Civil War Era National Cemeteries

• SIGNIFICANCE
• INTRODUCTION -- ANTE-BELLUM PERIOD
• MONTGOMERY C. MEIGS, QUARTERMASTER GENERAL
• EARLY CEMETERY DEVELOPMENT AND POLICY
• ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL CEMETERIES
• ROSTRUMS AND THE BEGINNING OF MEMORIAL DAY OBSERVANCES
• SEARCH AND RECOVERY PROGRAM
• LODGES
• MEIGS LODGES, See Meigs Lodges
• HEADSTONES, GRAVE MARKERS
• FENCES, AND WALLS
• ESTABLISHMENT OF ADDITIONAL NATIONAL CEMETERIES
• CHANGES IN ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR BURIAL
• REDUCTION OF DUTIES OF QUARTERMASTER GENERAL
• RETIREMENT OF QUARTERMASTER GENERAL MEIGS
• INTEGRITY OF CEMETERIES RELATED TO THE CIVIL WAR

SIGNIFICANCE

The Civil War era national cemeteries are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Their primary significance is from their strong association with the Civil War, 1861-1865. Additionally, many contain the fine architectural examples of a prototype design of lodges that were executed in various local building materials from the same floor plan. Lastly, the prototype lodges were designed by a significant person associated with facilities during and after the war, Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs, Quartermaster General of the Army from 1861-1882.

Many national cemeteries were established on or near specific Civil War conflict sites. For each of these sixteen cemeteries, there is information, which includes the name and date of the conflict, background information on the establishment of the cemetery, and Civil War monuments or memorials within the cemetery available HERE.

The Civil War era national cemeteries were created originally to afford a decent resting place for those who fell in defense of the Union. These cemeteries began the ongoing effort to honor and memorialize eternally the fighting forces who have and continue to defend our nation. Today, the entire national cemetery system symbolizes, in its gracious landscapes and marble headstones, both the violence of the struggle and the healing aftermath. The Civil War era national cemeteries are nationally significant, both for their symbolic and physical representation of that war, and for representing the origins of the National Cemetery System.

The Civil War era national cemeteries are also nationally significant for embodying an important and commonly recognized landscape design and for establishing certain landscape features that have been retained for over 100 years. While it was mandated that every national cemetery have a lodge, a stone or iron fence, and headstones, the actual layout of the cemetery, for the most part, was left to the discretion of the cemetery superintendent who was named during the construction of these features. These superintendents responded to the style and design thinking of that era.

Many Civil War era national cemeteries contain a superintendent's lodge built according to a design by Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs, who was quite significant during that period in Government and had great influence over other military architecture. His design represented the style of the period, yet was able to be used as a prototype for construction of superintendents' lodges in all parts of the country for many years. A general description of the lodges, along with a list of sites and materials, is found HERE. Other than materials and the use of prototype design, there is little or no distinction in the design components of the lodges, but the overall design is significant due to its architect, its time, its use, and its flexibility in adapting to numerous variations in local building materials.

The serene national cemeteries offer perpetual testimony of the concern of a grateful nation that the lives and services of members of the Armed Forces, who served their nation well, will be appropriately commemorated. The Flag of the United States flies proudly as a symbol of this nation that forever will remember.

INTRODUCTION -- ANTE-BELLUM PERIOD

From very early times, those who died in defense of their state or nation have been deemed worthy of special commemoration for their service on the field of battle. The Mexican War of 1846-1847 marked an important advance in American burial policy. The action of the Congress in 1850 in establishing the Mexico City Cemetery as a final resting place for those who "fell in battle or died in and around the said city," furnished a precedent for the creation of permanent military cemeteries beyond the seas over a decade before legislative provision was made for a national cemetery system.

The development of national cemeteries came about as the American Civil War was waged. This conflict between Northern and Southern citizens was brought about by sharp differences in political and economic issues between the two factions. The two major issues that brought on the war were the fight over states' rights that involved the right of secession from the Union of the states under the Constitution, and the extension of slavery to new states and territories. The immediate provocation for the secession of the states, which led to the war, was the election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States in the fall of 1860, on a platform that denied the extension of slavery to new states and territories. By this time, the controversy over slavery had become so intense, tempers so inflamed, and extremists so uncompromising that the basis for peaceful adjustment of differences was lost.

Immediately upon the election of Abraham Lincoln, the legislature of South Carolina called a convention to meet on December 17, 1860, to consider the question of secession. The convention voted unanimously on December 20 for secession, issuing at the same time a Declaration of Causes that emphasized, above all, the threat to slavery. By February 1861, six other states had joined South Carolina--Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. On February 4, 1861, a convention with representatives from six southern states, met at Montgomery, Alabama, to organize the government of the Confederacy. This convention drew up a Constitution, chose a provisional president (Jefferson Davis of Mississippi) and a vice president, and acted as a legislature pending the election of a regular Congress.

