supported the war. Escaped slaves 

made their way to Maryland where many enlisted in the 

4th U.S. Colored Infantry. Thousands of soldiers trained in 

and around the city. Sick and wounded soldiers were treated 

at Jarvis U.S. General Hospital, the Steuart Mansion, and 

other facilities. 

Massachusetts troops entering Baltimore, c. 1861. Library of Congress. 

National Cemetery

In December 1861, the U.S. Sanitary Commission designated

a small area of Loudon Park Cemetery for the burial of Union 

soldiers who died in Baltimore hospitals. The half-acre lot in 

the northeast corner of this private cemetery became one of 

the first national cemeteries. 

By 1874, an estimated 1,646 Union soldiers and five civilians 

lay here. In 1884, the remains of approximately 238 U.S. Colored 

Troops were relocated from a government lot in Baltimore’s 

Laurel Cemetery to the national cemetery. Five notable Union 

monuments were installed between 1885 and 1898.

Jarvis U.S. General Hospital, c. 1864. Library of Congress.

Confederate Dead

In 1912, the Commission for Marking Graves of Confederate 

Dead identified 256 imprisoned soldiers and civilians who 

died in the Baltimore area during the Civil War. Twenty-nine, 

originally buried at Fort McHenry, had been reinterred at the 

national cemetery. The commission could not locate these 

graves, so it erected one granite monument with a bronze 

tablet listing the soldiers’ names. 

Medal of Honor Recipients

Two Civil War recipients of the Medal of Honor are buried in 

the cemetery. First bestowed in 1863, it is the highest award for 

military valor in the U.S. Armed Services. For acts above and 

beyond the call of duty, 1,522 individuals who served in the 

Civil War received the medal. 

Pvt. James T. Jennings, 56th 

Pennsylvania Infantry, captured 

the flag of the 55th North Carolina 

Infantry at Petersburg, Virginia, on 

August 20, 1864. Jennings died at 

Jarvis U.S. General Hospital on March 

22, 1865 (Section A, Grave 1410).

Second Lt. William Taylor, 1st 

Maryland Infantry, burned a bridge 

at Front Royal, Virginia, in May 1862 

to prevent a Confederate pursuit. 

On August 20, 1864, he replaced a 

wounded officer at Petersburg and 

led a reconnaissance mission 

(Officers Section, Grave 16).

Civil War Medal of Honor. 

Gettysburg National Military Park.

Maryland Sons Monument, right, and Maryland Naval Monument, left, with private cemetery 

in background, 1908. National Archives and Records Administration.

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MARIETTA NATIONAL CEMETERY

Confederates destroyed this ordnance train prior to evacuating Atlanta, August 

1864. Library of Congress.

Atlanta Campaign 

During the Civil War, the fight for Atlanta began in early 

May 1864 in north Georgia. It ended when Union troops 

marched into the state capital on September 2. Over four 

months, Union and Confederate armies met in sixteen 

battles. 

Union Gen. William T. Sherman started with 110,000 

troops and Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston with 

69,000. Johnston tried to force Sherman to assault fortified 

positions. Sherman instead used his larger army to outflank the Confederates, forcing a retreat to Atlanta. 

On August 31, the Union Army cut the last rail lines into 

Atlanta and Confederate forces evacuated the city. By the 

campaign’s end both armies were staggered by losses. The 

Union sustained losses of approximately 37,000 men 

killed, wounded or missing. The Confederates lost 32,000. 

National Cemetery

The U.S. Army established this 23-acre cemetery in 1866 on 

land donated by Henry Green Cole. He had moved to Georgia 

from New York in 1838 to work 

as a civil engineer for a railroad. 

Later he became a successful 

businessman in Marietta. 

During the Civil War, Cole 

remained loyal to the Union 

and spied for federal forces. 

Confederate officials arrested 

and imprisoned him in 1864 for 

these activities. After the war 

Cole returned to Marietta, where 

he lived until his death in 1875. 

He is buried in a family plot at 

the national cemetery. 

Henry G. Cole (1815-1875), c. 1865, 

is buried in Grave 1, Cole Section. 

Courtesy of the Marietta Museum of History. 

Sketch of cemetery from Brvt. Lt. Col. E. B. Whitman’s final report on the reinterment of 

Union soldiers within the Military Division of Tennessee, c. 1869. National Archives and 

Records Administration. 

Monumental archway at cemetery entrance, 1904. In 1883, the U.S. Army Quartermaster 

General’s Office constructed the 35-foot-tall structure. This is one of five classically inspired 

arches built at national cemeteries in the South. National Archives and Records Administration.

Thomas Budd Van Horne, former chaplain with the 13th 

Ohio Infantry, laid out twenty-one burial sections tailored to 

the natural landscape of the property. By 1868, about 10,000 

remains, including Union dead from the Atlanta campaign 

and those removed from a discontinued national cemetery in 

Montgomery, Alabama, were reinterred here. Two monuments 

were donated—one to the 2nd Division, 20th Corps, and one 

to soldiers who died in area hospitals. 

A stone wall enclosed the picturesque cemetery in 1870. A 

brick lodge, built near the entrance, was replaced in 1921. The 

Wisconsin Monument, dedicated on Memorial Day 1925, was 

the last Civil War memorial placed in the cemetery.

One Civil War Medal of Honor recipient, Dennis Buckley, 

is buried here (Section G, Grave 6686). Private Buckley, 136th 

New York Infantry, received his commendation posthumously 

for bravery at Peach Tree Creek, Georgia, July 20, 1864. 

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MARION NATIONAL CEMETERY

National Home

In spring 1888, Congressman George Steele, Sr., of 

Marion, Indiana, introduced legislation authorizing the 

establishment of a National Home for Disabled Volunteer 

Soldiers (NHDVS) in Grant County. Construction began in 

1889, and six barracks and a hospital were completed the 

next year. Between 1895 and 1898, a headquarters building, 

six more barracks, dining hall, kitchen, chapel, and Stinson 

Memorial Hall were built. 

Postcard view of Marion National Home entrance, c. 1908. National Cemetery Administration.

When the National Home opened in 1890, only fifty-six Civil 

War veterans sought admittance. The next year, 500 men 

arrived. A decade later, there were more than 1,700 residents.

The number of Civil War and Spanish-American War veterans 

declined through the first two decades of the twentieth century. 

Incoming World War I veterans required a different type of 

care, so the facility became a psychiatric hospital. The National 

Homes were merged with the U.S. Veterans Bureau and the 

Bureau of Pensions to form the Veterans Administration (now 

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) in 1930. 

NHDVS Cemetery

A cemetery was established on unused land on the east side 

of the Marion campus. Henry Smith, formerly a private in 

Company E, 20th Indiana Infantry, who died May 29, 1890, was 

the first interment. The initial graves were laid out in concentric 

circles. Sections developed in the 1920s, north of the original 

cemetery, were laid out in a traditional grid. The property was 

designated a national cemetery in 1973.

Soldiers Monument

The Soldiers Monument is composed of a 10-foot-tall bronze 

statue of three Civil War soldiers on a granite pedestal. It was 

designed by American sculptor and educator Lorado Taft. 

It is a copy of a larger work erected in 1894 on the Chickamauga

battlefield in Georgia. The Marion monument, unveiled in 

1914, honors all Union soldiers. Its location at the original 

cemetery entrance is a reminder that the National Home was 

built to care for Civil War veterans.

The Soldiers Monument at Chickamauga, 1895. Longstreet-Thomas Library Trust, 

Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.

Marion National Cemetery. The Chapman family burial area is in Section 1, foreground. 

Interred here is Justin H. Chapman, National Home governor from 1891 to 1904, and his 

wife, Kate. HALS-IN-2-18, Library of Congress.

Two Civil War recipients of the Medal of Honor are buried in 

the cemetery. First bestowed in 1863, it is the highest award 

for military valor in the U.S. Armed Services. For acts above 

and beyond the call of duty, 1,522 individuals who served in 

the Civil War received the medal. 

Seaman Nicholas Irwin, U.S.S. Brooklyn, 

manned his gun with skill and courage 

at Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864. His action 

resulted in the surrender of the C.S.S. 

Tennessee and damage to Fort Morgan, 

Alabama (Section 1, Grave 382).

Lt. Jeremiah Kuder, 74th Indiana 

Infantry, captured a Confederate 

battle flag at the Battle of Jonesboro, 

Georgia, September 1, 1864 

(Section 4, Grave 2464). 

Civil War Navy Medal of Honor. 

Naval History and Heritage Command. 

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MEMPHIS NATIONAL CEMETERY

Battle of Memphis, June 6, 1862. Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (1887). 

Civil War Memphis

When Tennessee seceded from the Union in June 1861,

Memphis became the sixth-largest city in the Confederacy.

Built on commerce and manufacturing, it was a vital 

river port and railroad hub.

After Nashville fell in early 1862 and the Confederate 

defeat at Shiloh in April, the city was isolated. Only eight 

wooden gunboats protected it. On June 6, 1862, a Union 

fleet of ten ships attacked and destroyed the Confederate 

vessels in less than two hours. 

Union soldiers built Fort Pickering high above the banks 

of the Mississippi River, southwest of the city. It became 

a staging area for Union troops, and later a contraband 

camp for refugee slaves from Mississippi and Tennessee. 

In August 1864, Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford 

Forrest raided the city but quickly withdrew. Memphis 

remained in Union control and emerged from the Civil 

War relatively intact. 

National Cemetery

The U.S. Army established Memphis National Cemetery in 1867. 

Remains from graves scattered along railroads in west Tennessee, 

and near the Mississippi River in Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, 

Missouri, and Tennessee, were reburied here. By the 1870s, the 

remains of 13,932 Union soldiers lay in the cemetery—nearly 9,000 

unknown. The 36-acre property was then enclosed by a brick wall. 

There are two Civil War memorials in the cemetery. Erected in 

1916, the Minnesota Monument was designed by St. Paul sculptor 

John K. Daniels. It is one of five placed in national cemeteries 

to honor the state’s volunteer soldiers. The State of Illinois 

commissioned French-American sculptor Leon Hermant to 

create its monument. The bronze recumbent figure on a marble 

sarcophagus was completed in 1929. 

Col. C. W. Folsom’s cemetery plan shows sections reserved for officers, state volunteer soldiers, U.S. Colored Troops, and unknowns, 

July 15, 1867. Fort Pillow dead were buried in a separate section, upper left corner. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Sultana Disaster 

The worst inland marine disaster in U.S. 

history occurred in the early hours of April 27, 

1865, on the Mississippi River near Memphis. 

The Sultana was a commercial steamboat 

licensed to carry 356 passengers. She was 

jammed with an estimated 2,485 former Union 

prisoners of war bound for Cairo, Illinois, to 

muster out of service. 

The steamboat’s boilers had just been repaired 

at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and again at 

Memphis. She steamed 8 miles north of the 

city on the rain-swollen river when her boilers 

exploded. Passengers were thrown into a 

4-mile-wide torrent. More than half drowned. 

The official death toll was 1,547. Many of the 

victims are buried here. 

Soldiers crowded on the deck of the Sultana at Helena, Arkansas, on April 26, 1865, a day before 

the disaster. Library of Congress. 

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MILL SPRINGS NATIONAL CEMETERY

Battle of Mill Springs, January 19, 1862. Our Soldier in the Civil War (1886).

Battle of Mill Springs

Confederate forces established a defense line across southern 

Kentucky in fall 1861. Union and Confederate armies fought 

small-scale actions in the area, but the Battle of Mill Springs 

was the first major engagement. Confederate troops under 

Gen. George B. Crittenden faced Union forces led by 

Brig. Gen. George H. Thomas near Logan’s Crossroads, 

present-day Nancy. As the Confederates advanced in the early 

morning of January 19, 1862, they pushed Union soldiers back 

to a ridge about a mile south of the current national cemetery. 

The two sides struggled for hours, sometimes fighting hand 

to hand. A Union bayonet charge finally broke the enemy 

line. The Confederates retreated, and that night crossed the 

Cumberland River—abandoning their encampment, wagons, 

ammunition, and wounded. Mill Springs was the first major 

Union victory in the West. Within weeks the Confederate 

army withdrew from Kentucky.

“Harvest of Death”

Early in 1866, Capt. E. B. Whitman began gathering 

information in preparation for the reinterment of Union 

soldiers buried in the Military Division of Tennessee. 

This huge district included Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, 

Mississippi, and Tennessee. 

Captain Whitman, later lieutenant colonel, placed newspaper 

notices seeking the locations of Union graves. Citizens, 

chaplains, soldiers, and officers replied. Whitman made 

three major expeditions across the region, stopping at 

hundreds of battlefields and engagement sites. Because of 

his tireless work, thousands of Union dead were moved to 

twelve new national cemeteries. 

Mill Springs National Cemetery, from Brvt. Lt. Col. E. B. Whitman’s final report, c. 1869. 

Whitman used the phrase “Harvest of Death” in his exhaustive report to describe the work 

of collecting the dead. National Archives and Records Administration. 

In May 1869, Whitman submitted a detailed summary 

of this difficult project to the quartermaster general. The 

report contained sketches and site plans of each cemetery, 

and data on interments and service affiliations. 

National Cemetery

Prior to 1869, ten federally established or public cemeteries in 

Kentucky contained the remains of Union soldiers. The work 

of reinterring the dead was almost complete when the army 

changed its plan and reduced the number of cemeteries to six. 

Captain Whitman chose the site for Mill Springs National 

Cemetery from lands at Logan’s Crossroads owned by William 

H. Logan. Remains were recovered from temporary graves 

on the Mill Springs battlefield and other locations within a 

40-mile radius. By 1869, a limestone wall enclosed the 3-acre 

cemetery. Of the 708 original interments, approximately half 

were unknown. 

By law, the secretary of war appointed a “meritorious and 

trustworthy” superintendent to manage the cemetery. James 

Burke, a sergeant in Company K, Veteran Reserve Corps, 

served as the first superintendent here in 1867. He lived on 

the grounds in a lodge that burned down in 1916.

Cemetery entrance, 1904. National Archives and Records Administration. 

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MOBILE NATIONAL CEMETERY

four Confederate soldiers are buried in that section.

Currier and Ives print of the Battle of Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864. Library of Congress. 

Civil War Mobile 

When the city of New Orleans fell in April 1862, Mobile 

became the last significant Confederate port on the Gulf of 

Mexico. A Union blockade failed to close the port, which 

was guarded by extensive fortifications at the mouth of 

Mobile Bay—forts Gaines, Morgan, and Powell. Mines, then 

called “torpedoes,” were strung across the bay. Three lines 

of earthworks protected the city’s west side, and earthworks 

stretching from the cities of Spanish Fort to Blakely defended 

the east. 

In August 1864, Union Adm. David Farragut’s fleet charged 

past the forts. His eighteen ships overwhelmed Confederate 

vessels. Only the ironclad C.S.S. Tennessee remained in action. 

After the Tennessee surrendered, Farragut pounded the forts 

with artillery fire. Fort Morgan surrendered on August 23, 

1864, yielding control of Mobile Bay to U.S. forces. The city 

did not surrender until the final days of the war in spring 1865. 

National Cemetery

Mobile National Cemetery was established in May 1866 on

3 acres of land in Magnolia Cemetery. The City of Mobile 

donated the land to the federal government. The cemetery 

was divided into four sections with a central flagstaff. It 

contained more than 900 burials. Remains were brought 

here from forts Morgan and Gaines, and cemeteries in 

Conecuh and Pollard in Conecuh County, and Claiborne 

in Monroe County.

In the 1870s, the U.S. Army built a brick wall around 

the cemetery. A brick Second Empire-style lodge for 

the superintendent and his family was erected in 1881. 

A decade later, an octagonal brick-and-iron rostrum 

was constructed for ceremonial events. In 1936, the 

government expanded the cemetery by purchasing 3 acres 

on the opposite side of Virginia Street. The remains of 

four Confederate soldiers are buried in that section.

The new section of the cemetery after it was purchased in 1936. National Archives and 

Records Administration. 

Monuments 

and Markers

The 76th Illinois Infantry 

Monument was donated by 

surviving members of this 

regiment to honor men who 

died during the assault on Fort 

Blakely. It was dedicated on 

April 9, 1892, the anniversary 

of the fort’s surrender.

In 1940, the United Daughters 

of the Confederacy erected 

an interpretive marker in 

the cemetery tract added in 

1936. It marks a remnant 

of the vast network of 

earthworks that protected 

the city during the war.

The 76th Illinois Infantry Monument 

on April 9, 1892. National Archives 

and Records Administration.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
MOUND CITY NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War Mound City 

Mound City’s location at a river crossroads was strategic to 

the Union war effort. It was near the junction of the Ohio 

and Mississippi rivers, and the confluence of the Ohio, 

Tennessee, and Cumberland rivers. 

The Illinois city was home to the headquarters of the Union 

Navy’s Mississippi Squadron, some eighty vessels of the 

“brown water” or inland navy. Three ironclad gunboats—the

U.S.S. Cairo, Cincinnati, and Mound City—were built here.

