San Francisco National Cemetery San Francisco National Cemetery is a U . S . National Cemetery , located in the Presidio of San Francisco , California . Because of the name and location , it is frequently confused with Golden Gate National Cemetery , a few miles south of the city . About 1937 , San Francisco residents voted to no longer build cemeteries within the city proper and , as a result , the site for a new national cemetery was selected south of the city limits . The cemetery is one of only three within San Francisco city limits ( the others being the Columbarium of San Francisco and the historic graveyard next to Mission Dolores . ) History . When Spain colonized what would become California , this area was selected as the site for a fort , or presidio , to defend San Francisco Bay . About 40 families traveled here from northern Mexico in 1776 and built the first settlement , a small quadrangle , only a few hundred feet west of what is now Funston Avenue . Mexico controlled the Presidio following 1821 , but the fort became less important to the Mexican government . In 1835 , most soldiers and their families moved north to Sonoma , leaving it nearly abandoned . During the Mexican - American War , U . S . troops occupied and repaired the damage to the fort . The mid - century discovery of gold in California led to the sudden growth and importance of San Francisco , and prompted the U . S . government to establish a military reservation here . By executive order , President Millard Fillmore established the Presidio for military use in November 1850 . During the 1850s and 1860s , Presidio - based soldiers fought Native Americans in California , Oregon , Washington , and Nevada . The outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 re - emphasized the importance of California ' s riches and the military significance of San Francisco ' s harbor to the Union . This led , in 1862 , to the first major construction and expansion program at the Presidio since its acquisition by the United States . The Indian Wars of the 1870s and 1880s resulted in additional expansion of the Presidio , including large - scale tree planting and a post beautification program . By the following decade the Presidio had shed its frontier outpost appearance and was elevated to a major military installation and base for American expansion into the Pacific . In 1890 , with the creation of Sequoia , General Grant and Yosemite National Parks in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California , the protection of these scenic and natural resources was assigned to the U . S . cavalry stationed at the Presidio . Soldiers patrolled these parks during summer months until the start of World War I in 1914 . The Spanish - American War in 1898 and subsequent Philippine - American War , from 1899 to 1902 , increased the role of the Presidio . Thousands of troops camped in tent cities while awaiting shipment to the Philippines . Returning sick and wounded soldiers were treated in the Army ' s first permanent hospital , later renamed Letterman Army General Hospital . In 1914 , troops under the command of General John Pershing departed the Presidio for the Mexican border in pursuit of Pancho Villa and his men . When the United States entered World War II after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , Presidio soldiers dug foxholes along nearby beaches . Fourth Army Commander Gen . John L . DeWitt conducted the internment of thousands of Japanese and Japanese - Americans on the West Coast while U . S . soldiers of Japanese descent were trained to read and speak Japanese at the first Military Intelligence Service language school organized at Crissy Field . During the 1950s , the Presidio served as the headquarters for the Nike missile defense program and headquarters for the U . S . Sixth Army . The Presidio of San Francisco , encompassing more than 350 buildings with historic value , was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962 . In 1989 , the Presidio closed as a military entity and was transferred to the National Park Service in October 1994 . On December 12 , 1884 , the War Department designated , including the site of the old post cemetery , as San Francisco National Cemetery . It was the first national cemetery established on the West Coast and marks the growth and development of a system of national cemeteries extending beyond the battlefields of the Civil War . Initial interments included the re / mains of the dead from the former post cemetery as well as individuals removed from cemeteries at abandoned forts and camps elsewhere along the Pacific coast and western frontier . In 1934 , all unknown remains in the cemetery were disinterred and reinterred in one plot . Many soldiers and sailors who died overseas serving in the Philippines , China and other areas of the Pacific Theater are interred in San Francisco National Cemetery . There are also three British Commonwealth service war graves here , a Canadian soldier of World War I , and a Royal Navy and Merchant Navy sailor of World War II . The cemetery is enclosed with a stone wall and slopes down a hill that today frames a view of the Golden Gate Bridge . Its original ornamental cast - iron entrance gates are present but have been unused since the entrance was relocated . Tall eucalyptus trees further enclose the cemetery . The lodge and rostrum date to the 1920s and reflect the Spanish Revival styling introduced to several western cemeteries . Notable Burials . Other burials . Two unusual interments at San Francisco National Cemetery are " Major " Pauline Cushman and Miss Sarah A . Bowman . Cushman ' s headstone bears the inscription " Pauline C . Fryer , Union Spy " , but her real name was Harriet Wood . Born in the 1830s , she became a performer in Thomas Placide ' s show " Varieties " and took the name Pauline Cushman . She married theater musician Charles Dickinson in 1853 , but after her husband died of illness related to his service for Union forces , she returned to the stage . During spring 1863 , while performing in Louisville , Ky . , she was asked by the provost marshal to gather information regarding local Confederate activity . From there she was sent to Nashville , where she had some success conveying information about troop strength and movements . In Nashville , she was also captured and nearly hanged as a spy . She returned to the stage in 1864 , to lecture and sell her autobiography . Entertainer P . T . Barnum promoted her as the " Spy of the Cumberland " and through Barnum ' s practiced boostership she quickly gained fleeting fame . After spending the 1870s working the redwood logging camps , she remarried and moved to the Arizona Territory . By 1893 she was divorced , destitute and desperate ; she applied for her first husband ' s military pension and returned to San Francisco , where she died from an overdose of narcotics allegedly taken to soothe her rheumatism . Members of the Grand Army of the Republic and Women ' s Relief Corps conducted a magnificent funeral for the former spy . " Major " Cushman ' s remains reside in Officer ' s Circle . Also buried at San Francisco National Cemetery is Sarah Bowman , also known as " Great Western " , a formidable woman over tall with red hair and a fondness for wearing pistols . Married to a soldier , she traveled with Zachary Taylor ' s troops in the Mexican - American War helping to care for the wounded , for which she earned a government pension . After her husband ' s death she had a variety of male companions and ran an infamous tavern and brothel in El Paso , Texas . Bowman left El Paso when she married her last husband . The two ended up at Fort Yuma , where she operated a boarding house until her death from a spider bite in 1866 . She was given a full military funeral and was buried in the Fort Yuma Cemetery . Several years later her body was exhumed and reburied at San Francisco National Cemetery .