When South Carolina seceded, Major Robert Anderson, commanding the Federal forces in Charleston, South Carolina, secretly moved his garrison from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter. The question whether his little force should be withdrawn or supported agitated the closing weeks of the Buchanan administration and the opening weeks of the Lincoln administration. While the fate of Fort Sumter was being discussed, the Confederacy took over all but four of the forts, arsenals, and military posts in the South. Against the advice of some members of his Cabinet, Lincoln finally decided not to reinforce but to provision the fort, and this decision precipitated the crisis, and the war. On April 11, 1861, Brigadier General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, who was in command of Confederate forces in Charleston, acting on somewhat ambiguous instructions from Montgomery, demanded an immediate surrender of the fort; when this was refused, Confederate batteries opened fire on the Stars and Stripes at dawn on April 12, 186l, and the Civil War was on. For thirty hours they fired, while Major Robert Anderson, commander of the artillery company that garrisoned Fort Sumter, eked out his short supply of ammunition to reply, and the Federal relief squadron watched helplessly from beyond the bar. Major Anderson surrendered.

The tradition of nationalism in Virginia was strong and the state hesitated to join the seceding states, but the attack on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's proclamation calling for 75,000 troops, together with geographical necessity, finally drew her into the Confederacy. On April 17, 1861, a convention voted for secession and this vote was ratified a month later by popular vote. Most of the minority vote came from the western counties, which shortly seceded and established the state of West Virginia. Nowhere in the Confederacy was Union sentiment stronger than in North Carolina, which was the last state to secede.

War Department General Order No. 55 of September 11, 1861, made Commanding Officers of military corps and departments responsible for the burial of officers and soldiers who died within their jurisdiction. Since no provision was made for acquisition of burial lands, plots in cemeteries near large general hospitals were acquired for this purpose. Many cemetery associations also donated plots, and cemeteries at Army posts met some needs. A cemetery was opened on the grounds of the Soldiers' Home in Washington, D.C. Section II of General Orders No. 33 dated April 3, 1862, made Commanding Generals responsible for laying off lots of grounds near every battlefield, to be used for burial of soldiers who died in battle. By Section 18 of an Act approved July 17, 1862, the President was given authority to purchase cemetery grounds and cause them to be securely enclosed, to be used as national cemeteries.

MONTGOMERY C. MEIGS, QUARTERMASTER GENERAL

On May 15, 1861, Montgomery C. Meigs was made Quartermaster General of the United States Army with the rank of brigadier general. He had attended the University of Pennsylvania before entering West Point on July 1, 1832. Graduating fifth in his class, he served for a year in the artillery before transferring to the engineers on July 1, 1837. He served as an assistant in surveying stretches of the Mississippi River with an eye to the improvement of navigation and was assigned to military engineering duties on the fortifications below Philadelphia. He joined in the building of Fort Delaware and participated in improvement of the harbors of the Delaware and completion of the Delaware Breakwater, a measure of safety from adverse tides to mariners who entered the treacherous mouth of Delaware Bay. For two years, Meigs served on the Board of Engineers for Atlantic Coast Defenses, serving as a Washington representative of the Delaware River projects. He then became superintending engineer of the building of Fort Delaware in May 1841 and, later that year, supervised the construction of Fort Wayne on the Detroit River. Subsequent assignments included assistant to the Chief Engineer in Washington and engineer in charge of construction at Fort Montgomery in Rouses Point, New York. In 1852, while in the Philadelphia-New Jersey area, in charge of three public works projects, Meigs was appointed to take charge of a project to survey possible sources of a public water supply for the City of Washington, D.C. Meigs recommended construction of an aqueduct all the way from Great Falls. This, known as the Washington Aqueduct, was agreed to by the Secretary of War. In 1852, Meigs was later designated as superintendent of the Washington Aqueduct, of which the Cabin John Bridge would be the great monumental work, the largest masonry single-arch bridge in the world. He was also placed in charge of the extension of the U.S. Capitol and the dome, as well as the wings of the Post Office. The U.S. Capitol was much too small, had no heat, baffling acoustics, and bad ventilation. The House chamber was opened in December 1857, and the Senate chamber was opened in 1859.

In September 1860, Meigs was sent to the Dry Tortugas to assume charge of the construction at Fort Jefferson. He found what he described as a dangerous temper on his trip to the South and a strong hostility toward the Union. He then returned to public works and was subsequently named Quartermaster General of the Army.

He served as head of the department, providing the armies in the field with all kinds of supplies, except those with which they ate or fought. His responsibilities also included transportation by railroad, wagon, and ship of both the army and its supplies, including army clothing, camp and garrison equipage, cavalry and artillery horses, fuel, forage, straw, material for bedding, and stationery. His department also oversaw the operations of the Military Telegraph Corps.

The army administration was divided into seven bureaus, one of which was the Quartermaster General. The others were the Adjutant General, Commissary General, Surgeon General, Paymaster General, Chief Engineer, and Chief of Ordnance. All reported directly to the Secretary of War.

It was up to Quartermaster General Meigs to ensure the maintenance of stocks in the general depots of the Quartermaster's Department. The depot quartermasters did most of the direct contracting, but they did so in accordance with estimates of needs prepared by the Quartermaster General. It was up to Meigs to anticipate the clothing requirements of the United States Army as a whole, and to fill them. He had to assemble adequate reserves of horses, provide the armies with tents, and construct barracks and hospitals when such were needed. He had to assemble ships for ocean transport and steamers for the rivers, and he assisted in securing railroad transportation as well as collecting wagons for the use of the armies beyond the railheads. His office was a coordinating center for the activities of quartermasters from the Rio Grande to the Chesapeake. He had to submit annually to Congress an estimate of departmental expenses for the coming fiscal year. He had to maintain honesty in the supply system through a careful auditing of all quartermasters' accounts. There were also six inspectors under his supervision.