A U.S. General Hospital was erected in Mound City after the 

April 7, 1862, Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. The army also 

converted a hotel, warehouse, and foundry into hospitals 

collectively containing 1,500 beds. Union medical personnel 

used the captured Confederate steamboat Red Rover to ferry

wounded soldiers from areas of engagement along the 

Mississippi River to Mound City.

Union hospital ship Red Rover, c. 1865. Library of Congress.

View of cemetery entrance with rostrum (left) and lodge (right), 1903. National Archives and 

Records Administration. 

National Cemetery

Mound City National Cemetery was established in 1864. A levee 

protected the 10-acre tract from high water. By 1871, the cemetery 

contained nearly 5,000 graves—1,644 dead from Mound City 

hospitals and the remainder from battlefields and Union garrisons 

in Illinois, Kentucky, and Missouri. More than half the remains 

were unknown, including twenty-seven Confederate prisoners. 

The cemetery had a flagstaff and four cannon monuments.

Completed in 1880, the superintendent’s lodge was designed 

by the Office of the Quartermaster General. It differs from the 

mansard-roof, Second Empire-style lodge the army built in the 

previous decade at other national cemeteries. Made of two-color

brick, a steep cross-gable roof on the Mound City lodge allows for 

a full-height second floor. The rostrum was built in 1939.

Monument

The elaborate Illinois State Monument, erected 

in 1874-75, rises from the center of the original 

cemetery. Its classically inspired granite-and-marble 

base supports figures of a soldier and sailor. The 

15-foot-tall shaft is topped with the female figure 

“Liberty.” 

Illinois State Rep. Newton B. Casey of Mound 

City introduced the bill that funded the $25,000 

monument. It honors all soldiers and sailors, 

known and unknown, who died during the Civil 

War and were buried here. More than 2,000 names, 

representing twenty states and the U.S. Army and 

Navy, are engraved on the base. 

Early twentieth-century view of graves and monument. National Archives and 

Records Administration. 

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MOUND CITY SOLDIERS’ LOT

Mourners at Alexandria National Cemetery, Virginia, c. 1865. After 1873, standard marble 

headstones replaced the wood headboards seen here. Miller, Photographic History of the 

Civil War (1910).

Civil War Dead

An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died 

in the Civil War (1861-1865). As the death toll rose, the U.S. 

government struggled with the urgent but unplanned need 

to bury fallen Union troops. This propelled the creation of a 

national cemetery system.

On September 11, 1861, the War Department directed officers 

to keep “accurate and permanent records of deceased soldiers.” 

Federal authority to create military burial grounds came in an 

Omnibus Act of July 17, 1862. Cemetery sites were chosen where 

troops were concentrated: camps, hospitals, battlefields, railroad 

hubs. By 1872, 74 national cemeteries and several soldiers’ lots 

contained 305,492 remains. About 45 percent were unknown.

The U.S. government established soldiers’ lots at private 

cemeteries in northern states. National cemeteries, in contrast, 

were built throughout the South where most Civil War action 

occurred. While the army reported dozens of lots containing 

Union dead in the 1870s, the National Cemetery Administration 

maintains only fifteen. The number of graves ranges from less 

than ten to nearly 400 in these lots.

Price’s Raid

On September 19, 1864, Confederate Gen. Sterling Price 

led 12,000 men from Arkansas into Missouri. His objective 

was to capture the state for the Confederacy. For more than 

a month, Price recruited men and gathered supplies while 

the Union Army tried to stop him. Finally, in late October, 

Union forces defeated Price’s troops near Kansas City at 

the Battle of Westport. 

Price retreated into Kansas with Union cavalry in pursuit.

On October 25, 1864, the two forces met in three 

engagements. At daybreak, Union troops attacked the 

Confederates just north of Pleasanton, Kansas, on the 

Marais des Cygnes River. The Confederates retreated south 

to Mine Creek. In the skirmish that followed, Union forces 

inflicted 1,200 casualties and captured two generals. A 

successful Confederate action at the Little Osage River later 

that day allowed General Price and his army to escape. 

The Battle of Mine Creek by Samuel J. Reader (1865). Courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.

Soldiers’ lot plan showing location of lot within private 

cemetery, 1961. National Cemetery Administration. 

Inset: View of federal monument, c. 1955. National 

Archives and Records Administration. 

Soldiers’ Lot

Mound City Cemetery (also known as Woodland) was 

established in the late 1850s to serve the local community. 

During the Civil War, the Mound City Cemetery Association 

set aside land to bury Union soldiers. The first interments 

were thirty soldiers killed in the battles of Marais des Cygnes 

and Mine Creek. The federal government acquired the lots 

where the men were buried in 1870. Additional Union remains

recovered from the area were moved here in the 1880s.

The U.S. government erected the monument honoring Union 

soldiers in 1889. The 7-foot-tall granite figure of a Union 

soldier at parade rest stands on a 12-foot-tall granite base. In 

1940, the Works Progress Administration erected a stone wall 

and post-and-chain fence to separate the soldiers’ lot from 

the city cemetery. The remains of eighty federal soldiers lie 

here today.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
MOUNTAIN HOME NATIONAL CEMETERY

ent 

National Home

The ninth of eleven branches of the National Home for 

Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS), the Mountain 

Branch was authorized in 1901.The first resident arrived 

in 1903, a year before the home officially opened. Civil 

War veterans were the largest population initially.

The sprawling complex in Johnson City, Tennessee, 

covered some 400 acres. Architect Joseph H. Freelander 

designed the campus, which included administrative and 

hospital buildings, barracks, staff housing, mess hall, 

chapel, two lakes, and a cemetery. The buildings were 

constructed in the Beaux Arts style using local timber, 

brick, and limestone.

Mountain Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, c. 1910. 

Souvenir Booklet: National Soldiers Home Tennessee, McClung Historical Collection.

Freelander’s plan remained unchanged until the care of 

World War I veterans required the construction of new 

facilities and repurposing of old buildings.

The National Homes were merged with the U.S. 

Veterans Bureau and Bureau of Pensions to form the 

Veterans Administration (now U.S. Department of 

Veterans Affairs) in 1930.

NHDVS Cemetery

The original 38-acre cemetery was established on the north 

side of the campus to bury National Home residents. On 

September 18, 1903, Francis Conaty, formerly a private 

in the 18th New York Infantry, became the first interment 

here. Sections A through H, which surround Monument 

Circle, are the oldest burial areas of the cemetery. 

In 1973, the cemetery was designated Mountain Home National 

Cemetery. It is part of the Mountain Home Branch-NHDVS 

National Historic Landmark district, designated in 2011.

Medal of Honor Recipients

Three Civil War Medal of Honor recipients are buried here. 

First bestowed in 1863, it is the highest award for military valor 

in the U.S. Armed Services. For acts above and beyond the call 

of duty, 1,522 individuals who served 

in the Civil War received the medal. 

Pvt. Henry G. Buhrman, 54th Ohio 

Infantry, was among a party of 

volunteers who stormed Confederate 

works at Vicksburg, Mississippi, 

May 22, 1863 (Section C, Grave 12).

Lt. Frederick Clarence Buck, 21st 

Connecticut Infantry, although 

wounded, refused to leave the Battle 

of Chaffin’s Farm, Virginia, 

September 29, 1864 (Section F, Grave 9).

Seaman Thomas Smith, U.S.S. Magnolia, 

demonstrated coolness under fire in 

the assault at St. Marks, Florida,

March 5-6, 1865 (Section G, Grave 3). Civil War Army Medal of Honor.

Gettysburg National Military Park.

Mountain Branch Cemetery, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, c. 1910. Souvenir Booklet: 

National Soldiers Home Tennessee, McClung Historical Collection.

Walter Preston Brownlow 

Walter Preston Brownlow, a promin

East Tennessee businessman, was 

the driving influence behind the 

NHDVS Mountain Branch. He 

worked in the newspaper business

and served as postmaster at 

Jonesboro, Tennessee. 

A Republican, Brownlow was 

elected to Congress in 1897, and 

went on to serve six continuous 

terms. He sat on the National 

Home Board of Managers from 

1902 until his death in 1910. 

A large granite obelisk in 

Monument Circle marks the graves 

of Brownlow and his wife, Clayetta. 

Walter Preston Brownlow (1851-1910).

Tennesseeans 1901-1902 (1902),

McClung Historical Collection.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
MOUNT MORIAH SOLDIERS’ LOT

Mourners at Alexandria National Cemetery, Virginia, c. 1865. After 1873, standard marble 

headstones replaced the wood headboards seen here. Miller, Photographic History of the 

Civil War (1910).

Civil War Dead

An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died 

in the Civil War (1861-1865). As the death toll rose, the U.S. 

government struggled with the urgent but unplanned need 

to bury fallen Union troops. This propelled the creation of a 

national cemetery system.

On September 11, 1861, the War Department directed officers 

to keep “accurate and permanent records of deceased soldiers.” 

Federal authority to create military burial grounds came in an 

Omnibus Act of July 17, 1862. Cemetery sites were chosen where 

troops were concentrated: camps, hospitals, battlefields, railroad 

hubs. By 1872, 74 national cemeteries and several soldiers’ lots 

contained 305,492 remains. About 45 percent were unknown.

The U.S. government established soldiers’ lots at private 

cemeteries in northern states. National cemeteries, in contrast, 

were built throughout the South where most Civil War action 

occurred. While the army reported dozens of lots containing 

Union dead in the 1870s, the National Cemetery Administration 

maintains only fifteen. The number of graves ranges from less 

than ten to nearly 400 in these lots.

Philadelphia at War

Thousands of Union soldiers wounded in battles on the 

eastern seaboard were sent to Philadelphia hospitals. 

Private hospitals pressed into federal service proved 

inadequate to treat the overwhelming number of sick and 

wounded. The War Department created fourteen military 

hospitals collectively able to care for 14,000 patients in the 

Philadelphia area by the end of the Civil War. 

The first military hospital was located at Broad and 

Cherry streets, near a railroad. When wounded began 

to arrive from Virginia in early summer 1862, additional 

facilities were needed. Several public and commercial 

buildings were converted into U.S. General Hospitals. 

Satterlee, opened in summer 1862, and Mower, completed 

that December, were the two largest hospitals. Together, 

they could accommodate 7,000 patients. 

Over the course of the Civil War, more than 157,000 

soldiers, sailors, and Confederate prisoners were treated 

in Philadelphia hospitals. Many died from disease or their 

wounds and were buried in nearby cemeteries.

This ward at a Washington, D.C., hospital was typical of those where Union soldiers were 

treated during the Civil War. Library of Congress. 

Undated Mount Moriah 

Cemetery plan with the 

soldiers’ lot and naval plot 

shaded green. National 

Archives and Records 

Administration. Inset: 

Photograph of soldiers’ lot, 

1957. National Cemetery 

Administration. 

Soldiers’ Lot

Mount Moriah Cemetery administrators offered the federal 

government Lot 1, Section 200, for Union soldiers who died 

in the nearby Summit House General Hospital. Of the 404 

burials here, one is unknown and six are Confederate prisoners. 

During the war, Union dead were interred in numerous 

cemeteries in and around Philadelphia. All the remains from 

these government lots—except those at Mount Moriah—were 

removed to Philadelphia National Cemetery after it was 

established in 1885. 

Today, the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) oversees 

two tracts in Mount Moriah: this soldiers’ lot and the Naval Plot, 

the cemetery that served the former U.S. Naval Home (1834-1976) 

in Philadelphia. The Naval Plot, which contains more than 2,000 

graves, was transferred to NCA in 1977. 

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
MOUNT PLEASANT SOLDIERS’ LOT

Mourners at Alexandria National Cemetery, Virginia, c. 1865. After 1873, standard marble 

headstones replaced the wood headboards seen here. Miller, Photographic History of the 

Civil War (1910).

Civil War Dead

An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died 

in the Civil War (1861-1865). As the death toll rose, the U.S. 

government struggled with the urgent but unplanned need 

to bury fallen Union troops. This propelled the creation of a 

national cemetery system.

On September 11, 1861, the War Department directed officers 

to keep “accurate and permanent records of deceased soldiers.” 

Federal authority to create military burial grounds came in an 

Omnibus Act of July 17, 1862. Cemetery sites were chosen where 

troops were concentrated: camps, hospitals, battlefields, railroad 

hubs. By 1872, 74 national cemeteries and several soldiers’ lots 

contained 305,492 remains, about 45 percent were unknown.

The U.S. government established soldiers’ lots at private 

cemeteries in northern states. National cemeteries, in contrast, 

were built throughout the South where most Civil War action 

occurred. While the army reported dozens of lots containing 

Union dead in the 1870s, the National Cemetery Administration 

maintains only fifteen. The number of graves ranges from less 

than ten to nearly 400 in these lots.

Augusta at War

On April 22, 1861, ten days after Confederate forces fired 

on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, Gov. Israel Washburn 

addressed the Maine General Assembly. The governor 

requested, and the assembly authorized, 10,000 recruits 

for three years’ service and $3 million to train and 

equip them. Companies of volunteers began to arrive 

in Augusta. By December 1861, six infantry regiments,

one cavalry regiment, and an artillery battery had trained 

here and departed for the war’s front line. 

In 1862, a rendezvous was designated at Augusta for 

new recruits. Known as Camp Keyes, barracks and other 

structures were constructed on farmland overlooking 

the capital city. Camp Keyes served briefly as a hospital 

until this function moved to Camp Cony, a former 

cavalry barracks. The latter was expanded and renamed 

Cony General Hospital. It was Maine’s only U.S. General 

Hospital where sick and wounded Union soldiers were 

treated throughout the Civil War. 

Field, staff, and line officers of the 19th Maine Volunteer Infantry, c. 1865. 

Maine State Archives. 

Mount Pleasant Cemetery plan, 1941, with NCA property shaded green. Maine State Library. 

Insets: Mid-twentieth century photographs of the eastern division lot (left) and the western division 

lot (right). National Cemetery Administration. 

Soldiers’ Lot

Mount Pleasant Cemetery was established in 1853 on Augusta’s 

“Burnt Hill.” Half of its 12 acres was to be sold to families; the 

other half was to be available to the public at no cost. 

Over time, the city donated ten lots within Mount Pleasant 

Cemetery to the U.S. government for Union soldiers who died 

in local hospitals. Six adjacent lots (17-19 and 49-51) were in 

the cemetery’s eastern division. An 1874 inspection reported 

sixty burials here. The other four lots (262-263 and 294-295), in 

the western division, would eventually contain the remains of 

twenty-nine soldiers—sixteen known and thirteen unknown.

In 1906, the federal government placed a granite die-and-base 

monument in the eastern division lot to mark fifty-five graves. 

The Seth Williams Post No. 13, Grand Army of the Republic, 

a Union veterans’ organization, erected a monument in the 

western division lot. 

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
NASHVILLE NATIONAL CEMETERY

An 1891 depiction of the U.S. Colored Troops charging Overton Hill. Library of Congress. 

Civil War Nashville

Tennessee was among the last states to secede from the Union, and one 

of the first reoccupied by U.S. forces. After the Union Army took 

Nashville on February 24, 1862, the city became a vital supply depot and 

hospital center. In December 1864, Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood 

attempted to retake the city. Union commander Gen. George H. Thomas 

prepared and waited as Hood encircled the city. On December 15, 

Thomas attacked, but darkness ended the fighting. The next day, Union 

soldiers assaulted Overton and Shy’s hills, routing the Confederates 

and ending the Battle of Nashville. 

The cemetery in 1873, with road and limestone wall in foreground. National Archives and Records Administration. 

National Cemetery

General Thomas chose a site on the battlefield, marked by a hill, 

to bury the more than 2,000 Union dead. He said: 

No one could come to Nashville from the north and not 

be reminded of the sacrifices that had been made for the 

preservation of the Union.

The War Department renamed the 64-acre Union burial ground 

Nashville National Cemetery in 1866. Remains were moved 

here from city hospital grounds, battlegrounds, sites along the 

Cumberland River, and forts, blockhouses, and engagement 

sites along the three railroads that converged in Nashville. 

Because two years had elapsed between the original burials 

and the reinterments, many dead could not be identified. 

However, the Roll of Honor No. XXII (1869), published by 

the War Department, lists soldiers likely buried here in 

graves marked “unknown.” 

In 1870 the army built a 32-foot-high monumental Neoclassical 

archway facing Gallatin Pike as the cemetery entrance. It is 

the oldest of five such arches erected in southern national 

cemeteries. By 1874, an estimated 16,538 individuals were 

buried here, with approximately one-quarter unknown.

Cemetery lodge, 1873. The superintendent and his family lived in this Second

Empire-style lodge built on the grounds. The current Dutch Colonial-style lodge 

replaced it in 1931. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Monuments

Two monuments honor Civil War soldiers 

here. In 1913, the Minnesota Monument 

Commission selected St. Paul sculptor John K. 

Daniels to create monuments for five national 

cemeteries. His design reflected Minnesotans’ 

perception of the noble character of their fallen 

soldiers, and the cause for which they fought. 

This monument was dedicated May 18, 1921. 

