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Unknown Confederate Solder
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Originally created to honor Union soldiers killed during the Civil War, national cemeteries have become national
memorials to all United States veterans. About a dozen national cemeteries and numerous soldiers' lots were established
in 1862, more than a year after the war began with Confederate troops firing on Fort Sumter. By 1870, almost 300,000
Union soldiers and sailors lay buried in 73 national cemeteries. These cemeteries were first set aside for burial
of those who died during the conflict, but by 1873, any Union veteran of the Civil War could receive burial in
a national cemetery. Today, the nation has more than 175 national cemeteries, soldiers’ lots, government lots,
and Confederate cemeteries. Three federal agencies manage them: the National Cemetery Administration of the Department
of Veterans Affairs (VA); the Department of the Army of the Department of Defense; and the National Park Service
of the Department of the Interior.
The burial practices for soldiers and sailors in the United States evolved over time. Soldiers killed in the American
Revolution and the War or 1812 were usually buried in churchyards or family cemeteries. The U.S. Army established
many forts to protect the frontier, as people moved westward. Post cemeteries, such as the one at Fort Sam Houston,
in San Antonio, Texas, were established for soldiers and family members. At the same time, the growing urban population
and concerns about sanitation caused many churches and cities to establish new cemeteries on the undeveloped outskirts
of cities. The first of these rural cemeteries was Mount Auburn, created in 1831 outside of Boston, which was laid
out like a park, so that families could spend their leisure time with their deceased relatives.
At the beginning of 1861, neither the post cemeteries nor the rural cemeteries were prepared for the burial of
ultimately more than 600,000 men who died during the Civil War. The nation needed new burial practices to deal
with the changing realities of war. Weapon accuracy and fighting techniques led to more casualties than in previous
wars; railroads and steamships carried soldiers to battles farther and farther from their homes; disease caused
a high percentage of the deaths on battlefields, in prisoner-of-war camps, and in hospitals.
Prior to the Civil War, burial of the war dead was the responsibility of the Army’s Office of the Quartermaster
General, which also provided food, shelter, and supplies to the soldiers. This changed in September 1861, when
the United States War Department issued General Orders No. 75, which designated Union commanding officers responsible
for burial of the dead from their units. This order presented many challenges. Fighting often killed a large number
of soldiers, including the commanding officer. Of the survivors, after a long and arduous battle, few were capable
of moving bodies and digging graves due to fatigue, hunger, and injury. In addition, materials and information
for grave markers were often non-existent. Given that many battles occurred on farm fields, soldiers often received
hasty burials in shallow graves where they fell. Commanding officers were also required to keep records of deceased
soldiers and burial site locations. This proved difficult because few soldiers had any form of identification on
them. Some soldiers pinned a piece of paper to their clothing with their name and address, but dog tags did not
become standard issue until the 20th century. While some wealthy families paid to have their sons’ bodies sent
home by train, the long distances and high costs made this impossible for the majority of families. Stories of
family members and friends searching for the body of a deceased soldier were common to the history of the Civil
War.
In 1861, the Board of Governors of the Soldiers' Home in Washington, D.C. permitted the Army to bury soldiers who
died in and around the capital city in a section of its cemetery, but this land quickly filled up. Faced with
the growing number of Union dead, the U.S. Congress passed legislation in July 1862, which among other actions,
including pay, contracts, and rations, authorized the President to purchase land for the establishment of cemeteries
for burial of those fighting on behalf of the United States, not the Confederate States.
Confederate Mass Graves at Gettysburg
The first cemeteries were established near key locations: battlefields, including Mill Springs National Cemetery
in Nancy, Kentucky; hospitals, including Keokuk, Iowa; and other troop concentration points such as Alexandria,
Virginia. By the end of the Civil War in spring 1865, there were approximately 30 national cemeteries and seven
soldiers’ lots in private cemeteries. Despite this, many soldiers still were lying in farm fields due to hastily
conducted wartime burials, often having their remains exposed over time.
By 1867, the growing concern about the conditions of these wartime interments led to a new effort to provide a
proper burial for every Union soldier and sailor who died during the war. The Office of the U.S. Quartermaster
General established national cemeteries in central locations such as Memphis, Tennessee, where they assembled remains
from around the region for burial. Among the reinterments were soldiers from the United States Colored Troops.