It was also the duty of the Quartermaster's Department to provide for interments of soldiers who died in battle. Burial grounds had been opened at troop concentration points where mortalities in general hospitals first posed the problem of military burial, and cemeteries were established in the combat zones as memorials to those Union soldiers who gave their lives in battle. The establishment of procedures of making and preserving records of deceased soldiers and of their places of burial was a problem that faced the War Department early in the conflict. War Department General Order No. 55 dated September 11, 1861, delegated to Commanding Officers of military corps and departments the responsibility for the burial of officers and soldiers who died within their jurisdictions. It also directed that in performance of this duty, they would properly execute the regulations and forms provided by the Quartermaster General for this purpose, in order to preserve accurate and permanent records of deceased soldiers and their place of burial. The Quartermaster General was also directed to provide means for a registered headboard to be placed at the head of each soldier's grave.

EARLY CEMETERY DEVELOPMENT AND POLICY

It soon became obvious that the founders of the new burial policy had ignored an all-important aspect of their problem. Burial of the dead became a command responsibility of tactical officers, but no provision was made for the acquisition of burial lands. Partial expedients were sought by acquiring soldiers' plots in cemeteries near large general hospitals, where a far greater number of men were destined to die than fell on the battlefield. Many cemetery associations performed a patriotic service by donating plots for Army burials. Wherever Army posts, such as Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, were used as concentration points, the existing cemetery met immediate needs. The problem in Washington, D.C., which became the base and training area of the Army of the Potomac, was temporarily solved. The Board of Governors of the Soldiers' Home agreed to permit usage for cemetery purposes of a portion of the land originally assigned to its jurisdiction in 1851. A cemetery was opened on August 1, 1861, at the Soldiers' Home. Since no compensation was ever made to the governing board of this institution for using its land, the cemetery site first occupied in 1861 is operated and maintained by the Department of the Army and is not a part of the National Cemetery System.

On April 3, 1862, the War Department attempted, in Section II of General Orders No. 33, to include all zones of active hostilities in the new burial program. Commanding generals were now assigned the responsibility to lay off lots of ground in some suitable spot near every battlefield, as soon as it was in their power, and to cause the remains of those killed to be interred, with headboards to the graves bearing numbers, and when practicable, the names of the persons buried in them. A register of each burial ground was to be preserved, in which would be noted the marks corresponding with the headboards.

Subsequently, initial legislation looking to the establishment of what was to become a National Cemetery System was enacted by the thirty-seventh Congress. Legislation on a variety of subjects was approved by President Lincoln on July 17, 1862. Section 18 of the Act provided: "That the President of the United States shall have power, whenever in his opinion it shall be expedient, to purchase cemetery grounds and cause them to be securely enclosed, to be used as a national cemetery for the soldiers who shall die in the service of the country."

Neither the full significance nor the actual magnitude of the program initiated in 1862 was fully appreciated at the time by the government nor by the people of the United States. The original act was intended to afford a decent burial place for those who died in the service of the country. Apart from considerations of sentiment, the sites of great battles became the logical points for the location of many national cemeteries. The very coincidence of place of final burial and scene of dramatic events in the military history of the nation invested the whole cemetery system with a memorial aspect that was neither foreseen nor perhaps intended in the Act of 1862.

ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL CEMETERIES

Pursuant to the Act of July 17, 1862, fourteen national cemeteries were created in the latter half of that year. The selection of sites reflected the conditions they were intended to relieve. One cemetery was established at Alexandria, Virginia, which was included in the vast encampment surrounding the national capital. The City of Alexandria was the site of one of the principal concentration camps for northern troops sent to defend Washington at the outbreak of hostilities between the North and South. The cemetery at the Soldiers' Home was made a national cemetery for purposes of administration. Two old post cemeteries, Fort Leavenworth and Fort Scott, both in Kansas, were incorporated into the system. Seven national cemeteries were established at troop concentration points, including Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; New Albany, Indiana; Danville, Kentucky; Camp Butler, Illinois; Keokuk, Iowa; Loudon Park, Maryland; and Annapolis, Maryland. One was opened at Cypress Hills, New York, for burial of the remains of Confederate prisoners and guards who perished in a train wreck. A unique feature of this program was the decision to transform the burial sites on battlefields of the war into national cemeteries. One was established near Sharpsburg, Maryland, as a memorial to the dead who fell in the Battle of Antietam. Another was located on the battlefield at Mill Springs, Kentucky. Today, the Soldiers' Home National Cemetery is operated and maintained by the Department of the Army, and the Antietam National Cemetery is under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior.