The Tennessee U.S. Colored Troops (USCT)

Monument, a 9-foot-tall bronze figure of a 

black soldier, honors the 1,910 USCT buried 

here. Many were members of the 1st and 2nd 

Colored Brigades who fought and died in the 

Battle of Nashville. Sculpted by Roy Butler, the 

monument was dedicated in 2006.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
NATCHEZ NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War Natchez 

In 1860, Natchez was one of the wealthiest cities in the United

States. Within the surrounding Adams County, population 

14,000, nearly 70 percent were enslaved. A few individuals 

held the vast majority of those slaves. Forty-one wealthy 

individuals each owned eighty-nine or more slaves. 

When the Civil War began, fifteen companies of Confederate 

militia formed in Natchez. Wealthy planters equipped many 

of them with uniforms and weapons. In May 1862, after 

capturing New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Union gunboats 

steamed up the Mississippi River and briefly occupied the city. 

Union troops returned to Natchez on July 13, 1863, and held

it throughout the war.

The Union Army used at least two Natchez buildings as military 

hospitals—Natchez Marine Hospital and “The Gardens,” a 

plantation house. One army report listed a city hospital and 

a pest house in Natchez used by the military. During the war, 

1,784 Union personnel died and were buried in the city.

Men gather at the Natchez courthouse to enlist in Confederate service, c. 1861. Thomas H. 

and Joan Gandy Photograph Collection, Mss. 3 778, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley 

Collections, LSU Libraries, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Natchez National Cemetery, from Brvt. Lt. Col. E. B. Whitman’s final report, c. 1869. Whitman 

used the phrase “Harvest of Death” in his exhaustive report to describe the work of collecting the 

dead. National Archives and Records Administration.

“Harvest of Death”

Early in 1866, Capt. E. B. Whitman began gathering 

information in preparation for the reinterment of Union 

soldiers buried in the Military Division of Tennessee. 

This huge district included Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, 

Mississippi, and Tennessee. 

Captain Whitman, later lieutenant colonel, placed 

newspaper notices seeking locations of Union graves. 

Citizens, chaplains, soldiers, and officers replied. Whitman 

made three major expeditions across the region, stopping 

at hundreds of battlefields and engagement sites. Because 

of his work, thousands of Union dead were moved to 

twelve new national cemeteries. 

In May 1869, Whitman submitted a detailed summary of 

this difficult project to the quartermaster general. The 

report contained sketches and site plans of each cemetery, 

and data on interments and service affiliations.

National Cemetery

In 1866, the government purchased 11 acres near Natchez City 

Cemetery. Remains were brought here from elsewhere in the 

city, and sites in Mississippi and Louisiana. By the 1870s, the 

remains of 3,085 soldiers were interred in the cemetery. The 

identities of only 305 were known. The cemetery was enclosed 

by a brick wall about 1880. In 1931, the original brick lodge 

was replaced, and an octagonal rostrum constructed. 

One Civil War Medal of Honor recipient, 

Landsman Wilson Brown, is buried here. 

His commendation was for gallantry 

aboard the U.S.S. Hartford during the 

Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864. 

A native of Natchez, he died in 1900 

(Section G, Grave 3152).

One Civil War Medal of Honor recipient, 

.

Postcard view of cemetery entrance, c. 1906. 

National Cemetery Administration.

Civil War Navy Medal of Honor. 

Naval History and Heritage Command

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
NEW ALBANY NATIONAL CEMETERY

“Falls of the Ohio” in the Civil War

The towns of Jeffersonville and New Albany, Indiana, are 

located near the falls of the Ohio River across from Louisville, 

Kentucky. This location made them critical to the Union war 

effort. Jeffersonville was home to Camp Joe Holt, a recruiting 

and training center for Indiana and Kentucky troops. In 1864, 

the U.S. Army completed Jefferson General Hospital, where 

more than 16,120 Union soldiers were treated. 

Jeffersonville also served as a Union supply depot. Southbound 

ammunition, rations, uniforms, wagons, and other provisions

were transported by railroad through Louisville, or shipped 

down the Ohio River. 

All or parts of seven Indiana regiments—five infantry and 

two cavalry—originated in New Albany. In 1862, the Union 

Army converted several schools and other buildings into 

hospitals. Dr. Thomas Fry was ordered to New Albany to 

supervise these facilities. He recommended a cemetery be 

established near the hospitals. 

Camp Joe Holt, c. 1866. Indiana Historical Society. 

New Albany National Cemetery, from Brvt. Lt. Col. E. B. Whitman’s final report, c. 1869. 

Whitman used the phrase “Harvest of Death” in his exhaustive report to describe the work of 

collecting the dead. National Archives and Records Administration. 

“Harvest of Death”

Early in 1866, Capt. E. B. Whitman began gathering 

information in preparation for the reinterment of Union 

soldiers buried in the Military Division of Tennessee. 

This huge district included Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, 

Mississippi, and Tennessee. 

Captain Whitman, later lieutenant colonel, placed newspaper

notices seeking locations of Union graves. Citizens, 

chaplains, soldiers, and officers replied. Whitman made 

three major expeditions across the region, stopping at 

hundreds of battlefields and engagement sites. Because of his 

tireless work, thousands of Union dead were moved to twelve 

new national cemeteries. 

In May 1869, Whitman submitted a detailed summary of 

this difficult project to the quartermaster general. The report 

contained sketches and site plans of each cemetery, and data

on interments and service affiliations. 

National Cemetery

Established in 1862, the first burials at New Albany National 

Cemetery were Union soldiers who died in local hospitals. 

By 1869, this 5-acre tract contained 2,807 interments. Most 

remains were removed from sites along the Ohio River and its 

tributaries in Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia. 

The cemetery was soon enclosed by a stone wall, and contained 

a flagstaff and a rostrum. By the 1870s, a brick Second Empirestyle lodge was completed for the superintendent and his family. 

Two gun monuments flanked a central walkway. The existing 

rostrum replaced the original one in 1931.

By law, the secretary of war appointed a “meritorious and 

trustworthy” superintendent to manage the cemetery. John Jay 

Smith, formerly a sergeant in Company H, 33rd U.S. Infantry, 

was selected for the position here on August 20, 1868. 

Cemetery in 1904. A temporary frame lodge (1868) is visible behind the brick lodge (1871), where 

it was reused as a summer kitchen. The brick lodge was replaced in 1941, but it was razed in 1985. 

National Archives and Records Administration. 

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
NEW BERN NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War New Bern

In February 1862, the Union Army began a 

campaign to capture large areas of coastal North 

Carolina. By the end of the month, Union Gen. 

Ambrose Burnside had seized Roanoke Island 

and Elizabeth City. 

Union fleet bombards Fort Thompson during the Battle of New Bern, 

March 14, 1862. Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (1887). 

On March 14, in a combined land-and-sea 

operation, Burnside attacked the Confederate 

fortifications south of New Bern. After a five-hour 

battle, the Union force of 10,000 men overwhelmed 

Gen. Lawrence Branch’s 5,000 Confederates. By 

summer, eastern North Carolina and the Outer 

Banks were in Union control.

In March 1865, Union troops marched west from 

New Bern. They defeated Confederate forces at 

Wyse Fork near Kinston, then won the Battle of 

Bentonville, the last significant engagement in 

North Carolina.

Monuments 

Four monuments here honor Union soldiers who fought and died in 

North Carolina during the Civil War. A granite soldier erected by the 

State of New Jersey in 1905, honors the Ninth New Jersey Infantry. A 

bronze female figure sculpted by W. W. Manatt distinguishes the 1906 

Rhode Island Monument. Two other states donated memorials in 1908.

Sculptor Melzar Mossman created the bronze female figure on the 

Massachusetts Monument. Connecticut erected a granite flag-draped 

obelisk to memorialize its soldiers who died in 1864 of yellow fever and 

those killed in battle in 1865. 

Dedication of New Jersey Monument, 1905. 

New Jersey State Archives, Department of State.

Late-nineteenth century view of cemetery. National Archives and Records Administration.

National Cemetery 

In 1869, the U.S. Army Quartermaster General’s Office purchased 

7 acres to develop New Bern National Cemetery. By 1874, there 

were 3,249 interments here. The dead included 140 civilians and 

1,068 unknown soldiers. The remains came from cemeteries in 

New Bern, Morehead City, and Beaufort; battlefields at New Bern, 

Hatteras, Kinston, Roanoke Island, and Wyse Fork; and other 

eastern North Carolina sites. 

An 1867 law directed the secretary of war to appoint a “meritorious 

and trustworthy” superintendent to manage each national cemetery. 

William Dougherty, formerly a sergeant in the 101st Pennsylvania 

Infantry, was appointed here on August 31, 1867.

Over the years the army improved the property. A stone Second 

Empire-style lodge was constructed for the superintendent and his 

family. The cemetery was enclosed by a brick wall. An octagonal 

rostrum was erected in the 1890s, and the present lodge in 1916.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
NORTH ALTON CONFEDERATE CEMETERY

Alton Military Prison 

In late 1861, Union Gen. Henry Halleck received permission 

to use the former Illinois State Penitentiary in Alton, Illinois, 

as a military prison. The old prison had 256 cells, a hospital, 

a warden’s house, and long-standing problems with drainage 

and sanitation.

This section of wall in downtown Alton is the only remnant of the old 

state penitentiary that held Confederate prisoners. 

A U.S. Army inspector reported that the prison could house 

up to 1,750 prisoners. The first 1,640 prisoners arrived in 

early March 1862. Most had been captured at Fort Donelson, 

a Confederate stronghold on the Cumberland River west of 

Clarksville, Tennessee, that surrendered on February 16, 1862.

Within months smallpox broke out and the disease was a 

constant plague at the prison. The army built hospitals on 

islands in the Mississippi River in an effort to treat victims and 

contain the disease. Prisoners and Union soldiers who died on 

the islands were buried there; the remains were never moved 

to the mainland.

Between February 1862 and the end of the war, 11,760 

Confederate prisoners entered the prison at Alton. Nearly 

1,300 died there and were buried on the grounds.

e Confederate Cemetery 

Lt. Col. Sidney Burbank received specific instructions 

to guide burial of prisoners: “Those who may die will be 

decently interred and a proper mark affixed to their place of 

burial, which will be within the usual grounds set apart for 

that purpose in the city of Alton.” Prisoners were placed in 

individual coffins in trenches. Each grave was marked with a 

numbered stake. Mr. W. H. Hart buried most of these dead 

and kept a record book of the interments.

The federal government assumed ownership of the cemetery 

in 1867. Henry Nichols, a U.S. Army quartermaster clerk, 

inspected the site in 1899. After speaking with Hart, he 

decided that even using the record book, it was “utterly 

impossible to identify the graves of those buried there.”

The Commission for Marking Graves of Confederate Dead 

tried without success to document these burials in 1907. 

Finally, the Commission hired Van Amringe Granite Company 

to erect the existing 57-foot-tall obelisk, which was completed 

in December 1909. Bronze plaques on the base contain the 

names of 1,354 soldiers buried here and those buried in the 

smallpox hospital cemetery. Names of civilians who died at the 

prison were omitted from the plaques.

The Champion Iron Company of Kenton, Ohio, erected the wrought-iron fence and 

the memorial gates between 1909 and 1911; the Works Progress Administration 

repaired them in 1935. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Toward Reconciliation

On May 30, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic decorated 

Union and Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Thirty years later President William McKinley proclaimed:

The Union is once more the common altar of our love and 

loyalty, our devotion and sacrifice . . . Every soldier’s grave 

made during our unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to American 

valor . . . in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in 

the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers.

The War Department created the Confederate section 

at Arlington in 1901, and marked the graves with 

distinctive pointed-top marble headstones. Five years 

later, Congress created the Commission for Marking 

Graves of Confederate Dead to identify and mark the 

graves of Confederates who died in Northern prisons. 

Its mission was later expanded to encompass all national 

cemeteries that contained Confederate burials.

Four former Confederate officers headed the 

Commission over its lifetime. By 1916, it had marked 

in excess of 25,500 graves and erected monuments in 

locations where individual graves could not be identified.

In 1930, the War Department authorized the addition 

of the Southern Cross of Honor to the Confederate 

headstone.

prison were omitted from the plaques.

North Alton Confederate Cemetery 

Monument, 1909, Alton, Ill.

Original Commission headstone (left) and 

headstone with Southern Cross of Honor (right).

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benets and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
OAKDALE SOLDIERS’ LOT

Mourners at Alexandria National Cemetery, Virginia, c. 1865. After 1873, standard marble 

headstones replaced the wood headboards seen here. Miller, Photographic History of the 

Civil War (1910).

Civil War Dead

An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died 

in the Civil War (1861-1865). As the death toll rose, the U.S. 

government struggled with the urgent but unplanned need 

to bury fallen Union troops. This propelled the creation of a 

national cemetery system.

On September 11, 1861, the War Department directed officers 

to keep “accurate and permanent records of deceased soldiers.” 

Federal authority to create military burial grounds came in an 

Omnibus Act of July 17, 1862. Cemetery sites were chosen where 

troops were concentrated: camps, hospitals, battlefields, railroad 

hubs. By 1872, 74 national cemeteries and several soldiers’ lots 

contained 305,492 remains. About 45 percent were unknown.

The U.S. government established soldiers’ lots at private 

cemeteries in northern states. National cemeteries, in contrast, 

were built throughout the South where most Civil War action 

occurred. While the army reported dozens of lots containing 

Union dead in the 1870s, the National Cemetery Administration 

maintains only fifteen. The number of graves ranges from less 

than ten to nearly 400 in these lots.

Davenport at War

On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter 

in South Carolina. President Abraham Lincoln issued a 

call for volunteers to put down the southern rebellion. 

During the Civil War, nine infantry regiments, six cavalry 

regiments, and one battery of artillery would be organized 

in Davenport, Iowa. Some Davenport units fought in 

major battles on both sides of the Mississippi River. 

In August 1861, Camp McClellan was established east of 

town. A barracks, mess hall, commissary, canteen, and 

officers’ quarters were built for men who volunteered for 

Union service. They enlisted, mustered in, and trained there.

Later renamed Camp Kearney, the sprawling facility also 

contained a U.S. General Hospital with 300 beds. Sick and 

wounded soldiers were treated here. Men who died at the 

hospital were buried in Oakdale Cemetery.

Drawing of Camp McClellan by W. S. Harnon, December 1865. National Archives and 

Records Administration.

Oakdale Cemetery plan, 1947. 

Original soldiers’ lot shaded blue 

and current one shaded green. 

Courtesy Oakdale Memorial 

Gardens. Inset: Soldiers’ lot, 1940s. 

National Cemetery Administration. 

Soldiers’ Lot

Oakdale Cemetery (now Oakdale Memorial Gardens) was 

established in 1856 on 40 acres. Graves of Union dead were once 

scattered throughout the cemetery. The largest group, 160, was 

interred in the “back part of Oak Dale cemetery.” These remains, 

along with eleven others in another section, were removed to 

Rock Island National Cemetery by September 1868.

The federal government continued to maintain two lots in 

Section 2 at Oakdale. Part of the center circle held the remains 

of seven soldiers from Scott County, Iowa, who died in 1862 at 

the Battle of Fort Donelson, Tennessee. Lot 140 contained Civil 

War veterans who died in the 1890s.

In 1900, the U.S. government moved the remains of eleven 

soldiers and two children from these lots to one owned by 

the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a Union veterans 

organization. In 1940, the GAR deeded its lot to Oakdale 

Cemetery. The federal government acquired it the next year. 

Today the soldiers’ lot contains seventy-one Civil War veterans, 

four other veterans, and two children.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
PHILADELPHIA NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War Philadelphia

At the time of the Civil War, Philadelphia was the second-largest American 

city. Its factories supported the Union war effort by producing everything 

from blankets to gunboats. In less than three months, its navy yards 

produced the sloop-of-war U.S.S. Tuscarora. The ironclad U.S.S. New 

Ironsides, which saw action at Charleston, South Carolina, and at Fort Fisher 

and Wilmington, North Carolina, was also built in Philadelphia shipyards. 

Ward in Union Volunteer Hospital, a private hospital in Philadelphia, c. 1862. Library of Congress. 

Thousands of Union soldiers passed through the city on the way to the 

front. Local organizations provided lodging, food, laundry, and bathing 

facilities. Later, the city opened hospitals for soldiers, as did the federal 

government. Ailing troops were treated at Broad Street, Christian Street, 

Citizens Volunteer, Cuyler, Haddington, Islington Lane, McClellan, Officer, 

South Street, Summit House, and Turner’s Lane hospitals. 

Satterlee and Mower hospitals were the largest. Satterlee General Hospital, 

opened 1862, could accommodate 3,000 patients. Mower General Hospital, 

opened 1863, held 4,000 patients. During the war more than 157,000 

soldiers, sailors, and Confederate prisoners were treated in Philadelphia 

hospitals. Many died from disease or wounds.

National Cemetery

The dead were initially buried in several locations that 

collectively made up the original Philadelphia National 

Cemetery. The War Department maintained lots in seven 

city cemeteries—Glenwood, Lafayette, Lebanon, Mount 

Moriah, Odd-Fellows, United American Mechanics, 

and Woodlands. Lots in Rural Cemetery in Chester, and 

Whitehall and Bristol cemeteries, also received military 

burials. By the early 1880s, Quartermaster General 

Montgomery C. Meigs chose to consolidate these dead 

into a single national cemetery. After the War Department 

acquired more than 13 acres in northwest Philadelphia in 

1885, an estimated 1,500 Union and Confederate remains 

were reinterred here. 