Also in 1867, the “Act to Establish and Protect National Cemeteries” required the Secretary of War to enclose every
national cemetery with a stone or iron fence, to mark every gravesite with a headstone, appoint a superintendent
to each cemetery, and construct a lodge for the superintendent to occupy. Despite these requirements, a permanent
stone marker design was not adopted until 1873. Several years later, in 1879, Congress authorized the furnishing
of headstones for the unmarked graves of veterans in private cemeteries.
In 1873, national cemetery interment eligibility expanded to include all Union veterans, as a final benefit of
service to the country. Eligibility requirements for national cemeteries continued to expand in the 20th century
to include most honorably discharged veterans, their spouses, and dependent children.
Confederate soldiers could not be buried in national cemeteries, nor were they afforded any benefits from the United
States Government for many decades after the end of the Civil War. When the reburial corps in the late 1860s found
the remains of Confederate soldiers lying near those of Union soldiers, they removed the Union soldiers but left
the Confederates’ bodies. Because identification of remains was difficult at best, many Confederate soldiers were
reburied in national cemeteries, unintentionally as Union soldiers. Confederate prisoners of war were often interred
in “Confederate sections” within the national cemeteries. Generally, within national cemeteries and at other cemeteries
under the care of the Federal Government, Confederate graves were marked first with wooden headboards (as had been
Union graves) and later with marble markers with just the name of the soldier engraved on the stone, so that they
were indistinguishable from civilians buried in the national cemeteries. Private organizations, especially women’s
organizations established in former Confederate states after the war, assumed responsibility for Confederate reburials.
One of the more prominent groups was the Hollywood Memorial Association, which raised funds to move the bodies
of Confederate soldiers from the battlefields of Gettysburg and Drewry’s Bluff to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond,
Virginia. The appearance of grave markers varied in these Confederate cemeteries depending on the preferences of
the supervising organization.
The Federal Government first became involved in permanently marking Confederate graves in 1906. That year, Congress
authorized the furnishing of headstones for Confederate soldiers who died in Federal prisons and military hospitals
in the North, and were buried near their places of confinement. The act also established the Commission for Marking
Graves of Confederate Dead, whose job it was to ensure that the graves of Confederate soldiers in the North received
markers. The design for these grave markers was to be more or less identical to that approved in 1901 for marking
Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery. The headstone was the same size and material as those for Union
soldiers, except the top was pointed instead of rounded, and the U.S. shield was omitted. Individual graves were
marked at places such as Rock Island Confederate Cemetery, Illinois, and Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery, Ohio,
both sites of large prisoner of war camps. Confederate graves within national cemeteries in the North, such as
Woodlawn National Cemetery, New York, were also remarked with the new headstones at this time. In places where
the Commission was unable to mark individual graves, such as Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery, Maryland, and
Finn’s Point National Cemetery, New Jersey, a single monument was erected that featured bronze plaques bearing
the names of those who died at the associated prisoner of war camps. Finally, an Act of January 20, 1914, authorized
the furnishing of headstones for the unmarked graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers, sailors, and marines
in national, post, city, town, and village cemeteries. This provision allowed graves of Confederate soldiers buried
in national cemeteries in the South, such as Fort Smith and Little Rock National Cemeteries in Arkansas, to be
marked with the distinctive Confederate-style headstone.
Today, three Federal agencies manage 157 national cemeteries. The Veterans Administration, precursor to the Department
of Veterans Affairs, originally had responsibility for 21 cemeteries, some of them associated with the National
Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. To these were added 82 cemeteries and 33 related soldiers’ lots transferred
from the Department of the Army to the VA in 1973. Today, the Army retains control of two national cemeteries,
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, and Soldiers’ Home National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The
National Park Service manages 14 national cemeteries, the majority of which the War Department transferred to the
National Park Service in 1933 along with the national military parks. The Department of Veterans Affairs continues
to establish new cemeteries to provide burial benefits to veterans who served, as well as their families, as close
to home as possible. All three agencies maintain the national cemeteries as memorials to honor those who served
and sacrificed their lives for the United States.
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/national_
cemeteries/text_only.html
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Alabama Confederate Solders Home
Confederate Memorial Park
Cemetery
#1 Database
State funded 1902 to 1911
Cemetery
#2 Database
State funded 1911 - 1934
10th Alabama Infantry Regiment
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