As the civil conflict continued to rage, the number of national cemeteries continued to increase. Six cemeteries were created in 1863, including Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which is now maintained by the Department of the Interior; Beaufort, South Carolina; Cave Hill in Louisville, Kentucky; Knoxville, Tennessee; Lexington, Kentucky; and Rock Island, Illinois. In 1864, national cemeteries were established at Beverly, New Jersey, and Mound City, Illinois. Also established that year was the Battleground National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., which is operated and maintained by the Department of the Interior, and Arlington National Cemetery, which is operated by the Department of the Army.

On July 4, 1864, a reorganization plan by Quartermaster General Meigs became law and the Quartermaster General's office was divided into nine divisions: (1) providing animals for the armies, (2) administer clothing and equipage, (3) ocean and lake transportation, (4) rail and river transportation, (5) forage and fuel, (6) barracks and hospitals, (7) wagon transportation, (8) inspection, and (9) finance.

Montgomery Meigs was brevetted Major General, United States Army, on July 5, 1864, for distinguished and meritorious service.

Meigs's only son, John Rodgers Meigs, was killed in battle near Dayton, Virginia, on October 3, 1864. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia.

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered with 27,000 men at Appomattox Court House. President Lincoln was assassinated on April 14.

Following the close of the Civil War in 1865, there was increased activity in the development of existing national cemeteries and the need to establish new burial grounds. National cemeteries were established that year at Balls Bluff, Virginia; Florence, South Carolina; Mobile, Alabama; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Salisbury, North Carolina. The Stones River National Cemetery in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Andersonville National Cemetery in Andersonville, Georgia; and the Fredericksburg National Cemetery in Fredericksburg, Virginia, all of which are operated and maintained by the Department of the Interior, were also established that year.

In May 1865, the Quartermaster's Department commenced the task of dispersing the troops to their homes. While the armies dispersed, the Department began reorganizing itself and its holdings and disposing of its surplus property.

On April 13, 1866, by Joint Resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives, the establishment of new burial grounds and development of existing national cemeteries was initiated. The following national cemeteries were established that year:

• Camp Nelson, Nicholasville, Kentucky
• City Point, Hopewell, Virginia
• Cold Harbor, Richmond, Virginia
• Corinth, Mississippi
• Crown Hill, Indiana
• Danville, Virginia
• Fort Harrison, Richmond, Virginia
• Glendale, Richmond, Virginia
• Hampton, Virginia
• Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri
• Marietta, Georgia
• Nashville, Tennessee
• Natchez, Mississippi
• Port Hudson, Zachary, Louisiana
• Richmond, Virginia
• Seven Pines, Richmond, Virginia
• Staunton, Virginia
• Winchester, Virginia
• Poplar Grove, Petersburg, Virginia
• Vicksburg, Mississippi
• Yorktown, Virginia

Poplar Grove, Vicksburg, and Yorktown are operated and maintained by the Department of the Interior.

It is not to be supposed that the American system of national cemeteries sprang full-blown from an Act of Congress. Authorization to acquire lands for cemetery purposes had the effect of facilitating the adoption of a long-established burial system to new conditions and circumstances introduced by the War of Secession.

Far removed by distance and hazards of travel from population centers in the East, garrison commanders were compelled to bury their dead in cemetery plots marked off within the post reservations. Order books kept at these remote stations indicate that mortuary standards corresponded favorably with those maintained by civil communities of the expanding frontier. While it is difficult to derive precise conclusions in any particular situation, three general practices emerged as the frontier moved westward with its military posts and burial grounds.

Little attention was given to the problem of establishing permanent burial grounds on the battlefields in the eastern theater. The opportunity was somewhat restricted. Excepting the two great encounters at Antietam and Gettysburg, the Confederates enjoyed a series of tactical triumphs until Major General Ulysses S. Grant was invested with supreme command in the field and launched the hammer blows that destroyed the Confederate armies. Continuous combats and maneuvers during this climactic phase precluded a satisfactory performance in care of the dead.

The larger number of wartime cemeteries falls into a category that should be differentiated from those identified with battlefield sites and military centers. Acquired by the national government in immediate compliance with the Act of July 17, 1862, they were located, as a rule, within the properties owned by cemetery associations. Some were situated near the larger metropolitan areas of the North, notably New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore; others meeting the emergencies of an unplanned mobilization, were established in private cemeteries near cities such as Annapolis, Maryland; Rock Island, Illinois; and Keokuk, Iowa. The miscellany of burial places could scarcely be regarded in 1865 as an integrated system. The nucleus of a future system included only a few elements of a whole; that is, cemeteries in the Washington military area and those on the sites of great battles. It became necessary to extend the system to areas determined by distribution of the war dead.

First, quartermaster officers, acting in accordance with their responsibility for construction, repair, and maintenance at army installations, took over the management of post burial grounds. Second, the customary method of marking graves in frontier communities (a headstone fashioned of hard wood and bearing a suitable inscription) came into general usage. Third, surviving copies of old post cemetery registers, many of which are now preserved in the National Archives, indicate the existence of a fairly uniform system of recording burials. This recording system included, in some instances, the notation of assigned grave numbers in plots and name lists corresponding to those inscribed on headboards.

There is no positive evidence that either the President or the General-in-Chief were directly responsible for issuance of orders that revolutionized Army burial practices. Whatever the explanation, the revolution came with the birth of the national army. The United States felt compelled to afford a decent burial to those who gave their lives in defense of the Republic.