The cemetery was designed in the rural style. Curving 

roads and generous plantings created a park-like 

environment. A large Italianate house acquired with the 

property served as the superintendent’s residence for fifty 

years. It was razed in 1934.

View of cemetery with lodge, 1903; the gate was replaced in 1940. National Archives and 

Records Administration.

Medal of Honor Recipient

One Civil War recipient of the Medal of Honor is 

buried in the cemetery: Gen. Galusha Pennypacker, 

97th Pennsylvania Infantry. 

First bestowed in 1863, it is the 

highest award for military valor 

in the U.S. Armed Services. For 

acts above and beyond the call 

of duty, 1,522 individuals who 

served in the Civil War received 

the medal. Pennypacker earned 

it for bravery in the January 1865 assault on Fort 

Fisher, North Carolina. Afterward he was promoted, 

and at 20 became the youngest Union general. He 

died in 1916 (Officers Section, Grave 175).

Gen. Galusha Pennypacker. History of the 

Ninety-Seventh Pennsylvania Infantry, 1875. 

Civil War Army Medal 

of Honor. Gettysburg 

National Military Park.

property served as the superintendent’s residence for fifty 

years. It was razed in 1934.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
CONFEDERATE BURIALS IN THE NATIONAL CEMETERY

36x24 Confederate Burials - The Confederate Section

Citizens Volunteer Hospital in Philadelphia was one of many facilities where Confederate 

prisoners captured at Gettysburg were treated, c. 1865. Library of Congress.

The Confederate Section 

All of the Confederate prisoners of war buried here died in a 

Civil War military hospital in or near Philadelphia. All were 

originally interred near the hospital where they died. In the 

late 1880s, the dead were moved here from three Philadelphia 

cemeteries—Glenwood City, Odd Fellows, and Mount 

Moriah—and Rural Cemetery, in nearby Chester.

The War Department established Philadelphia National 

Cemetery in March 1885 and moved Union and Confederate 

burials here from several area cemeteries. The Confederate 

remains were placed in a single section without headstones.

In 1897, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) 

in Philadelphia approached the cemetery superintendent 

about donating a monument to the Confederate section. The 

Union veterans’ organization in Germantown, Pennsylvania, 

protested. 

The UDC abandoned its plan for a grand obelisk; instead the 

obelisk was erected in the Confederate section of Hollywood 

Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia. Three years later, the UDC 

placed a small tablet memorial to 224 unknown Confederate 

dead at Philadelphia National Cemetery.

The Monument 

The Commission for Marking Graves of Confederate Dead 

began documenting burials in July 1906. No one was able 

to explain to the Commission how the UDC arrived at the 

number of 224 unknown listed on the tablet. Few records 

accompanied the burials moved from Rural Cemetery, which 

had the greatest number of Confederate burials in the area. 

Many records were incomplete and documentation of remains 

removed to other states was contradictory. The Commission 

agreed that graves could not be matched with individuals.

The monument dedication, 1911. Confederate Veteran, December 1911. 

In fall 1911, James T. Maxwell & Sons of Philadelphia 

completed the granite monument. The plaques affixed to the 

monument list the names of 184 Confederate prisoners that 

the Commission documented as being buried at Philadelphia 

National Cemetery. The UDC Philadelphia chapter held the 

dedication ceremony on October 12, 1912, the anniversary of 

Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s death. The elaborate event 

featured music, hymns, prayers, poetry, and a stirring oration 

delivered by John Shepherd Beard, a notable Philadelphian. 

The ceremony ended with a thirty-gun salute and the playing 

of “Taps.” According to newspaper accounts, some 1,000 

people attended the unveiling.

Toward Reconciliation

On May 30, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic decorated 

Union and Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Thirty years later President William McKinley proclaimed:

The Union is once more the common altar of our love and 

loyalty, our devotion and sacrifice . . . Every soldier’s grave 

made during our unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to American 

valor . . . in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in 

the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers.

The War Department created the Confederate section 

at Arlington in 1901, and marked the graves with 

distinctive pointed-top marble headstones. Five years 

later, Congress created the Commission for Marking 

Graves of Confederate Dead to identify and mark the 

graves of Confederates who died in Northern prisons. 

Its mission was later expanded to encompass all national 

cemeteries that contained Confederate burials.

Four former Confederate officers headed the 

Commission over its lifetime. By 1916, it had marked 

in excess of 25,500 graves and erected monuments in 

locations where individual graves could not be identified.

In 1930, the War Department authorized the addition 

of the Southern Cross of Honor to the Confederate 

headstone.

North Alton Confederate Cemetery 

Monument, 1909, Alton, Ill.

Original Commission headstone (left) and 

headstone with Southern Cross of Honor (right).

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POINT LOOKOUT CONFEDERATE CEMETERY

Camp Hoffman Prison 

The Union prison at Camp Hoffman, Maryland—called 

Point Lookout—opened in 1863. A 15-foot-high plank fence 

surrounded the 40-acre prison compound. The first prisoners 

arrived in July 1863—Confederates captured at the Battle of 

Gettysburg. By year’s end, the population reached 9,000. All 

prisoners lived in tents, including the sick. When the war ended 

in April 1865, the prison housed 22,000 men. 

The Confederate Dead

Between July 1863 and June 1865, when it closed, more than 

52,000 prisoners had been held at Point Lookout. More than 

3,000 died and were interred in three prison cemeteries. All graves 

were marked with 

wooden headboards. 

After the war, some 

bodies were removed 

from the cemeteries 

at Point Lookout. 

However, no record 

was made of who 

was removed. One 

unauthorized business

removed bodies, at the

request of friends or 

family, for a fee.

Sketch map of Point Lookout 

cemeteries, including one Union 

and three Confederate,“from 

Gen. Ludington, Sept. 10 / 66.” 

National Archives and Records 

Administration. 

The Commission

In 1867, the War Department purchased the land 

containing the Union and Confederate cemeteries. 

Soon, the U.S. Army moved Union remains to Arlington 

National Cemetery. Confederate remains at Point 

Lookout were marked with new headboards. Three 

years later, the State of Maryland purchased this ground 

and moved 3,404 Confederate dead from the federallyowned cemeteries to this site. In 1876, Maryland erected 

a modest marble obelisk to mark the graves.

The Commission for Marking Graves of Confederate 

Dead began documenting interments at Point Lookout in 

1906. After the Commissioner determined that the graves 

could not be marked individually, he received permission 

to erect a single monument.

Maryland deeded this cemetery to the federal government 

in 1910. The Van Amringe Granite Company of Boston, 

Massachusetts, finished the 85-foot granite obelisk 

the following year. Bronze 

plaques on the monument 

base and the mound 

supporting it contain the 

names of 3,384 Confederate 

soldiers and sailors; fortyfour civilians identified by 

the Commission as buried 

at the site are not listed. 

However, the exact number 

of individuals who died at the 

prison and are buried here 

may never be determined.

Monument under construction, c. 1910. 

National Archives and Records Administration.

Toward Reconciliation

On May 30, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic decorated 

Union and Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Thirty years later President William McKinley proclaimed:

The Union is once more the common altar of our love and 

loyalty, our devotion and sacrifice . . . Every soldier’s grave 

made during our unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to American 

valor . . . in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in 

the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers.

The War Department created the Confederate section 

at Arlington in 1901, and marked the graves with 

distinctive pointed-top marble headstones. Five years 

later, Congress created the Commission for Marking 

Graves of Confederate Dead to identify and mark the 

graves of Confederates who died in Northern prisons. 

Its mission was later expanded to encompass all national 

cemeteries that contained Confederate burials.

Four former Confederate officers headed the 

Commission over its lifetime. By 1916, it had marked 

in excess of 25,500 graves and erected monuments in 

locations where individual graves could not be identified.

In 1930, the War Department authorized the addition 

of the Southern Cross of Honor to the Confederate 

headstone.

North Alton Confederate Cemetery 

Monument, 1909, Alton, Ill.

Original Commission headstone (left) and 

headstone with Southern Cross of Honor (right).

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
PORT HUDSON NATIONAL CEMETERY

The 1st and 3rd Louisiana Native Guards drill near Port Hudson in 1863. State Library of Louisiana. 

Fall of Port Hudson

In May 1863, Union Gen. Nathaniel Banks landed 30,000 

soldiers at Bayou Sara north of Port Hudson. A force of 7,500 

men commanded by Confederate Gen. Franklin Gardner held 

the Mississippi River stronghold. General Banks’ May 27 assault 

on Port Hudson failed and nearly 2,000 soldiers died. Among 

them were 600 men from two black regiments—the 1st and 3rd 

Louisiana Native Guards. The Port Hudson engagement was 

among the first opportunities for black soldiers to fight in the 

Civil War. Their determination proved to the North that they 

could and would ably serve the Union cause. 

Banks then launched a siege operation, building fortifications 

and bringing up more artillery. On June 14, he began pounding 

the Confederates. This second failed attack resulted in another 

2,000 Union casualties. Banks continued the siege. Finally, on 

July 9 with the Confederate garrison reduced to eating mules and 

rats, Port Hudson surrendered. Over the 45-day siege Banks 

lost approximately 10,000 men, half from disease. The Union 

gained absolute control of the Mississippi River. Cemetery gate and gun monument in 1904. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Right, cemetery plan, 1892. National 

Archives and Records Administration.

National Cemetery

In August 1866, Lt. A. Rayburn chose this site for Port 

Hudson National Cemetery. The 8-acre plot was already the 

final resting place of Union soldiers who died fighting at Port 

Hudson. The government paid $3,000 for the land.

Among those buried here are 256 men who served in the 

United States Colored Troops (USCT). The first USCT 

regiments were formed in March 1863, when the federal 

government began actively recruiting black men for 

the Union Army. USCT regiments fought in battles and 

engagements from Virginia to Texas. Eight regiments were 

engaged at Port Hudson.

By 1875, Port Hudson National Cemetery contained 3,804 

graves, most marked as unknowns. Remains from elsewhere 

in Louisiana, including Morganza village; the Carnes, 

Dunn’s, Haynes, Slaughters, and Wilson’s plantations; 

and Methodist College in West Baton Rouge Parish were 

reinterred here.

Early improvements included a brick wall to enclose 

the cemetery and two gun monuments at the entrance 

road. In 1879, the Quartermaster Department built a brick 

Second Empire-style lodge for the superintendent and 

his family. Cast-iron plaques with stanzas from the poem 

“Bivouac of the Dead” were installed in the 1880s. The 

cemetery has expanded twice in the twentieth century 

and now covers almost 20 acres. 

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

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PROSPECT HILL SOLDIERS’ LOT

Mourners at Alexandria National Cemetery, Virginia, c. 1865. After 1873, standard marble 

headstones replaced the wood headboards seen here. Miller, Photographic History of the 

Civil War (1910).

Civil War Dead

An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died 

in the Civil War (1861-1865). As the death toll rose, the U.S. 

government struggled with the urgent but unplanned need 

to bury fallen Union troops. This propelled the creation of a 

national cemetery system.

On September 11, 1861, the War Department directed officers 

to keep “accurate and permanent records of deceased soldiers.” 

Federal authority to create military burial grounds came in an 

Omnibus Act of July 17, 1862. Cemetery sites were chosen where 

troops were concentrated: camps, hospitals, battlefields, railroad 

hubs. By 1872, 74 national cemeteries and several soldiers’ lots 

contained 305,492 remains. About 45 percent were unknown.

The U.S. government established soldiers’ lots at private 

cemeteries in northern states. National cemeteries, in contrast, 

were built throughout the South where most Civil War action 

occurred. While the army reported dozens of lots containing 

Union dead in the 1870s, the National Cemetery Administration 

maintains only fifteen. The number of graves ranges from less 

than ten to nearly 400 in these lots.

Brattleboro at War

In May 1861, a month after the Confederate assault on Fort 

Sumter in South Carolina, the State of Vermont established 

a camp in the town of Brattleboro. The barracks and other 

buildings were used to house recruits and train volunteer 

Union soldiers. In September, the 4th Vermont Infantry 

mustered into service and departed for Washington, D.C. 

They were the first of more than 10,000 troops to pass 

through the camp. Ten infantry regiments and one artillery 

battery were organized here. 

Gov. Frederick Holbrook, for whom the camp was later 

named, prevailed upon the War Department to establish 

a military hospital in Vermont. He believed fresh cool 

Vermont air would aid the recovery of men unaccustomed 

to southern heat. In January 1863, several buildings 

were converted into a U.S. General Hospital. It could 

originally accommodate up to 2,000 patients. By 1864, 

new construction doubled that number. Brattleboro was 

home to the largest of three military hospitals operating in 

Vermont during the Civil War. 

Top: Undated photograph 

of U.S. General Hospital. 

Special Collections of the 

Brooks Memorial Library, 

Brattleboro. Right: Union 

soldiers outside of a supply 

hut at the hospital, 1864. 

Courtesy of Thomas St. John.

Top: Photograph of soldiers’ lot in 1954. National Cemetery Administration. Lower left: Article 

published in the Vermont Phoenix (Brattleboro), June 15, 1866. Library of Congress. Right: Plan 

of soldiers’ lot with the names of the dead, November 1905. National Archives and Records 

Administration. 

Military Burials

The bodies of most Vermont soldiers who died at the U.S. 

General Hospital were transported home for burial. Nineteen 

Union soldiers were interred on the hospital grounds, only one 

was unknown.

In 1866, the army moved these remains from the hospital 

cemetery to Brattleboro’s Prospect Hill Cemetery. Three years 

later the town sold the small, rectangular soldiers’ lot to the U.S. 

government for $100. 

Civil War veterans decorated the soldiers’ graves with flowers as 

part of the first Decoration (Memorial) Day observance in 1868. 

The ceremony featured music, speeches, and a cannon salute. By 

1874, the lot was enclosed with a hedge and trees were planted at 

the corners. The nineteen graves were marked with permanent 

marble headstones. A flagstaff was installed in the 1890s. 

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
PROSPECT HILL SOLDIERS’ LOT

Mourners at Alexandria National Cemetery, Virginia, c. 1865. After 1873, standard marble 

headstones replaced the wood headboards seen here. Miller, Photographic History of the 

Civil War (1910).

Civil War Dead

An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died 

in the Civil War (1861-1865). As the death toll rose, the U.S. 

government struggled with the urgent but unplanned need 

to bury fallen Union troops. This propelled the creation of a 

national cemetery system.

On September 11, 1861, the War Department directed officers 

to keep “accurate and permanent records of deceased soldiers.” 

Federal authority to create military burial grounds came in an 

Omnibus Act of July 17, 1862. Cemetery sites were chosen where 

troops were concentrated: camps, hospitals, battlefields, railroad 

hubs. By 1872, 74 national cemeteries and several soldiers’ lots 

contained 305,492 remains. About 45 percent were unknown.

The U.S. government established soldiers’ lots at private 

cemeteries in northern states. National cemeteries, in contrast, 

were built throughout the South where most Civil War action 

occurred. While the army reported dozens of lots containing 

Union dead in the 1870s, the National Cemetery Administration 

maintains only fifteen. The number of graves ranges from less 

than ten to nearly 400 in these lots.

York at War

On April 23, 1861, less than two weeks after Confederate 

forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, Gov. Andrew 

G. Curtin established Camp Scott at York, Pennsylvania. By 

early May, six regiments were lodged in the Odd Fellows 

Hall and buildings at the fairgrounds. The army recruited 

or trained all or portions of seventeen Pennsylvania 

regiments in York. 

In June 1862, a U.S. General Hospital was established 

in the city. Barracks constructed on the public common 

were adapted to accommodate more than 1,000 beds. The 

hospital had treated 14,000 patients by the time it closed 

in summer 1865. Many of the 193 soldiers who died in 

York were buried at Prospect Hill Cemetery.

During the Gettysburg Campaign, in summer 1863, 

Confederate forces briefly captured York. Citizens met with 

Confederate Gen. John Gordon the day before he arrived. 

They agreed to surrender if Gordon would spare the city. 

The Confederates occupied York for two days, took money 

and supplies, but did no damage. 

View of York in 1852. Inset, left: Odd Fellows Hall used as a 

barracks in 1861. Inset, right: Courthouse the Confederates 

used as a headquarters in 1863. Library of Congress. 

December 1866 letter conveying the trustees’ proposal to move 

the remains of U.S. soldiers to “one of the most attractive spots” 

in Prospect Hill Cemetery. National Archives and Records

Administration. Right: Scale model of Union soldier at sculptor’s 

studio, c. 1867. Library of Congress.

Soldiers’ Lot

Prospect Hill Cemetery, a rural-style burial ground, was 

established in 1849. By 1870, some 163 Union soldiers were 

interred in a northwest-corner lot. All but two were known. 

Most graves were marked with wood headboards. A few had 

marble headstones purchased by family or friends. In 1873, 

the War Department authorized reinterment of these remains 

in a prominent lot near the cemetery entrance. Names of the 

dead were inscribed on two concentric granite curbs within 

the new soldiers’ circle, rather than on standard governmentissued headstones. 