Thousands of scattered burial places marking the sites of great battles and innumerable actions of lesser consequence appeared to impose an all but insuperable obstacle to realization of the intent expressed by the Act of July 17, 1862, that those who gave their lives in defense of the Republic should rest forever within the guarded confines of a national cemetery. Recorded interments made and submitted to Quartermaster General Meigs listed only 101,736 graves, which was less than 30% of the total fatalities (359,528 Union dead) killed in battle, or who died of wounds, sickness, and other causes during the war. These recorded interments were of those who died in hospitals, camps, and barracks for which there was time to make a decent and orderly burial. The reports included few of the interments made immediately after battles by details of troops that were reported by commanding generals in the lists of those killed in battle. No serious effort appears to have been made toward providing an organization for executing the regulations requiring burial of the battle dead in registered graves.

It is a curious fact that army commanders at such remote points as Chattanooga and Knoxville should have been apprehensive in the matter of military burial, while War Department officials in Washington ignored the development of sites within a few hours of rail travel from the national capital. Closer examination of the problem, however, will indicate that those strategic and tactical considerations that dictated movements of the armies also controlled expenditures of time and energy for the care of the dead, since graves registration units were non-existent. Burial was, of necessity, performed by fatigue parties from the line and little or no provision could be made for any systematic interment of remains during a campaign or rapid movement. Army commanders could not be expected to jeopardize the chance of victory in the midst of intense and prolonged combat by diminishing their striking power to tend to burials.

The battlefield cemeteries as were actually operated in the combat zones did not serve the purpose commonly achieved by present-day military cemeteries in receiving bodies evacuated by an advancing field force. Neither special purpose units nor transportation was available for such a mission at that time.

ROSTRUMS AND THE BEGINNING OF MEMORIAL DAY OBSERVANCES

On May 30, 1864, in the little town of Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, Emma Hunter, a teenager, placed flowers on the grave of her father. A Union Army colonel, he was killed while commanding Pennsylvania's 49th Regiment. At the cemetery, she exchanged memories with another mourner, a Mrs. Meyers, who had brought wild flowers to the grave of her 19-year-old son, Joe, who had been a private. A year later, they met at the cemetery and were joined by many townsfolk who had also taken flowers to the cemetery. Every grave was decorated. The new custom spread and women and men of both the South and the North decorated the graves of both Southern and Northern battle dead in several states.

On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued his famed Order No. 11, designating May 30 as Decoration Day. Later, Decoration Day became Memorial Day in most states and territories. General Logan's order began, "The thirtieth of May 1868 is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country (during the late rebellion) and whose bodies lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land............" The Services were held in Carbondale, Illinois, and Col. E.J. Ingersoll led 219 Union veterans parading to the cemetery where Gen. Logan gave the principal speech which included these words: "Every man’s life belongs to his country and no man has the right to refuse it when his country calls for it!"

Rostrums of various styles have provided the platform from which honors were rendered and speeches of rededication declaimed. Styles have varied from small, classical Greek temples to simple pulpits or lecterns or bandstand style structures. Materials have included marble, granite, iron and steel and locally quarried coquina. They have been imposing focal points and modest platforms. As demands for burial space have mounted or where deterioration has been severe, some have been removed.

National cemeteries where the rostrum remains are as follows: 

*The original rostrum, constructed in 1880, was reconstructed in 1939 due to termite infestation and damage incurred by flood.

**The original rostrum was torn down in 1931 and replaced with the existing structure.

SEARCH AND RECOVERY PROGRAM

It had been determined that approximately two-thirds of the war dead needed to be recovered before final interment in national cemeteries could be accomplished. This required an extensive search and recovery program. The reburial program was initiated within two months of Lee's April 9, 1865 capitulation at Appomattox. Captain James M. Moore, the founder of Arlington and Battleground National Cemeteries, proceeded to the battlefields of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House to superintend the interment of remains of Union soldiers yet unburied and mark their burial places. Similar measures were taken in the West. On June 23, Chaplain William Earnshaw, Superintendent of the Stones River National Cemetery in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, was instructed to take charge of the work of disinterring and reinterring remains in the Stones River National Cemetery. Due to excessive heat, field operations were suspended until October.

Captain Moore identified and marked, with newly inscribed wooden tablets, the graves of 700 Union soldiers. The unidentified dead were marked by tablets inscribed "Unknown U.S. Soldier." He made 800 identifications on the Wilderness Battlefield and 700 at Spotsylvania Court House; the 1,500 was only 26% of the 5,350 fatalities suffered on these fields. Captain Moore was then placed in command of a team to identify and mark the graves of those who died at Andersonville, Georgia. There were 12,461 identified and marked graves; 451 were marked as "Unknown U.S. Soldier." Meanwhile, in Tennessee, Chaplain Earnshaw took up the task of concentrating remains at the Stones River National Cemetery. Beginning with removal of remains from three known burial places on the battlefield, Chaplain Earnshaw extended his search eastward through Murfreesboro to Union University. Examination of graves in that locality led to discovery of a large burial ground identified as "the first burying place used by our brave defenders." After recovery of the battlefield dead, attention was directed to the burial sites of general and unit hospitals that were erected during the eight-month pause of Rosecrans's army before resuming the advance on Chattanooga. Altogether, some 3,000 remains were recovered and reinterred. The search continued north and south through Murfreesboro and yielded some 600 remains. Reinterment activities extended over into the following year. Similar operations were conducted by Chaplain Thomas B. Van Horne in the area assigned to Chattanooga. Captain W. A. Wainwright, Assistant Quartermaster, completed the concentration of remains from the upper Tennessee Valley, Cumberland Gap, and eastern Kentucky into Knoxville. There is evidence that, at times, only parts of bodies (skeletons) were recovered with the rest of the skeleton left at the original burial site.