The Ladies Aid Society and citizens of York raised $3,000 to 

build a memorial here. A. J. Brashears & Son of York installed 

it in 1874. The granite base supports a 15-foot-tall bronze 

soldier. Irish-born sculptor Martin Milmore designed this 

and many other Civil War monuments found in northern 

states. The York soldiers’ lot, with four cannon, is enclosed by 

a granite post-and-chain fence.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
QUINCY NATIONAL CEMETERY

An early-twentieth century reunion of Company E, 50th Illinois Infantry, in Camp Point, 

Illinois. The regiment was organized in Quincy in 1861. Historical Society of Quincy and 

Adams County.

Civil War Quincy

Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina 

on April 12, 1861. Three days later, President Abraham 

Lincoln called for volunteers to suppress the rebellion. Men 

in Quincy, Illinois, rushed to volunteer for federal service. 

Located on the Mississippi River and served by railroads, 

the city was an excellent staging area for soldiers headed 

south. The U.S. Army constructed a permanent barracks 

in Franklin Square, the heart of the city.

As the Civil War began in earnest, wounded troops required 

medical care. Quincy’s first hospital opened in July 1861 

in a former chair factory. A second opened in a three-story 

brick factory. Finally, the U.S. Army occupied and converted 

the Quincy College campus into hospital space. Many sick 

and wounded soldiers died in these facilities.

Soldiers’ Lot

In 1861, the U.S. Army began burying its dead in a lot within 

Woodland Cemetery. This cemetery had been established in 

1847 by Quincy founder and former Illinois Gov. John Wood. 

By the end of the war, the 12,000-square-foot lot contained 

242 graves, including six unknowns.

In 1870, the lot was officially donated to the federal government. 

Stone curbing enclosed three sides. Four gun monuments 

marked the south entrance. The local chapter of the Grand 

Army of the Republic, a Union veterans’ organization, in 

1882 successfully lobbied to have the property designated a 

national cemetery. When the first superintendent appointed 

here was charged with fraud, the secretary of war canceled 

the position. Thereafter, the government paid the Woodland 

Cemetery Association to care for the gravesites. 

Soldiers’ lot plan at Woodland Cemetery, 1892. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Soldiers’ lot in Graceland Cemetery, 1933. National Archives and Records Administration.

National Cemetery

Woodland Cemetery’s location on a ridge above the Mississippi 

River led to erosion problems. Faced with a choice between 

building a retaining wall or moving the dead, the U.S. Army 

concluded it was best to relocate the graves. In fall 1899, the 

federal government purchased a lot in Graceland Cemetery, 

east of downtown, from the Quincy Cemetery Association. The 

remains of 287 soldiers were reinterred in the new 0.45-acre 

soldiers’ lot—no longer classified as a national cemetery. The 

federal government contracted with the association to maintain 

its property.

By 1924, a part-time caretaker was appointed to oversee the 

soldiers’ lot. In 1936, it was redesignated Quincy National 

Cemetery. Over the years, modern development, including the 

extension of Maine Street through the private cemetery in the 

1970s, has separated the two burial grounds. 

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for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
RALEIGH NATIONAL CEMETERY

North Carolina State Capitol, 1861. Courtesy of the State Archives of North Carolina. 

Civil War Raleigh 

After President Abraham Lincoln called for troops to put 

down the Confederate rebellion in April 1861, North Carolina 

seceded from the Union. Raleigh became a hub of Confederate 

activity as recruiting and training camps sprang up in the city. 

A bayonet factory and powder mill opened, and warehouses 

for military supplies and equipment were established. Later 

the Confederates built a hospital at the old fairgrounds.

After the Battle of Bentonville in March 1865, Union troops

began approaching the city. Gov. Zebulon Vance sent 

representatives to meet with Union Gen. William T. Sherman, 

who promised no harm would come to the city if his troops 

met no resistance. Union soldiers occupied Raleigh on 

April 13, 1865, and Sherman set up his headquarters in the 

governor’s mansion. More than 100,000 Union soldiers 

camped in and near the city. They buried their dead here, too. 

National Cemetery

The State of North Carolina donated land to the federal 

government for a Union cemetery. It was designated Raleigh 

National Cemetery in 1865. The rectangular tract was 

divided into twenty-two sections with a central flagstaff and 

gun monument. 

The remains of 1,173 soldiers were reinterred here from 

other locations in Raleigh; the Averasboro, Bentonville and 

Goldsboro battlefields; and elsewhere in the state. Volunteer 

regiments from thirteen states are represented, and were 

buried together. Other sections were set aside for U.S. Army 

Regulars and U.S. Colored Troops. Four sections contain 

547 unknown soldiers. 

View into cemetery, 1904. Visible on right is the original wood-frame lodge, reused as a kitchen and

tool-house after the new brick lodge was built in 1874. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Plan of cemetery, 1881. National Archives and Records Administration. 

An 1867 law directed the secretary of war to appoint a 

“meritorious and trustworthy” superintendent to manage each 

national cemetery. To qualify for the position, an individual 

must have been an army enlisted man disabled in service. A 

later change to the law allowed any honorably mustered out 

or discharged commissioned officer or enlisted man to serve 

as a cemetery superintendent. George A. Dichtl, formerly a 

second lieutenant in the 1st Oregon Cavalry, was appointed 

to this post at Raleigh in June 1868. 

A Second Empire-style lodge was constructed for the 

superintendent and his family to live in. The current ColonialRevival building replaced that lodge in 1938. 

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
RICHMOND NATIONAL CEMETERY

Union Prisoners

Richmond, the Confederate capital, housed thousands of 

Union prisoners of war in three prisons—Libby Prison, Castle 

Thunder, and Belle Isle. In March 1862, the Confederate 

government seized Luther Libby’s warehouse and converted 

it into Libby Prison. Five months later, Gleanor’s Tobacco 

Warehouse, Palmer’s Factory, and Whitlock’s Warehouse 

collectively became Castle Thunder prison. 

Another prison opened that summer on Belle Isle, a small 

island in the James River across from Libby Prison. This 

facility housed prisoners in tents on an open field. Unshaded 

in summertime, tents were stifling; in winter they were cold 

and windy. Poor conditions fostered disease at all three 

prisons and, as a result, thousands of Union captives died. 

Confederate authorities buried them in various private 

Richmond cemeteries. Hundreds were buried on Belle Isle. 

Libby Prison, c. 1864. The print, with prisoners visible in the windows, contradicts Confederate 

orders directing guards to shoot anyone looking out. Library of Congress.

National Cemetery

During the Civil War, Union and Confederate armies fought 

multiple battles for control of Richmond. Thousands of 

Union soldiers perished. They are now buried in Richmond 

National Cemetery and six other national cemeteries 

established in the Richmond-Petersburg area in 1866. 

Union prisoners were housed in tents on Belle Isle, c. 1864. Library of Congress.

Most of the men who lie here died in Richmond’s Confederate 

prisons. Among those are 3,200 Union soldiers reinterred 

from Oakwood Cemetery, and another 388 from Hollywood 

Cemetery. The remains of 210 prisoners were moved from 

Belle Isle to the national cemetery, along with twelve men 

removed from a trench in the “Rocketts,” a suburb near Castle 

Thunder prison. The remains of 2,710 Union soldiers who 

died in local battles are interred here, too. 

Nearly a decade passed between the time the cemetery was 

established and the completion of the reinterments. An 1868 

U.S. Army report estimated the total at 6,329. By 1874, the grave 

count rose to 6,540. In addition, fourteen non-combatants—

civilians and government employees—are buried here. 

The 8-acre cemetery was originally laid out in four sections with 

a flagstaff mound in the center. Each section, divided by graveled 

walks, was organized into six plots. The government erected 

its first brick Second Empire-style lodge here in 1870. By 1874, 

a stone wall enclosed the cemetery. The first superintendent, 

Patrick Hart, a discharged sergeant from Co. B, 44th U.S. Infantry,

erected a greenhouse near the lodge where he raised plants and 

trees for use in the cemetery. 

Today, over 9,000 burials are located in the cemetery, including 

an unknown Confederate soldier reinterred here in 1978.

The rostrum, built 1888, with unknown grave markers in foreground, 1908. National Archives and 

Records Administration. 

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for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
ROCK ISLAND NATIONAL CEMETERY

Bird’s-eye view of Rock Island, 1864. Library of Congress.

Civil War Rock Island

The U.S. Army built Fort Armstrong on Rock Island in 

1816. It abandoned the fort in 1836, but then reoccupied 

it for five years, 1840-45. The onset of the Civil War created 

a need for military facilities with access to transportation 

corridors. In 1862, the army returned to the Illinois 

island permanently. 

It built an arsenal here to store ordnance and arms, and 

repair damaged weapons. Situating the arsenal on an island 

in the Mississippi River enabled the government to easily 

ship weapons to troops throughout the region. 

In 1863, Rock Island became a prison camp for captured 

Confederate soldiers. More than 12,000 Confederates passed

through Rock Island Prison Barracks between December 

1863 and July 1865. Nearly 2,000 prisoners died here. 

National Cemetery 

The U.S. Army established Rock Island National Cemetery in 1863 

near the arsenal. It contained the graves of 136 prison guards. 

Forty-nine of the dead were members of the 108th U.S. Colored 

Infantry. When new construction on Rock Island threatened the 

cemetery in 1868, the Union remains were moved to the present

location. Soon after, the remains of 171 soldiers who died in 

hospitals in nearby Davenport, Iowa, were reinterred here. The 

roughly-square cemetery encompassed about 1.2 acres.

By 1875, the cemetery was enclosed with an ornate metal fence 

and accessed through an arched gate. A gravel path led to a 

rostrum (removed in the 1950s). Arsenal personnel maintained the 

cemetery until 1973, when it became one of the national cemeteries 

transferred to the Veterans Administration (now U.S. Department 

of Veterans Affairs). The oldest part of the cemetery—Sections NW, 

SE, and SW—is in the southeast corner of the property. Sections of 

original fence are at the entrance to the Memorial Walkway.

Rodman grave and monument, 1919. Rock Island Arsenal Museum.

Rodman Monument

Thomas Jackson Rodman served in the army’s ordnance 

department during the Civil War. There he developed a method 

for casting large-caliber artillery. These new guns were stronger 

and less likely to explode than earlier models. In August 1865, 

General Rodman was appointed commandant of Rock Island 

Arsenal, a position he held until his death in 1871. 

Known as the “Father of Rock Island Arsenal,” Rodman is credited 

with the old arsenal plan. Ten massive stone buildings made up the 

core of the arsenal layout. A large obelisk marks Rodman’s grave 

and that of his wife, Martha Ann, who died in 1908. 

Graves marked with wooden headboards, c. 1875. Rock Island Arsenal Museum. 

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
ROCK ISLAND CONFEDERATE CEMETERY

Bird’s-eye view of Rock Island Prison Barracks, c. 1864. Library of Congress. 

Rock Island Prison Camp

During summer 1863 two significant events took place. The 

Union and Confederate armies stopped exchanging prisoners, 

and the Union Army defeated the Confederates at Gettysburg, 

Pennsylvania. The Union prison system could not handle 

the resulting influx of prisoners, so later that summer, the 

War Department authorized a prisoner of war camp at Rock 

Island, Illinois.

Rock Island’s 12-acre prison compound was surrounded by a 

ditch and a 12-foot-high plank fence punctuated with guard 

towers. It contained eighty-four barracks that held 10,080 

prisoners. There was no hospital. The first prisoners arrived 

in December 1863. Temperatures fell, wind howled through 

walls; smallpox broke out. Nearly one-third of all prisoners 

who perished at Rock Island—995 men—died in the first 

three months.

By the end of July 1865 when the prison closed, more than 

12,000 prisoners had passed through its gate. Almost 2,000 

died at Rock Island. The U.S. Army razed the last prison 

buildings in 1907; nothing remains except the Confederate 

cemetery.

The Cemetery 

The prison surgeon felt the original cemetery was too close to 

the prison. He selected this site for the new cemetery. Most 

Confederates in this cemetery were interred at the time of 

their death, but all prisoners buried elsewhere on the island 

were eventually moved here.

Confederate dead were buried by contract after removal to the 

“dead house.” Frank Knox of Rock Island prepared bodies 

for burial and laid them in coffins made by his father Charles. 

Another man, J. de Harpart, hauled coffins to the cemetery 

and placed them into trenches he had prepared earlier. A 

headboard marked each grave.

In 1871, Lt. M. L. Poland mapped all graves using cannon 

barrels at each corner of the property as reference points. He 

wrote grave numbers on the map, corresponding to lists of the 

dead. Poland gave the plan to the post quartermaster for safe 

keeping.

The Commission for Marking Graves of Confederate Dead 

inspected the cemetery in 1907. They used Lieutenant 

Poland’s map to identify individual graves and set pointed-top 

marble headstones inscribed with the name and regiment of 

the deceased. 

The cemetery pre-1890, with small U.S. flags on the graves. Rock Island Arsenal Museum.

Toward Reconciliation

On May 30, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic decorated 

Union and Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Thirty years later President William McKinley proclaimed:

The Union is once more the common altar of our love and 

loyalty, our devotion and sacrifice . . . Every soldier’s grave 

made during our unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to American 

valor . . . in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in 

the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers.

The War Department created the Confederate section 

at Arlington in 1901, and marked the graves with 

distinctive pointed-top marble headstones. Five years 

later, Congress created the Commission for Marking 

Graves of Confederate Dead to identify and mark the 

graves of Confederates who died in Northern prisons. 

Its mission was later expanded to encompass all national 

cemeteries that contained Confederate burials.

Four former Confederate officers headed the 

Commission over its lifetime. By 1916, it had marked 

in excess of 25,500 graves and erected monuments in 

locations where individual graves could not be identified.

In 1930, the War Department authorized the addition 

of the Southern Cross of Honor to the Confederate 

headstone.

North Alton Confederate Cemetery 

Monument, 1909, Alton, Ill.

Original Commission headstone (left) and 

headstone with Southern Cross of Honor (right).

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benets and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
SALISBURY NATIONAL CEMETERY

Baseball game in the prison yard, 1863. Camp conditions deteriorated in the last years of the war. 

Library of Congress.

Civil War Salisbury

Salisbury was a vital location and the Confederate government 

invested heavily in the city. Early in the war, an auxiliary ordnance 

installation was established here. The converted factory became 

Salisbury Arsenal and it produced munitions, guns, and artillery. In 

addition, the Confederates built hospitals, warehouses, and a distillery.

The city housed the Nitre and Mining Bureau, and commissary 

department district headquarters. Finally, the Confederacy established

a prisoner-of-war camp in Salisbury—where thousands of Union 

soldiers were held until it was abandoned in February 1865. 

Union authorities also recognized Salisbury’s strategic importance. 

In spring 1865, Union Gen. George Stoneman and 6,000 cavalry rode 

into North Carolina. On April 12, Stoneman attacked Salisbury. The 

Federals defeated the Confederate force of 800 and captured the city. 

Then they destroyed the railroad track and anything of use in a fire 

that burned for two days. 

National Cemetery 

Salisbury National Cemetery was established in 1865 

around the old prison burial ground. By 1874, it occupied 

7 acres. In addition to the prisoners, 425 soldiers were 

buried here in individual graves—ninety-two were known.

In the 1870s, the cemetery was enclosed with a stone wall.

The entry features ornate iron gates cast with iconic 

military symbols. The original Second Empire-style lodge 

built for the superintendent was replaced in 1934 with 

the current Dutch Colonial-style building.

There are two state Civil War monuments here. The 

Maine Monument, erected 1908, honors its soldiers 

who died while imprisoned at Salisbury. The 25-foot-tall 

granite monument features a statue of a Union soldier 

and polished ornamental cannon.

Superintendent E. R. Fonda and his wife standing in front of cemetery lodge, c. 1910. 

National Cemetery Administration.

Pennsylvania Monument under construction. National Cemetery Administration.

In 1910, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania funded 

construction of a 32-foot-tall memorial pavilion. It is 

topped by an 8-foot-tall bronze prisoner of war to honor 

its volunteer soldiers who perished here. 

The Pennsylvania members of the National Association 

of the Union Ex-Prisoners of War organization were 

inspired by the New Jersey Monument that they saw at 

Georgia’s Andersonville National Cemetery. As a result, 

the Pennsylvania government donated monuments to 

national cemeteries at Andersonville and Salisbury. It 

also paid the travel expenses of more than 100 former 

prisoners to attend the Salisbury dedication ceremony. 

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SAN ANTONIO NATIONAL CEMETERY

Confederate militia accept the surrender of Union Gen. David Twiggs. Harper’s Weekly (March 23, 1861). 

Civil War San Antonio

When Texas became a state in 1845, the annexation treaty 

transferred all Texas forts to the U.S. Army. In 1848, the army 

established a small garrison and quartermaster depot at the 

Alamo, a former Spanish mission. Eleven years later an arsenal 

was added. 

On February 1, 1861, a convention of Texas officials voted to 

secede from the Union, although a public vote would not be held 

until spring. Just two weeks after the convention, Texas state 

cavalry led by Col. Benjamin McCulloch rode into San Antonio. 