By the end of 1866, substantial progress had been made toward consolidating concentrations in existing burial grounds and in the development of new cemeteries. During that year, national cemeteries in Virginia received 2,442 remains and eventually contained some 15,000 burials. The program was pushed with equal vigor in the Military Division of Tennessee. A brief analysis of achievement since the termination of hostilities would indicate that the program was rapidly approaching the point of peak performance. In all areas of the continental theater, 87,664 remains had been reinterred in 41 national cemeteries. The total number of interments by June 30, 1866, was 104,528.

The Quartermaster General reported that total expenditures up to June 30, 1866, amounted to $1,144,791. Allowing $1,609,294 for all future contingencies, it was estimated that $2,609,294 would be the total cost of national cemeteries, and collection, transfer and reinterment of remains of loyal soldiers. The average cost of transfer and reinterment per body was $9.75. The largest single item in this phase of the program was the wooden coffin, costing $4 at the Washington Depot and $3 in Tennessee.

During hostilities, the cost of maintaining wooden headboards had suggested that a more durable type of marker should be provided. Quartermaster General Meigs, in his annual report of 1866, proposed an economical solution. "A design," he stated, "has been adopted for a small cast-iron monument, to be protected from rust by a coating of zinc, to have in raised letters cast in the solid, the name, rank, regiment and company of each soldier or officer. One of these will be placed at the foot of every grave and will remain when the wooden headboards decay and perish." Prompted no doubt by hopes of including a permanent marker program within regular appropriations, General Meigs stoutly resisted every proposal for marble or granite slabs in place of his unsightly design.

LODGES

Lodges to be used as residences for cemetery superintendents were constructed at most of the fifty-nine national cemeteries. Those at which no lodge was constructed are:

• Ball's Bluff, Virginia
• Cave Hill, Kentucky
• Crown Hill, Indiana
• Danville, Kentucky
• Lexington, Kentucky
• Rock Island, Illinois

It is presumed that lodges were not constructed at these cemeteries for the following reasons: Ball's Bluff is only 4.6 acres in size and contains only 25 graves; Cave Hill and Crown Hill are located within private cemeteries; and Danville and Lexington are located within city cemeteries. The Rock Island National Cemetery is located within the Rock Island Arsenal (a military reservation).

Lodges that were constructed at the following national cemeteries have since been demolished, due to the need to accommodate changes in cemetery operations:

• Chattanooga, Tennessee
• Fayetteville, Arkansas
• Florence, South Carolina
• Fort Gibson, Oklahoma
• Grafton, West Virginia
• Jefferson Barracks, Missouri
• Mill Springs, Kentucky
• New Albany, Indiana
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

MEIGS LODGES, See Meigs Lodges

Many Civil War era national cemeteries contain a superintendent's lodge built according to a design by Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs, who was quite significant during that period in Government and had great influence over other military architecture. His design represented the style of the period, yet was able to be used as a prototype for construction of superintendents' lodges in all parts of the country for many years. A general description of the lodges, along with a list of sites and materials, is found HERE. Other than materials, there is little or no distinction in the design components of the lodges, but the overall design is significant due to its architect, its time, its use, and its flexibility in adapting to numerous variations in local building materials.

HEADSTONES, GRAVE MARKERS

Another provision of the Act of February 22, 1867, directed the Secretary of War to cause each grave to be marked with a small headstone or block. The Act committed Congress to a constructive fiscal policy, with landscaping and other improvements being met by an annual appropriation. The extraordinary cost of erecting permanent grave markers required a special appropriation of Congress. During hostilities, the cost of maintaining wooden headboards had suggested the long-range economy of providing a more durable type of marker. In his annual report of 1866, the Quartermaster General stated that a design had been adopted for a small cast iron monument, to be protected from rust by a coating of zinc, to have in raised letters cast in the solid the name, rank, regiment, and company of each soldier or officer. One was to be placed at the foot of every grave and would remain when the wooden headboard decays and perishes. Although required by law, no progress was made until Congress, on March 3, 1873, appropriated $1,000,000 for the erection of a headstone at each grave in the national cemeteries to be made of durable stone and of such design and weight as shall keep them in place when set. Subsequent interpretation of the Act held that stones should be erected only at the graves of soldiers. The project was completed in 1877 at a total cost of $786,360. A balance of $192,000 remained and it was then recommended to Congress that this money be used to mark those graves in national cemeteries not included by the Act of March 3, 1873, and for the erection of permanent markers at all known soldiers' graves outside the national cemeteries. An act, approved February 3, 1879, authorized these expenditures and the second gravestone program was undertaken. By 1881, all soldiers' graves had been marked with marble or granite headstones, as provided by law. The process to erect neat marble slabs at graves other than those of soldiers (those of honorably discharged veterans) was to be done as fast as means would permit. The uniformity of these markers contributes significantly to the distinctive look and appearance of a national cemetery.