They surrounded Maj. Gen. David E. Twiggs, commander of all 

U.S. troops stationed in Texas, and his garrison. 

Twiggs surrendered all federal property in Texas and evacuated 

2,700 Union troops at frontier forts scattered throughout 

the state. San Antonio and its supply depot remained under 

Confederate control through the war. The U.S. Army returned to 

the city in 1865. 

National Cemetery

San Antonio National Cemetery was established in 

1867 on land the city gave to the federal government. The 

2-acre parcel occupied a hill about a mile east of the city 

plaza. By December 1868, the cemetery was enclosed by 

a limestone wall. Two years later the army constructed 

a two-room Swiss-style cottage at the main entrance to 

shelter the cemetery caretaker and store tools.

Symmetrical drives formed two circular areas within the 

rectangular cemetery. A flagstaff was centered in the east 

circle, where officers were buried. By 1892, a rostrum 

occupied the west circle. 

In 1874, the cemetery contained 334 graves—one-third 

of them unknown. U.S. officers who died and were 

buried elsewhere in San Antonio were reinterred here. 

So were the remains of soldiers who died at Austin, 

Indianola, the Medina River vicinity, and Salado. 

Postcard view of cemetery, c. 1910, showing many of the private headstones here. 

National Cemetery Administration.

Cemetery entrance in 1904. On left is the Swiss-style cottage used as an office and chapel 

until it was razed in 1945. On right is the Second Empire-style lodge, 1878-1910. National 

Archives and Records Administration. 

By July 1878, a Second Empire-style lodge 

was completed for the superintendent 

and his family. It was replaced in 1910. 

The federal government erected a small 

granite memorial to the unknown dead 

in Section H in 1912. 

One Civil War Medal of Honor recipient 

is memorialized here: Pvt. William H. 

Barnes, 38th U.S. Colored Infantry. 

Though wounded, he was among the 

first to enter the Confederate earthen 

works at the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm, 

Virginia, September 29, 1864 

(Section MA, Grave 86). 

Civil War Army Medal of Honor.

Gettysburg National Military Park. 

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SAN FRANCISCO NATIONAL CEMETERY

Presidio

When the United States took possession of California in 

1846, U.S. troops seized the old fort—which the Spanish 

called Presidio de San Francisco. In November 1850, 

this land was set aside as a U.S. military reservation 

by presidential executive order. During the Civil War, 

Union troops began to convert the former SpanishMexican post into a modern army facility. 

Construction began in earnest in 1862. A new parade 

ground, 150 yards wide and 550 yards long, formed the 

core of the post. New frame buildings faced onto this 

open space. The buildings, typical of posts west of the 

Mississippi River, included barracks, chapel, bakery, 

officers’ quarters, offices, and maintenance shops. 

The facility was manned throughout the Civil War, but 

Confederate forces were never a threat. 

The Presidio was designated a National Historic 

Landmark in 1962.

The Presidio in 1854. Library of Congress.

Unidentified veterans at the Pacific Coast Garrisons Monument, c. 1897. National Park Service, Golden 

Gate National Recreation Area Archives. 

National Cemetery 

Soon after taking control of the Presidio, the U.S. Army established 

a post cemetery here. On December 12, 1884, the post cemetery and 

additional acreage was designated San Francisco National Cemetery. 

It was the first one built on the West Coast. With this accomplishment, 

the War Department realized a coast-to-coast system of more than 

eighty national cemeteries. Remains from abandoned military posts 

along the Pacific and western frontier were reinterred in the cemetery.

Two early cemetery monuments are located near the officers’ circle. 

The George H. Thomas Post No. 2, Grand Army of the Republic, 

donated the granite obelisk to commemorate Union soldiers who 

died during the Civil War. It was dedicated on Memorial Day 1893. 

The Pacific Coast Garrisons Monument, a zinc figure of a soldier 

on a pedestal, was dedicated to the U.S. Army and Union Navy on 

Memorial Day 1897.

Medal of Honor Recipients

Four long-lived Civil War Medal of Honor recipients who 

died in the twentieth century are buried here.

Maj. James Coey, 147th New York Infantry, seized the 

regimental colors and led an advance on the enemy that 

inspired a brigade to follow. Though wounded, he rallied 

the line twice at Hatchers Run, Virginia, February 6, 1865 

(Section OS, Grave 89-1).

Sgt. James Congdon (Madison), 8th New York Cavalry, 

recaptured Gen. George Crook’s headquarters flag at 

Waynesboro, Virginia, March 2, 1865 (Section OSA, 

Grave 15-7).

Maj. Oliver D. Greene, U.S. Army, 

formed men into columns while 

under heavy fire and positioned them 

at Antietam, Maryland, September 17,

1862 (Section OS, Grave 49-8). 

Greene retired in 1898 with the 

rank of colonel.

First Lt. William Rufus Shafter, 

7th Michigan Infantry, was wounded 

when he led a charge across an open 

field. He hid his injuries for three 

days until other wounded had left 

Fair Oaks, Virginia, May 31, 1862 

(Section OS, Grave 30-3). Shafter 

later joined the Regular Army. 

He was promoted to brigadier general 

in May 1898 and led troops in Cuba 

during the Spanish-American War. 

Civil War Army Medal of Honor. 

Gettysburg National Military Park.

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SANTA FE NATIONAL CEMETERY

U.S. Army repair shops at Fort Union, 1866. Courtesy Palace of the Governors Photo Archives 

(NMHM/DCA), 001839. 

Civil War New Mexico

At the start of the Civil War in 1861, the Confederacy planned 

an ambitious western campaign. Troops were to take Santa Fe 

and the federal supply depot at Fort Union to the north, proceed 

into Colorado Territory to capture gold mines, then head west 

to invade California. The first engagement in New Mexico 

Territory occurred north of Fort Craig at Valverde in February 

1862. Confederate forces captured Santa Fe on March 13, 1862.

On March 26, Union troops attacked a Confederate detachment 

as it emerged from Glorieta Pass in the Sangre de Cristo 

Mountains, southeast of Santa Fe. The Union assault initially 

forced a Confederate retreat. Two days later the armies clashed 

again. Though the Confederates pushed back the Union forces, 

a small detachment of U.S. soldiers destroyed the Confederate 

supply train. Lacking food and supplies, the Confederates 

retreated to Santa Fe. They abandoned New Mexico by July 1862.

National Cemetery

The U.S. Army acquired less than an acre from the Roman 

Catholic Diocese of Santa Fe in 1870 for use as a cemetery. The first 

interments were 265 soldiers who died in local Civil War battles and 

during the Mexican War (1846-1848) at nearby Fort Marcy. The 

property was designated Santa Fe National Cemetery on April 6, 

1875. Over the next year, additional land was obtained to provide 

more gravesites. However, it was reclassified as a post cemetery.

In 1892, it became a national cemetery again. Between 1896 and 

1912, the government moved remains here from abandoned forts 

including Apache and Grant in Arizona, Hatch and Wingate in 

New Mexico, and Duchesne in Utah. 

The stone Victorian-style superintendent’s lodge, stable, and 

tool house were completed in 1895. A stone wall was built to 

enclose the property. In the twentieth century, the Works Progress 

Administration was responsible for transforming the appearance 

of the lodge to blend into the regional Adobe-style architecture. 

Laborers also improved cemetery roads and walks. In 1944, an 

Adobe-style garage, utility building, and rostrum were completed. 

Memorial Day, 1898. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Remains of soldiers and civilians recovered from the site of Fort Craig were 

reinterred here in 2009. National Cemetery Administration.

Reinterred Burials

In 1895, five Confederate soldiers who died in April 

1862 were removed from the Masonic Cemetery 

in Santa Fe and reinterred here. Nearly 100 years 

later in June 1987, a construction crew discovered 

a mass grave near Glorieta Pass. The remains were 

identified as thirty-one Confederate soldiers killed 

at the 1862 battle. All but one were reburied here in 

April 1993—two individually and the remainder in a 

shared grave that is marked by a bronze and granite 

monument (Section K, Sites 330C, 350C & 370C).

Similarly, the remains of sixty-four federal soldiers 

and civilians were discovered by the U.S. Bureau of 

Reclamation in 2007 at the site of Fort Craig. Troops 

there fought Apaches, Navajos, and Confederates in 

the Battle of Valverde. Two years later, the remains—

three identified—were reinterred in Section 15A.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
SEVEN PINES NATIONAL CEMETERY

Fort Sumner, Fair Oaks Station, was part of a line of earthen fortifications the Union 

Army constructed after the Battle of Seven Pines, June 1862. Library of Congress. 

Battle of Seven Pines

In spring 1862, Union Gen. George B. McClellan 

devised a plan to take Richmond, the Confederate 

capital. By May, McClellan had pushed Confederate 

Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s forces to the city outskirts. 

The Union troops outnumbered the Confederates by 

40,000 men. 

As McClellan pushed forward, the Chickahominy 

River divided his army, giving Johnston an opportunity 

to strike. The Confederates attacked on May 31, 1862, 

but a complex battle plan and poor coordination 

resulted in a five-hour delay. Still, the Confederates 

drove Union forces back. The timely arrival of Union 

reinforcements prevented further Confederate gains.

The next day, June 1, the battle renewed but neither 

side made headway. By mid-afternoon it was over. 

The Union Army lost approximately 5,000 men, the 

Confederates 6,200.

National Cemetery

During the Civil War, Union and Confederate armies fought 

numerous battles for control of Richmond. Thousands of 

Union soldiers perished. They are now buried in seven national 

cemeteries created in the Richmond-Petersburg area in 1866. 

Seven Pines National Cemetery contains the remains of Union 

soldiers killed at the Battle of Seven Pines, associated engagements 

at Fair Oaks, and the Battle of Savage Station. Additionally, 

remains recovered from burial grounds near field hospitals at sixty 

farms are interred here. By 1874, a total of 1,357 Union soldiers 

were buried at this cemetery, only 150 were identified. 

The cemetery design divided the nearly 2-acre tract into four 

burial sections separated by gravel walks. A flagstaff mound 

marked the center. By 1871, an iron gun monument had been 

placed south of the flagstaff. A few years later, a brick Second 

Empire-style lodge was completed. A brick wall enclosing the 

cemetery was built soon afterward.

Artillery Monuments

Bronze plaques, authorized in 1872 to be placed 

on ornamental cannon (right), were an important 

cemetery feature. According to the Quartermaster 

General: “No cemetery can be considered properly 

finished till some considerable monumental brass 

bears an inscription recognizing its establishment 

and the number of dead soldiers it contains.” Many 

of these plaques and artillery monuments survive in 

the cemeteries. National Cemetery Administration.

The Seven Pines

Civil War maps show a village labeled “Seven Pines” at the 

intersection of Williamsburg Pike and Nine Mile Road. According 

to local lore, the name came from seven pine trees that had once 

stood at the crossroads. About 1869, cemetery superintendent 

James Kelly planted seven new pines, three on the west side and 

four on the east side of the gate along Williamsburg Pike.

View of cemetery showing the seven pine trees planted by Superintendent Kelly, 1912. Library of Congress.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benets and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
SPRINGFIELD NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War Springfield

Federal troops occupied Springfield, Missouri, in 

June 1861. In August, when Confederate forces 

marched on the city, Union Gen. Nathaniel Lyon led 

his army out to meet them. 

On August 10, 1861, the Confederate army commanded 

by Gen. Sterling Price defeated Lyon’s troops at 

Wilson’s Creek. The courthouse, Methodist church, 

and many other Springfield buildings were pressed 

into service as hospitals for the Union wounded.

After the spring 1862 Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas, 

the U.S. Army established a General Hospital in 

Springfield. The city was already a pivotal Union 

supply depot. The Confederates attacked Springfield 

on January 8, 1863, but were defeated. The city saw no 

more major Civil War engagements.

Battle of Wilson’s Creek, c. 1861. Library of Congress. 

Cemetery entrance and original Second Empire-style lodge, 1903. National Archives and Records Administration. 

National Cemetery

Springfield National Cemetery was established in 1867 on a 5-acre 

tract purchased from the city. Remains of Union dead from Lebanon, 

Newtonia, Springfield, and Wilson’s Creek battlefields were reinterred 

here. By 1868 it contained 1,514 graves, about half unknown. In 1911, 

Congress authorized the secretary of war to take ownership of the adjacent 

2.7-acre Confederate cemetery. The existing superintendents’ lodge and 

rostrum, built in the 1940s, replaced the original ones.

Three Civil War Medal of Honor recipients are buried here. 

Corp. Harrison Collins, 1st Tennessee Cavalry (U.S.), 

captured a Confederate flag at Richland Creek, Tennessee, 

December 24, 1864 (Section 26, Grave 1357B).

Musician Orion P. Howe, a wounded 14-year-old drummer 

with the 55th Illinois Infantry, stayed on the battlefield until 

he was able to tell Gen. William T. Sherman that his regiment

needed ammunition, Vicksburg, Mississippi, May 19, 1863 

(Section 4, Grave 207A).

Capt. Patrick Pentzer, 97th Illinois Infantry, accepted the 

surrender of a Confederate general and a flag at Fort 

Blakely, Alabama, April 9, 1865 (Section 24, Grave 1696).

Three Civil War Medal of Honor recipients are buried here. 

he was able to tell Gen. William T. Sherman that his regiment

Civil War Army Medal 

of Honor. Gettysburg 

National Military Park.

Monuments

There are two Union Civil War monuments here. 

Dedicated on Memorial Day 1873, a 24-foot-tall 

pedestal and shaft topped by a marble figure of a 

Union soldier honors troops killed in the Battle of 

Springfield. Dr. Thomas Jefferson Bailey, former 

slave owner and staunch Unionist who died in 

1869, had bequeathed funds to erect it. 

The second honors Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, the U.S. 

commander at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. Lyon, 

who was killed in action, was the first Union general 

to die in the Civil War. Citizens of Springfield raised 

funds for the 14-foot-tall marble column erected in 

1888. Lyon is buried in Eastford, Connecticut. 

Postcard view of cemetery with Union Monument (foreground) and Lyon 

Monument (background), c. 1907. National Cemetery Administration. 

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
CONFEDERATE BURIALS IN THE NATIONAL CEMETERY

The Confederate Cemetery 

After the Civil War, women’s groups in the South, known 

collectively as Ladies’ Memorial Associations (LMA), undertook 

efforts to consolidate the remains of Confederate 

soldiers. In 1866, a group of women in 

Springfield, Missouri, formed the Confederate 

Cemetery Association. In 1869, the organization 

appealed for aid and within months raised $3,000. 

They purchased 3 acres near Springfield National 

Cemetery and enclosed it with a picket fence.

By 1872, the Confederate Cemetery Association 

had moved the remains of 504 soldiers, most 

unknown, from Wilson’s Creek, Hartsville, and 

Springfield to this cemetery. They marked each 

grave with a cedar headboard.

The Confederate Veterans Association of 

Missouri, the statewide United Confederate 

Veterans organization (UCV), assumed 

ownership of the Confederate cemetery in 1882. The following 

year, the UCV built the stone wall and connected it to the one 

surrounding the adjacent national cemetery.

LMA ribbon, c. 1892. 

Helena Museum, 

Helena, Ark.

By 1901, small square headstones had replaced the cedar headboards. The standard government 

headstones were erected between 1914 and 1948. Missouri UCV Reunion Souvenir Program, 1901.

The Confederate Monument 

The Confederate Veterans Association of Missouri and the 

United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) began raising 

funds to erect a monument in the mid-1880s. Sculptor Gaetano 

Trentanove completed the monument, envisioned as the 

cemetery’s centerpiece, in 1901.

An estimated crowd of 1,000 people attended the unveiling 

on August 10, 1901—the fortieth anniversary of the Battle of 

Wilson’s Creek. Special 

excursion trains brought 

many to Springfield. After 

a bugle call, 135 young 

women marched into the 

cemetery. Each carried 

a flag representing one 

of the eleven Missouri 

chapters of the UDC. 

A minister led a prayer 

and Miss Laura Virginia 

Edwards unveiled the 

monument. Speeches 

and an artillery salute 

concluded the ceremony.

The Last Confederate Veteran 

Thomas Henry Hadden, 90, the last Confederate veteran interred 

in Springfield National Cemetery, was buried June 12, 1939. He 

requested burial in a Confederate uniform, with the Confederate 

flag. The local UDC chapter supplied the uniform. Hadden was 

laid to rest near the Confederate monument. His wife, Martha, 

was buried next to him in 1964.

A ceremony in the Confederate cemetery, 1905. 

History Museum on the Square, Springfield, Mo.

A National Cemetery 

Springfield National Cemetery was created in 1867. The 

federal government accepted the deed to the Confederate 

cemetery in 1911, ensuring that it would be maintained 

in perpetuity.

The small square markers the UDC erected in the 1880s 

were replaced with the distinctive pointed-top marble 

headstones in the 1920s-1930s. Some headstones are 

engraved with the Southern Cross of Honor, the addition 

of which was authorized by the War Department in 1930. 

The UDC created the cross medal in 1898 and bestowed 

it upon Confederate veterans or their families. In 1939, 

part of the wall between the Confederate and national 

cemeteries was removed and a Neoclassical temple-like 

rostrum was built by the federal government in its place. 