The extraordinary cost of erecting permanent grave markers could only be met by a special appropriation of Congress. In his 1868 report, Quartermaster General Meigs again rejected a recommendation in favor of the stone slab, but under authority of the Act of 1867, the Secretary of War specified that the markers should be of white marble or granite.

Meigs stoutly resisted every proposal for marble or granite slabs in place of his unsightly design of a small cast-iron monument, to be protected from rust by a coating of zinc, to have in raised letters cast in the solid, the name rank, regiment, and company of each soldier or officer. He made a special point in 1868 that the cost of these marble or granite markers would be a great charge upon the treasury. This argument was hard to meet. No progress was made until Congress took action on March 3, 1873, by appropriating $1,000,000 for the erection of a headstone, to be made of durable stone, at each grave in the national military cemeteries, and of such design and weight as shall keep them in place when set. The Secretary of War specified that the markers should be of white marble or granite, 4 inches thick, 10 inches wide, with 12 inches above ground and 24 inches underground in areas south of the latitude of Washington and 30 inches in those to the north. The top was curved and the face ornamented with a recessed shield and raised lettering. The granite or marble block for unknown soldiers should be 6 inches square by 2 feet 6 inches, with 2 feet set in the ground. The project was completed in 1877 at a total cost of $786,630. A second gravestone program was undertaken in 1879 and, by 1881, all soldiers' graves were marked, as provided by law.

FENCES AND WALLS

The Act of February 22, 1867, also provided for a year-by-year improvement in landscaping and such facilities as became necessary for security and administration. Remarkable progress toward completing a long-range program of physical improvement characterized the third phase of development during the 1880's and 1890's. Burial grounds that first presented an unsightly appearance of bare mounded graves, wooden headboards, picket fences and frame buildings had been transformed by structures of iron, stone and marble. With landscaping projects adapted to each locality, the national cemeteries gradually assumed an aspect of stately parks, adorned with shrubs, trees, graveled paths, and driveways and vistas of shaded greensward carpeting the mounded graves. The design was left up to the cemetery superintendent, who, in his own way, expressed the typical landscaping of the area. The attraction exerted by these improvements prompted the construction of access roads to many cemeteries from nearby cities.

An Act to Establish and to Protect National Cemeteries, approved February 22, 1867, directed the Secretary of War "to have every national cemetery enclosed with a good and substantial stone or iron fence; to cause each grave to be marked with a small headstone or block; to direct the appointment of reliable veterans as cemetery superintendents, and to erect adequate quarters to house cemetery superintendents."

Prior to June 3, 1870, stone walls had been erected around the cemeteries at: Camp Nelson, Kentucky; Lebanon, Kentucky; Little Rock, Arkansas; Mill Springs, Kentucky; New Albany, Indiana; and San Antonio, Texas. Brick walls had been erected at Barrancas, Florida; and Mobile, Alabama; iron railings had been erected at Loudon Park, Maryland.

During fiscal year 1871, stone walls were constructed around the cemeteries at Alexandria, Virginia; Annapolis, Maryland; Ball's Bluff, Virginia; Hampton, Virginia; Jefferson Barracks, Missouri; New Bern, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; Wilmington, North Carolina; and Winchester, Virginia. A brick wall was constructed at Cold Harbor, Virginia, and iron railings at the cemeteries at Keokuk, Iowa; and Rock Island, Illinois.

In general, most of the properties have similar physical characteristics with regard to design, method of construction, and architectural details. Variations have occurred, due to changing cultural, chronological, and geographical influences.

All fifty-nine cemeteries, with the exception of Rock Island National Cemetery in Rock Island, Illinois, are enclosed with a perimeter wall or fence, as authorized by the 1862 legislation.

ESTABLISHMENT OF ADDITIONAL NATIONAL CEMETERIES

The Secretary of War was also directed to purchase additional land for cemetery use. In 1867, the following new national cemeteries (17) were established:

• Alexandria, Louisiana
• Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• Chattanooga, Tennessee
• Culpeper, Virginia
• Fayetteville, Arkansas
• Fort Smith, Arkansas
• Grafton, West Virginia
• Jefferson City, Missouri
• Lebanon, Kentucky
• Memphis, Tennessee
• New Bern, North Carolina
• San Antonio, Texas
• Springfield, Illinois
• Wilmington, North Carolina
• Fort Donelson, Tennessee
• Shiloh, Tennessee
• Brownsville, Texas

Fort Donelson and Shiloh are both operated and maintained by the Department of the Interior.

The Brownsville National Cemetery, established in 1867, was located within the confines of Fort Brown, Texas. In 1909, the Army post was abandoned. The Army contracted with a private firm to have the remains that were buried in the Brownsville National Cemetery transferred to the Alexandria National Cemetery in Pineville, Louisiana.

In 1868, national cemeteries were established at Barrancas, Florida; Fort Gibson, Oklahoma; and Little Rock, Arkansas, as well as at Chalmette, Louisiana. Chalmette is operated and maintained by the Department of the Interior. By 1870, the number of national cemeteries reached 73.

The marking of graves continued with diminishing returns each year in reinterments. In 1870 when, according to Quartermaster General Meigs, the project was virtually completed, there were 74 national cemeteries in which the remains of 299,696 Union soldiers had been laid to rest. Of the total interred by 1870, there were 173,109 positive identifications and 143,446 unknown remains; i.e., 58% of the recovered dead were identified.

CHANGES IN ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR BURIAL

That same year, Congress took steps to remove burial restrictions. The Army appropriations Act of 1870 included in the general and incidental expenses of the Quartermaster's Department an allowance "for expenses of the interment of officers killed in action or who may die when in the field, or at posts on the frontier, or at posts and other places when ordered by the Secretary of War, and of non-commissioned officers and soldiers." An Act approved June 1, 1872, provided that "All soldiers and sailors of the United States, who may die in destitute circumstances, shall be allowed burial in the national cemeteries of the United States." After a storm of criticism that denounced an attempt to transform the national cemeteries into potter's fields, Congress hastened to approve the act on March 3, 1873, providing that "honorably discharged soldiers, sailors or marines, who have served during the late war either in the regular or volunteer forces, dying subsequent to the passage of this Act, may be buried in any national cemetery of the United States free of cost, and their graves shall receive the same care and attention of those already buried. The production of the honorable discharge of the deceased shall be authority for the superintendent of the cemetery to permit the interment." Thus, national cemeteries became burying grounds for all veterans who served during the Civil War, not merely for those who gave their lives in battle.

REDUCTION OF DUTIES OF QUARTERMASTER GENERAL

By 1876, the Quartermaster General was reduced to contriving measures for eking out the stocks on hand, to foregoing the cutting of grass and the care of trees and shrubs in the national cemeteries, and to recommending the gradual suspension of nearly all civilian employees and their replacement as far as possible by specifically detailed personnel. At home, Meigs busied himself beyond his quartermaster's duties by keeping his hand in as an architect. His principal project was the designing of the National Museum behind the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the present Old National Museum.

RETIREMENT OF QUARTERMASTER GENERAL MEIGS

Montgomery Meigs served as Quartermaster General with great distinction throughout the war and until his retirement in 1882. In the postbellum years, General Meigs traveled widely in this country. He also traveled abroad, studying the organizations of foreign military establishments, in order to compare them with those of the United States. After his retirement, he acted as architect of the Pension Office Building in Washington, D.C. and, among other scientific activities, he served as regent of the Smithsonian Institution. He died in Washington, D.C. on January 2, 1892, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. A tribute contained in General Orders dated January 4, 1892, was perhaps his highest accolade: "The Army has rarely possessed an officer who was entrusted by the government with a greater variety of weighty responsibilities, or who proved himself more worthy of confidence."

INTEGRITY OF CEMETERIES RELATED TO THE CIVIL WAR

To be included in this category, a national cemetery must have been established between the years 1862 and 1873 when eligibility for burial in a national cemetery was restricted to those officers and soldiers who died in performance of duty during the Civil War, with all headstones being erected by 1881. By an Act of 1873, Congress provided that honorably discharged soldiers, sailors, or marines, who have served during the late war, either in the regular or volunteer forces, dying subsequent to the passage of this Act, may be buried in any national cemetery of the United States free of cost, and their graves shall receive the same care and attention of those already buried.

In general, all fifty-nine cemeteries administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs that meet the date of establishment requirement also possess the same physical characteristics, such as lodges, fences, decorative entrance gates, and headstones, and generally maintain integrity of the original fabric. Method of construction was generally the same, although it varied somewhat, depending upon the geographic location and materials that were available. The most intact cemeteries have the original fabric remaining, including original features such as the lodge, perimeter wall, gates, landscaping, road layout, burial areas, and headstones. Some cemeteries have an infrastructure that has changed or the cemeteries have been greatly expanded with new sections of a different character, but the original burial area of Civil War dead remains intact. It is general policy, however, not to disturb burials in national cemeteries. Interments are considered to be permanent and final.

A Civil War Era cemetery should always contain the original perimeter wall, the Civil War headstones, entrance gates, and original roadway, if any. A cemetery would lose its integrity in the area of landscape architecture if the original perimeter wall has been substantially altered or demolished, or if many of the original Civil War markers have been replaced with a later design. Then, the overall appearance would not retain the historic look associated with a Civil War era national cemetery. A cemetery where the lodge has been destroyed or lost would no longer be significant in the area of architecture but, by virtue of containing the Civil War burials and by virtue of its establishment date, it still qualifies as a Civil War cemetery. A Meigs lodge could be considered to have lost its integrity and significance if the original major building materials (brick or stone) have been destroyed or covered, or if roof configuration has been drastically changed. However, lodges with added wings will not have necessarily lost integrity, if the additions were built during the historic period, or if the additions do not obscure or overwhelm the original plan.

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