It was used for Memorial Day ceremonies at both sites.

In 1984, the UDC lifted a deed restriction reserving 

the cemetery for Confederate dead, enabling all eligible 

veterans to be 

buried here. New 

graves in the 

Confederate section 

are marked with 

stones set flush 

with the ground 

to maintain the 

historic appearance 

of the landscape. 

The separate cemeteries had 

their own rostrums. View of 

Confederate rostrum, 1930. 

National Archives and Records 

Administration.

36x24 Confederate Burials - The Confederate Cem.

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for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
ST. AUGUSTINE NATIONAL CEMETERY

Fort Marion, c. 1863. Library of Congress.

Civil War St. Augustine

Florida seceded from the Union in January 1861. 

Confederate troops then captured Fort Marion, which 

was built in St. Augustine in the late 1600s as Castillo 

de San Marcos. By early 1862, the fall of Nashville, 

Tennessee, forced the Confederacy to make hard 

decisions. Troops in Florida were ordered to 

Tennessee, leaving the state virtually defenseless. 

In March 1862, a combined Union Army-and-Navy 

operation moved on major cities located on Florida’s 

Atlantic Coast. The U.S.S. Wabash anchored off 

St. Augustine. A few days later, Com. Christopher 

Rogers led a detachment of unarmed sailors ashore 

and accepted the surrender of Fort Marion and 

St. Augustine. Union forces controlled the city for 

the rest of the war. 

National Cemetery

The land now occupied by St. Augustine National Cemetery was part 

of a monastery until 1763, when England took Florida from Spain. The 

British repurposed the monastery to house its soldiers, calling it St. Francis 

Barracks. The Spanish regained Florida in 1783 and continued to use 

the old monastery for military purposes. After Spain ceded Florida to the 

United States in 1821, the U.S. Army moved in. In 1828, a post cemetery 

was established here for those who died while stationed at nearby Fort 

Marion. When the Seminole Wars ended in 1842, the remains

of soldiers killed in those battles were moved here.

By 1875, Union soldiers—42 known and 40 unknown—

were also buried in the post cemetery. It continued to serve 

only soldiers who died at the fort until 1881, when it was 

reclassified a national cemetery. Quartermaster General 

Montgomery C. Meigs directed, “This cemetery, too long 

neglected and lately fallen into decay, [be put] into as good 

condition as the other national military cemeteries.”

By 1893, a wall enclosed 

the cemetery, which was 

expanded in 1912 and 

1913. The current Spanish 

Colonial Revival-style 

superintendent’s lodge, 

made of coquina stone to 

complement the city’s 

historic architecture, was 

completed in 1938. The 

matching rostrum was 

built in 1940. 

Original frame lodge and flagpole, 1933. 

National Archives and Records Administration. 

Cemetery before 1873 with wooden headboards and stucco-covered pyramids.

Library of Congress.

Florida War Monuments

Three coquina-block pyramids mark the graves of 

officers and soldiers who were killed in action or died 

in service between 1835 and 1842 during the Second 

Seminole War. 

The remains of Maj. Francis L. Dade and 110 men under 

his command, killed December 28, 1835, are in this group 

burial. On July 25, 1842, Col. William J. Worth ordered 

that vaults be prepared for the reburial of these men and 

that “unostentatious monuments” be built to mark them.

In 1844, an 18-foot-tall marble obelisk was erected near 

the pyramids. Inscribed panels provide a dedication 

and information about the men who lie here. Members 

of the St. Augustine garrison contributed “one day’s pay” 

toward the cost of the monument. 

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for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
STAUNTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Battle of Cross Keys, one of four major battles fought during Jackson’s Shenandoah Valley 

Campaign. Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, 1887.

Jackson’s Valley Campaign

Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s thirty-four 

day campaign was a remarkable feat. His command marched 

245 miles, fought four major battles, and swept the Union 

forces out of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. General Jackson’s 

May 1862 victories at McDowell, Front Royal, and Winchester 

caused Union Gen. Nathaniel Banks to retreat across the 

Potomac River to Maryland.

The Union defeat forced Gen. John Frémont into action. He 

and Gen. Irvin McDowell were ordered to catch and crush 

Jackson. The Union’s 40,000 men faced 18,000 led by Jackson. 

But the two Union armies were separated by Massanutten 

Mountain, which divides the valley. Jackson raced south and 

defeated Frémont at Cross Keys on June 8, then crossed the 

North River and defeated another Union column at Port 

Republic. These losses forced Union troops to retreat from 

the Shenandoah Valley.

National Cemetery

Staunton National Cemetery was established in 1867. The 

remains of 753 Union soldiers, of which 521 are unknown, 

lie here. The remains came from Staunton and Waynesboro 

city cemeteries, and the battlefields at Cross Keys, McDowell, 

Piedmont, Port Republic, and nearby locations. Sixty-seven 

Union prisoners who died in Confederate hospitals also lie here.

Gravel paths originally divided the 1.15-acre cemetery into 

four sections with a flagstaff mound at the center. In 1874, 

a stone Second Empire-style lodge and enclosure stone wall 

were completed.

After the Civil War, African Americans settled near the 

cemetery. The area became known as Uniontown Village. 

The neighborhood was home to the “Cemetery School.” 

Throughout the nineteenth century, the community held 

annual Memorial Day services at Staunton National Cemetery. 

Cemetery plan, 1892. National Archives and Records Administration.

Immigrant Veterans

Nicolae (Nicholas) Dunca, a Romanian, arrived in New 

York four months before the Civil War began. He enlisted 

in the 12th New York Infantry. In March 1862, Gen. John 

C. Frémont appointed Captain Dunca to his staff. Dunca 

was killed on June 8, 1862, while delivering orders on the 

battlefield. He was reinterred here in Section B, Grave 292.

Maj. William O’Brien was the superintendent at Staunton 

National Cemetery when he died in February 1899. An 

immigrant from Ireland, he enlisted in the regular army 

and served on the western frontier before the Civil War. 

His regiment returned east for the duration of the war. 

Injured in battle at Frederick, Maryland, he recuperated in 

Alexandria, Virginia. After the war he resumed his military 

duties. Prior to Staunton, he was in charge of Loudon Park, 

Fayetteville, and New Bern national cemeteries. He was buried 

in Section C, Grave 762.

Lodge with unknown grave markers at Staunton National Cemetery, 1908. National Archives 

and Records Administration. 

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

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TOGUS NATIONAL CEMETERY

National Home

The Eastern Branch of the National Home for Disabled 

Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS) opened in 1866. This first and 

oldest National Home was established in a former resort, 

called Togus, in southeast Maine. In its first year, more than 

250 service-disabled Civil War veterans found refuge at the 

Togus facility. Its average residential population grew to more 

than 2,000 in the early twentieth century. 

By 1900, any honorably discharged U.S. soldier, sailor, or 

marine (who had not fought for the Confederacy) was eligible 

to live at a National Home if a disability or old age prevented 

him from supporting himself or his family. Veterans lived, 

worked, and received medical treatment here.

The population fell significantly by 1910 as aging Civil War 

veterans’ death rates rose. The National Homes were merged 

with the U.S. Veterans Bureau and the Bureau of Pensions to 

form the Veterans Administration (now U.S. Department of 

Veterans Affairs) in 1930. 

Bird’s-eye view of the Eastern Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1885. 

Boston Public Library, Norman B. Leventhal Map Center.

NHDVS Cemetery

In 1867, a cemetery was established on the west side of the Togus 

campus. The irregular layout is a result of the rolling and rocky 

terrain. August Moller, a former New York volunteer soldier, died 

in spring 1867 and was the first veteran buried here. Memorial Day 

programs began in 1868 and continue to this day. 

Funeral scene with bugler and honor guard firing salute, from 1910 souvenir booklet “Eastern Branch 

National Home for D.V.S. Maine.”

Funerals held for the veterans were solemn and formal. The U.S. flag 

flew at half-mast. The casket rode to the cemetery on a horse-drawn 

caisson, accompanied by comrades and the National Home band. A 

chaplain spoke at the gravesite, an honor guard fired a salute, and a 

bugler played “Taps.” The original or West Cemetery was used until 

1936 when a second, East Cemetery, opened. They became jointly 

known as Togus National Cemetery in 1973.

One Civil War recipient of the Medal of Honor is buried here: John 

Preston, landsman, U.S.S. Oneida. First bestowed in 1863, it is the 

highest award for military valor in the U.S. Armed Services. For acts 

above and beyond the call of duty, 1,522 individuals who served in 

the Civil War received the medal. Preston’s commendation cites his 

heroic actions during the Battle of Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864. He 

died at Togus in 1885 (Section H, Grave 456). 

Constructed by Veterans

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument was designed and 

built by Togus residents. The 30-foot-tall granite-block 

obelisk was dedicated in 1889. 

During a major restoration project, a time capsule 

containing NHDVS annual reports, newspapers, and 

photographs was discovered in the monument. A new 

time capsule was placed under the pyramidal capstone 

when the monument was rededicated in September 2010.

Postcard view of Soldiers and Sailors Monument, c. 1913. National Cemetery 

Administration.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

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UNION CONFEDERATE MONUMENT

The Battle of Westport

In August 1864, Confederate Maj. Gen. Sterling Price led an 

expedition from Arkansas into Missouri. The raid had several 

objectives: to capture St. Louis, divert Union manpower from 

the East, recruit Missourians for the Confederates, and obtain 

military supplies. The raid went badly. St. Louis and Jefferson 

City were well defended, 

so Price decided to 

capture Kansas City. 

On October 23, Price’s 

troops assaulted a 

strong Union defensive 

position held by Maj. 

Gen. Samuel Curtis 

at Westport, across 

the river from Kansas 

City. The Confederates 

retreated after a fourhour battle, leaving some 

1,500 dead and wounded 

on the field.

Caring for the Wounded

After the battle, Westport buildings were pressed into service 

as hospitals, including Curtis’ headquarters, the Harris House 

hotel. A local newspaper praised Kansas City women for their 

tireless efforts in caring for the wounded. A Westport hospital 

reported eighteen wounded Confederates; four had died and 

it was feared more would follow. The number of Confederates 

who died following the Battle of Westport is unknown. A 

number of wounded were captured, treated, and died in area 

hospitals. Fifteen were reportedly buried in the Kansas City 

Cemetery.

Maj. Gen. Sterling Price, C.S.A. Alabama Department 

of Archives and History.

The Confederate Monument 

In 1908, the Commission for 

Marking Graves of Confederate 

Dead began documenting the 

burials in Kansas City and 

learned that the Kansas City 

Cemetery no longer existed. 

The Confederate remains had 

been moved to Union Cemetery 

in the 1870s, and the cemetery 

records had been lost in a fire. 

It was not possible to determine 

where the dead might have been 

reinterred.

William P. Boreland, a U.S. 

Congressman from Missouri, 

worked with the 

Commission 

and cemetery 

officials to have 

a plot deeded 

to the U.S. 

government for 

the placement 

of a memorial 

to the fifteen 

Confederate soldiers who died in Kansas City. In 1911, the 

Commission erected a simple obelisk with bronze dedication 

plaques. That October, the mayor of Kansas City presided 

over the unveiling, which included Union and Confederate 

dignitaries. Judge John B. Stone, a former Confederate soldier, 

praised the federal government saying, “We are proud to honor 

a government broad enough and generous enough to erect a 

monument as this to their defeated enemies.”

The contractor’s concept for the 

Union Confederate Monument, 

c. 1911. National Archives and 

Records Administration.

William Boreland. Memorial 

Addresses, 1922. 

Toward Reconciliation

On May 30, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic decorated 

Union and Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Thirty years later President William McKinley proclaimed:

The Union is once more the common altar of our love and 

loyalty, our devotion and sacrifice . . . Every soldier’s grave 

made during our unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to American 

valor . . . in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in 

the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers.

The War Department created the Confederate section 

at Arlington in 1901, and marked the graves with 

distinctive pointed-top marble headstones. Five years 

later, Congress created the Commission for Marking 

Graves of Confederate Dead to identify and mark the 

graves of Confederates who died in Northern prisons. 

Its mission was later expanded to encompass all national 

cemeteries that contained Confederate burials.

Four former Confederate officers headed the 

Commission over its lifetime. By 1916, it had marked 

in excess of 25,500 graves and erected monuments in 

locations where individual graves could not be identified.

In 1930, the War Department authorized the addition 

of the Southern Cross of Honor to the Confederate 

headstone.

North Alton Confederate Cemetery 

Monument, 1909, Alton, Ill.

Original Commission headstone (left) and 

headstone with Southern Cross of Honor (right).

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benets and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
WILMINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War Wilmington

Wilmington was a minor Atlantic port when the Civil War started and the 

U.S. Navy did little to secure it. In fall 1862, the Confederate Ordnance 

Bureau designated it as the port of entry for its blockade runners. At 

night these vessels would steal into port, eluding the Union Navy. 

Wilmington gained importance as Union blockades shut off trade with 

other southern ports including Charleston, South Carolina. By July 1863,

it was the most important port in the Confederate supply network. 

Blockade runners made more than 300 round-trips between the city and 

Caribbean ports to exchange cotton for military supplies. 

Strong Confederate defenses protected Wilmington. Forts Fisher and 

Caswell at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, and a series of forts along 

its banks guarded the sea approach. Fortifications encircling the city 

protected the land approach. Fort Fisher, the largest of Wilmington’s 

defenses, protected New Inlet—the preferred route of blockade runners. 

A combined Union land-and-sea assault took Fort Fisher on January 15, 

1865. The Union victory closed the port, and the next month Confederate 

troops abandoned the city completely.

Union troops march through Wilmington fortifications after the city fell, March 1865. Frank Leslie’s Our 

Soldier in the Civil War (1884).

Postcard view showing the rostrum constructed in 1887 with an open iron roof, c. 1905. 

Courtesy of Robert Fales Collection, New Hanover County Public Library.

National Cemetery

The U.S. Army Quartermaster General’s Office established 

Wilmington National Cemetery in 1867 on 5 acres purchased

from a private citizen. By 1874, the remains of 2,060 Union 

dead were reinterred here from Fayetteville, Fort Fisher, 

Fort Johnson, Wilmington, and other North Carolina locales. 

The 701 known dead represented twenty states. 

In addition, 557 U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) lie here. Most 

are buried in the northwest corner of the cemetery. 

In March 1863, the federal government had begun to actively 

recruit black men for the Union Army. A few months later, 

the War Department created the Bureau of United States 

Colored Troops. USCT regiments fought in battles and 

engagements from Virginia to Texas. 

Superintendents

An 1867 law directed the secretary of war to appoint 

a “meritorious and trustworthy” superintendent to 

manage each national cemetery. To qualify for the 

position, an individual must have been an army 

enlisted man disabled in service. A later change to the 

law loosened these restrictions. Matthew Dillingham, 

formerly a sergeant in the 6th U.S. Infantry, was 

appointed to the Wilmington post in October 1867. 

In the 1870s, the army built a stone lodge for the 

superintendent 

and his family. 

The cemetery 

was also 

enclosed by a 

brick wall. The 

current Dutch 

Revival-style 

lodge replaced 

the original 

lodge in 1934.

Superintendent John S. Hall 

in the cemetery, 1921. 

National Archives and 

Records Administration.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
WINCHESTER NATIONAL CEMETERY

Third Battle of Winchester, September 19, 1864. Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, 1888.

Six Battles

Control of the Shenandoah Valley was essential for the 

Confederacy. Six major battles were fought in Winchester 

and nearby locations. 

At the First Battle of Kernstown on March 23, 1862, Union 

Col. Nathan Kimball defeated Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” 

Jackson. On May 25, 1862, Jackson won a decisive victory 

over Union Gen. Nathaniel Banks at the First Battle of 

Winchester. The Second Battle of Winchester, June 1863, 

was another Confederate victory.

Three more battles occurred here in 1864. On July 24, 

Confederate Gen. Jubal Early defeated Gen. George Crook 

at the Second Battle of Kernstown, and kept Crook from 

reinforcing Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Petersburg, Virginia. 

At the Third Battle of Winchester on September 19, Union 

Gen. Philip Sheridan defeated General Early. They met 

again on October 19 at the Battle of Cedar Creek. Sheridan 

rallied his troops and drove Confederates from the valley. It 

was the last major engagement in the area.

National Cemetery 

Winchester National Cemetery was established in 1866 on the 

site of the Third Battle of Winchester. Soon after the federal 

government created the 5-acre cemetery, remains were moved 

here from the battlefields at Winchester, New Market, Front 

Royal, Snicker’s Gap, Harpers Ferry, Martinsburg, Romney, 

and other nearby places. 

Though approximately half of the 4,440 remains buried here 

were unknown, when possible they were placed in sections 

designated for particular states. 

The 1871 superintendent’s lodge before a second story was added, c. 1905. National Archives and 

Records Administration.

By law, the secretary of war appointed a “meritorious and 

trustworthy” superintendent to manage the cemetery. To qualify 

for the position, an individual must have been an army enlisted 

man disabled in service. Former private Philetus Sedgwick, 

125th New York Infantry, was appointed the first superintendent 

on October 1, 1867. He served until his death in 1874.

Monuments

The cemetery contains fourteen monuments that honor men 

and regiments that fought in battles in and near Winchester. 

The first monument was erected in 1866 to officers and soldiers 

of the 14th New Hampshire who died at the Third Battle of 

Winchester. Many more monuments were erected in the 1880s 

and 1890s, some on the anniversary of this battle, September 19. 

A final wave of dedications occurred in the early 1900s. In 

addition to New Hampshire, regiments from Connecticut, 

Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Vermont, 

and troops of the 6th Army Corps are memorialized. 

A monument dedicated 

to the 8th Vermont 

Volunteer Infantry, led 

by Col. Stephen Thomas 

during the Third Battle of 

Winchester, was moved 

from the battlefield to the 

cemetery in 1896 at the 

request of the Vermont 

Quartermaster General’s 

Office. It sits among 

the graves of Vermont’s 

volunteer soldiers.

Monument to the 3rd Massachusetts 

Cavalry, c. 1888. Four of the fourteen 

monuments in the cemetery honor 

Massachusetts soldiers. The Third 

Massachusetts Cavalry in the War 

for the Union, 1903. 

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
WOOD NATIONAL CEMETERY

Postcard view of a burial at the National Home, c. 1908. National Cemetery Administration. 

The National Home, 1886. Library of Congress. 

National Home

The Northwestern Branch of the National Home for Disabled 

Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS) opened in 1867 in Milwaukee. 

Local architect Edward Townsend Mix designed the campus 

using popular architectural styles. Thomas Budd Van Horne 

designed the grounds with gardens, curved paths, and park 

space. City residents found the setting so pleasant the 

National Home became a popular destination to enjoy leisurely 

strolls and picnics.

The hospital was distinguished by innovative medical practices. 

It was the first to hire female nurses. A mess hall in a barracks 

for older residents served special-diet meals. Other NHDVS 

branches later adopted both practices.

The National Homes merged with the U.S. Veterans Bureau 

and Bureau of Pensions to form the Veterans Administration 

(now U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) in 1930. Today the 

facility continues to serve veterans as the Clement J. Zablocki 

VA Medical Center. 

NHDVS Cemetery

Men who died at the National Home were initially buried 

in private cemeteries. In 1871, a cemetery was laid out on 

a wooded rise in the northwest corner of the campus. The 

design combined the formality of early national cemeteries 

with the picturesque landscapes found on the National 

Home grounds. 

In 1937, the name was changed to Wood Cemetery after 

Gen. George H. Wood, the last NHDVS Home Board of 

Managers president. It became a national cemetery in 1973. 

The cemetery is part of the Northwestern Branch, NHDVS, 

National Historic Landmark district, designated in 2011.

Civil War 

Monument 

The Soldiers and Sailors 

Monument Association 

of the home funded 

this monument. It was 

dedicated in 1903. 

Joseph Shaver Granite 

& Marble of Milwaukee 

constructed the 46-foottall shaft of rough-cut 

New Hampshire granite. 

A Union soldier wearing 

a great coat stands at 

parade rest at the top. 

Early twentieth-century photograph, 

Soldiers and Sailors Monument. 

National Cemetery Administration. 

Postcard view of a burial at the National Home, c. 1908. National Cemetery Administration. 

Medal of Honor Recipients 

Five Civil War Medal of Honor recipients are buried or 

memorialized here. 

Ordinary Seaman James K. L. Duncan, for gallantry aboard the 

U.S.S. Fort Hindman during an engagement near Harrisonburg, 

Louisiana, March 2, 1864 (Section 19, Grave 41).

Pvt. Milton Matthews, 61st Pennsylvania Infantry, captured the 

7th Tennessee Infantry flag at the Battle of Petersburg, Virginia, 

April 2, 1865 (Section 11, Grave 61).

Boatswain’s Mate Michael McCormick, for gallantry aboard 

the U.S.S. Signal during the Red River Campaign, Louisiana, 

May 5, 1864 (Section MA, Grave 10A).

Corp. Winthrop D. Putnam, 77th Illinois Infantry, for bravery 

at Vicksburg, Mississippi, May 22, 1863 (Section 16, Grave 109).

Pvt. Lewis A. Rounds, 8th Ohio Infantry, captured an enemy 

flag at the Battle of Spotsylvania, Virginia, May 12, 1864 

(Section 20, Grave 256).

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
WOODLAND SOLDIERS’ LOT

Mourners at Alexandria National Cemetery, Virginia, c. 1865. After 1873, standard marble 

headstones replaced the wood headboards seen here. Miller, Photographic History of the 

Civil War (1910).

Civil War Dead

An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died 

in the Civil War (1861-1865). As the death toll rose, the U.S. 

government struggled with the urgent but unplanned need 

to bury fallen Union troops. This propelled the creation of a 

national cemetery system.

On September 11, 1861, the War Department directed officers 

to keep “accurate and permanent records of deceased soldiers.” 

Federal authority to create military burial grounds came in an 

Omnibus Act of July 17, 1862. Cemetery sites were chosen where 

troops were concentrated: camps, hospitals, battlefields, railroad 

hubs. By 1872, 74 national cemeteries and several soldiers’ lots 

contained 305,492 remains. About 45 percent were unknown.

The U.S. government established soldiers’ lots at private 

cemeteries in northern states. National cemeteries, in contrast, 

were built throughout the South where most Civil War action 

occurred. While the army reported dozens of lots containing 

Union dead in the 1870s, the National Cemetery Administration 

maintains only fifteen. The number of graves ranges from less 

than ten to nearly 400 in these lots.

Cleveland at War

The U.S. Army established six recruiting and training 

camps in Cleveland, Ohio. Camp Cleveland, located in 

what is now the East Tremont area, was the largest. It 

opened July 1862 and operated until October 1865. More 

than 15,000 Union soldiers trained at the camp. 

Troops also mustered in at other city facilities—camps 

Brown, Taylor, Tod, Wade, and Wood—in the first year 

of the war. Approximately 5 percent of Union soldiers 

from Ohio mustered in at Cleveland, forming infantry 

and cavalry regiments, artillery batteries, and several 

companies of sharpshooters. 

City factories were converted to manufacture uniforms, 

blankets, leather goods, and rifle barrels. Citizens 

donated bedding and clothing, medical supplies, food, 

and other items to the Cleveland Soldiers’ Aid Society for 

distribution to Union soldiers. A U.S. General Hospital 

opened near Camp Cleveland in January 1863. By July 

1865, some 3,020 enlisted men and non-commissioned 

officers had been treated at the hospital. 

Undated photograph of Camp Cleveland. Courtesy of Christopher C. Whipple.

Woodland Cemetery plan detail, 1883, with NCA property in green: Section 10, Lots 59-60 

(upper left), and Section 14, Lot 48 (bottom center). Blocks inscribed with “U.S.” mark lot 

corners. Inset: Veterans decorate soldiers’ graves at Woodland for Memorial Day, c. 1920s. 

Courtesy of Cleveland Public Library Digital Gallery.

Soldiers’ Lot

Civil War soldiers who died in Cleveland were buried in Monroe 

Street Cemetery, also known as West Side Cemetery. At the time, 

it was the only public cemetery west of the Cuyahoga River. 

The soldiers had been interred in “free ground”—the pauper 

section—mingled among civilian graves. 

The 60-acre Woodland Cemetery, dedicated in June 1853, 

became Cleveland’s main public burial ground east of the 

Cuyahoga River. In September 1868, the federal government 

purchased about 700 square feet in Section 10. The first 

interments here were twenty-seven Union dead removed from 

West Side Cemetery. A city-owned tract, Lot 48 in Section 14, 

contained the graves of sixteen Union soldiers. Ownership of 

this land was later transferred to the U.S. government. 

Many Union dead are buried elsewhere in Woodland Cemetery, 

including private plots and Section 72. In addition, two 

monuments to Union regiments are located in the public cemetery.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
WOODLAWN NATIONAL CEMETERY

Elmira Military Depot

On April 15, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln issued a call for 

volunteers to put down the Confederate rebellion. Three days 

later, New York Gov. Edwin G. Morgan appealed for 13,280 troops 

to fill the state’s quota of soldiers. He also announced that military 

bases would be established at New York City, Albany, and Elmira. 

Located on two railroad lines and a canal, Elmira was the perfect 

rendezvous point for enlistees from upstate New York. Between 

1861 and 1863, more than 20,000 men passed through the city 

on their way to the front. All three units of the army—infantry, 

artillery, and cavalry—were mustered in and trained at Elmira. 

The 8th New York Militia band, some of the 20,000 men who mustered in at Elmira, c. 1861. 

Library of Congress.

Various buildings in town were leased to house recruits and store 

supplies. Later, officials acquired land in four Elmira locales, and 

established camps with barracks, officers’ quarters, kitchens, and 

mess halls. Two of these camps were eventually closed. In summer 

1864, Camp Rathbun or Barracks No. 3, located between Water 

Street and the Chemung River, became Elmira Prison Camp. 

Prison guards were housed in tents and barracks outside the west 

wall of the prison. Arnot Barracks, or Barracks No. 1, continued to 

house recruits and drafted men for the duration of the war. Woodlawn National Cemetery, c. 1933. National Archives and Records Administration. 

National Cemetery

An 1871 Quartermaster Department inspection reported that 

119 Union soldiers and 2,982 Confederate prisoners were 

buried in the private Woodlawn Cemetery. The graves of nine

more Union dead were acknowledged here later. Most had 

died at Elmira General Hospital. 

In 1874, through the efforts of Congressman H. Boardman 

Smith of Elmira, the government lot in Woodlawn Cemetery 

was designated Woodlawn National Cemetery. The Union 

graves, at the north end of the cemetery, were marked with 

marble headstones. 

Smith also wanted the War Department to mark Confederate 

graves, but it refused on the basis it lacked the authority. These 

graves remained unmarked until 1908 when the Commission 

for Marking Graves of Confederate Dead completed

installation of the distinctive pointed-top headstones. Shohola Monument, 1912. National Archives and Records Administration. 

Disaster: Shohola Monument

On July 15, 1864, a train bound for Elmira carrying 

Confederate prisoners and their Union guards departed 

Camp Lookout, Maryland. As it rounded a curve near 

Shohola, Pennsylvania, it rammed a coal train head-on. 

A telegraph operator had mistakenly put both trains on the 

same track.

Forty-nine prisoners and seventeen guards died. Railroad 

employees and Confederate prisoners buried them in a 

mass grave near the accident site. In 1911, the Commission 

for Marking Graves of Confederate Dead exhumed 

the remains and reburied them in Woodlawn National 

Cemetery. The victims’ names were inscribed on a single 

monument installed the next year—Union on one side, 

Confederate on the other.

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
CONFEDERATE BURIALS IN THE NATIONAL CEMETERY

36x24 Confederate Burials - Elmira Prison Camp

Elmira Prison Camp 

Overcrowding at the military prison at Point Lookout, 

Maryland, led the U.S. Army to establish Elmira Military 

Prison in May 1864. Elmira, New York, initially a rendezvous 

point for enlisting Union soldiers, had barracks, hospitals, 

storehouses and stables. The first prisoners arrived on July 6, 

and by fall 1864, more than 9,000 prisoners occupied Elmira. 

Most lived in small canvas tents, as barracks would not be 

completed until New Year’s Day 1865, too late for many 

prisoners.

More than 12,000 prisoners passed through the gates of the 

prison during the year it operated. Almost 3,000 men died, 

rendering Elmira’s mortality rate the highest of any Union 

military prison. Most of the deaths were attributed to the 

harsh winter of 1864-1865.

Plan by Pvt. David J. Coffman, Co. D, 7th Virginia Cavalry, drawn while incarcerated at the 

U.S. military prison at Elmira, c. 1864. Library of Congress.

Wooden headboards mark the graves, c. 1875. National Archives and Records Administration.

The Cemetery 

Almost immediately, the U.S. Army leased a half acre of land 

from Woodlawn Cemetery for the interment of Confederate 

prisoners and Union soldiers. The prison commandant hired 

John W. Jones, an escaped slave and caretaker of Woodlawn 

Cemetery, to bury the Confederates. When a prisoner died, 

his body was taken to the “dead house” and placed in a coffin. 

His name, rank, company, regiment, date of death, and grave 

number were written on the lid. At the cemetery, the coffin was 

placed in a trench and covered. Wooden headboards, painted 

with the information copied from the coffin lid, marked each 

grave. On a single day, Jones buried forty-eight men; he kept 

records on every burial.

In 1874, the federal government purchased two acres 

containing the graves of Union and Confederate dead to 

establish Woodlawn National Cemetery. The Commission for 

Marking Graves of Confederate Dead visited the cemetery 

in 1906. The Commission clerk spent a month documenting 

prison burials and wrote to Southern states asking for further 

information. Finally, a list of more than 2,000 names was 

compiled. In 1908, the Commission placed Confederate-style 

headstones inscribed with the deceased’s name and regiment 

on the graves.

Toward Reconciliation

On May 30, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic decorated 

Union and Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Thirty years later President William McKinley proclaimed:

The Union is once more the common altar of our love and 

loyalty, our devotion and sacrifice . . . Every soldier’s grave 

made during our unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to American 

valor . . . in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in 

the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers.

The War Department created the Confederate section 

at Arlington in 1901, and marked the graves with 

distinctive pointed-top marble headstones. Five years 

later, Congress created the Commission for Marking 

Graves of Confederate Dead to identify and mark the 

graves of Confederates who died in Northern prisons. 

Its mission was later expanded to encompass all national 

cemeteries that contained Confederate burials.

Four former Confederate officers headed the 

Commission over its lifetime. By 1916, it had marked 

in excess of 25,500 graves and erected monuments in 

locations where individual graves could not be identified.

In 1930, the War Department authorized the addition 

of the Southern Cross of Honor to the Confederate 

headstone.

North Alton Confederate Cemetery 

Monument, 1909, Alton, Ill.

Original Commission headstone (left) and 

headstone with Southern Cross of Honor (right).

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benets and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration
WOODLAWN CONFEDERATE MONUMENT

Confederate prisoners at Fort Donelson, The American Soldier in the Civil War, 1895.

The Confederate Prisoners 

Fort Donelson, a Confederate stronghold on the Cumberland 

River west of Clarksville, Tennessee, surrendered on February 

16, 1862. Suddenly, the Union Army needed to house 15,000 

Confederate prisoners. Several training camps, including 

Camp Morton in Indianapolis, became prison facilities 

almost overnight.

A day or two after the surrender, a train pulled into the 

Terre Haute depot. It carried about 300 Confederate 

prisoners bound for Camp Morton. Col. Bernard F. 

Mullen’s 61st Indiana Infantry marched the prisoners to 

an old pork-packing building. Colonel Mullen reported he 

had 279 prisoners. By mid-March, most had been sent to 

Indianapolis, forty-one were hospitalized in Terre Haute, and 

seven had died.

Woodlawn Cemetery 

Eleven Confederate prisoners died in Terre Haute and were 

buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. Undertaker Isaac Ball recalled, 

“[The] Colonel commanding the regiment that was guarding 

them came to me and told me to bury them in a plain coffin 

with an outside box and use a hearse for transporting to the 

cemetery and to use a guard of U.S. soldiers as an escort.”

In summer 1907, the Commission for Marking Graves of 

Confederate Dead traveled to Terre Haute and discovered the 

cemetery records had burned. Mr. Ball told L. Frank Nye, 

Commission clerk, where he had buried the prisoners but 

had no record of their names. Subsequently, the U.S. Army 

adjutant general found the records of the men’s names. 

The paupers’ section, near the eastern edge of the cemetery, in 2009.

Officials were unable to locate the individual graves in the 

cemetery’s paupers’ section. Instead, the City of Terre Haute 

donated to the federal government part of Section 37 on 

which to erect a single monument inscribed with the eleven 

names. M. H. Rice of Kansas City, Missouri, completed the 

gray Vermont granite obelisk in 1912. In 1951, the monument 

was moved from its original location to its current and more 

prominent location.

Toward Reconciliation

On May 30, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic decorated 

Union and Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Thirty years later President William McKinley proclaimed:

The Union is once more the common altar of our love and 

loyalty, our devotion and sacrifice . . . Every soldier’s grave 

made during our unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to American 

valor . . . in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in 

the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers.

The War Department created the Confederate section 

at Arlington in 1901, and marked the graves with 

distinctive pointed-top marble headstones. Five years 

later, Congress created the Commission for Marking 

Graves of Confederate Dead to identify and mark the 

graves of Confederates who died in Northern prisons. 

Its mission was later expanded to encompass all national 

cemeteries that contained Confederate burials.

Four former Confederate officers headed the 

Commission over its lifetime. By 1916, it had marked 

in excess of 25,500 graves and erected monuments in 

locations where individual graves could not be identified.

In 1930, the War Department authorized the addition 

of the Southern Cross of Honor to the Confederate 

headstone.

North Alton Confederate Cemetery 

Monument, 1909, Alton, Ill.

Original Commission headstone (left) and 

headstone with Southern Cross of Honor (right).

U.S. Department of Veterans Aairs To learn more about benefits and programs 

for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov National Cemetery Administration