The Making of The National Cemetery System

Crown Hill National Cemetery

Abraham Lincoln

The National Cemetery System was developed as a way to provide a respectable and honored burial location for Civil War soldiers killed defending the Union.  In the Act of July 17, 1862, Congress authorized President Abraham Lincoln "to purchase cemetery grounds ... to be used as a national cemetery for soldiers who shall have died in the service of the country."  This was the first U.S. legislation to set in motion the concept of a national cemetery.

Before the national cemeteries were developed, soldiers were buried where they fell, at military posts, or the body was sent back to the family for a private burial.  A headboard was usually placed at the grave with the soldier’s name and information either painted on or written on in chalk.  Since the wooden markers could not with stand the elements, the boards deteriorated rapidly and burial sites were lost.

Nashville National Cemetery

In July of 1862, the Army’s Quartermaster Department was assigned the task of establishing and maintaining the national cemeteries. After the end of the Civil War in 1865, the program began in earnest – to search for, locate, recover, and identify the remains of all Union soldiers, before re-interment in a national cemetery.  By June 1866, over 1 million dollars had been spent re-interring the war dead.  The Quartermaster General estimated that over $2.6 million would be the ''total cost of national cemeteries, and collection, transfer and re-interment of remains of loyal soldiers.'' The average cost of re-interment for each body was $9.75.

The first National Cemetery Act was passed on February 22, 1867.  It provided funding in the amount of $750-thousand for the construction of national cemeteries, including the purchase of land, fencing and headstones.  The act also set some rules into place regarding conduct in a national cemetery stating, “any person who shall willfully destroy, mutilate, deface, injure, or remove any monument, gravestone . . . or shrub within the limits of any said national cemetery” would be arrested and found guilty of a misdemeanor.

U.S. Colored Troops Burial Grounds

Union Head Stone

The headstone design was subject to several years of debates.  Many materials were suggested, including cast iron.  Final approval and the appropriation of 1-million dollars was given by Congress, in March 1873 for the erection of a marble or granite headstone, measuring 12 inches high by 10 inches wide by 4 inches thick, with a slightly rounded top.  Name, rank or affiliation was placed in a federal shield carved into the stone.  Headstones for the regular Army soldiers were marked as “USA.”  Stones for the U.S. Colored Troops were marked as “USCT.”  Due to interpretation of the act, stones for ‘contrabands’ and civilians were not allowed.

Marble or granite headstones for those whose remains were unidentified measured 6 inches high by 6 inches wide and 30 inches deep.  They were marked only with a number and/or by the words “Unknown U.S. Soldier.” Forty-two percent of the bodies and remains recovered were never identified.

 

It took eight years for the interment of nearly almost 300,000 Union remains into designated national cemetery grounds.  Of those, over one hundred thousand were not identifiable. In 1870, General Montgomery Meigs declared the reburial project to be completed with a total of seventy-three national cemeteries created.  However, more would need to be created in the West where fallen soldiers had been abandoned at their frontier posts.

During the 1870’s several amendments were added to the National Cemetery Act of 1867 to allow the burial of Union veterans in national cemeteries.  In 1872, an amendment was passed to allow “all soldiers and sailors honorably discharged from the service of the United States who may die in a destitute condition, shall be allowed burial in the national cemeteries of the United States.”

As a result of the amendments, many national cemeteries began to be located throughout the country – not just at the site of Civil War battles.   National cemeteries were set up in New Mexico, Nevada, California, and Mexico City, Mexico for those slain in the Mexican War.

Fredrick L Olmsted

Landscape architect, Fredrick Law Olmsted was called in to offer his opinion on the appearance of the national cemeteries.  Olmsted advised, “the main object should be to establish permanent dignity and tranquility ... sacredness being expressed in the enclosing wall and in the perfect tranquility of the trees within.”   As a result, trees and shrubs were added to the national cemeteries, flowers were planted, and stone, brick or iron fences enclosed the grounds.  Many times cannons and other artillery were added as cemetery monuments.

Courtesy of
Arlington National Cemetery

Gen. Montgomery Meigs

In June of 1881, General Meigs issued a recommendation that “Arlington cemetery, … be declared and constituted by law the official national cemetery of the government, and that its space, not needed for the interment of soldiers, be used for the burial of officers of the United States legislative, judicial, civil, and military, who may die at the seat of government or whose friends may desire their interment in a public national cemetery.”

Confederate stones

In 1906, over forty years after the war, legislation passed that allowed the re-interment of Confederate soldiers in national cemeteries.

There are now 131 national cemeteries located throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.  Many are located on or near Civil War battlefields or troop concentration points such as military hospitals and campsites.  The original fourteen national cemeteries, created in 1862 are –

Alexandria National Cemetery, Alexandria, Virginia

Annapolis National Cemetery, Annapolis, Maryland

Antietam National Cemetery, Sharpsburg, Maryland

Camp Butler National Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois

Cypress Hills National Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York

Danville National Cemetery, Danville, Kentucky

Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas 

Fort Scott National Cemetery, Fort Scott, Kansas

Keokuk National Cemetery, Keokuk, Iowa

Loudon Park National Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland

Mill Springs National Cemetery, Nancy, Kentucky

New Albany National Cemetery, New Albany, Indiana

Philadelphia National Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Soldier’s Home National Cemetery, Washington, D.C.

Since 1862, more than 3-million burials have occurred in national cemeteries.  The purpose of the National Cemetery System remains the same as it did 149 years ago; to provide a proper burial service, headstone, and interment in hallowed ground for veterans, those on active duty, reservists and National Guard members who serve and defend our country.

~ Joy

Remembering Fathers in the Cemetery

Sonora Smart Dodd

This Sunday is Father’s Day, a day which is celebrated on the third Sunday of June each year in the United States.  Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the idea of having a special day to honor fathers in 1909.

William Johnson Smart

Sonora’s father, William Smart, was a widower whose wife died while giving birth to their sixth child.  He raised all six children by himself.  Sonora felt that all fathers should be honored for their selfless actions with a special day.  She chose June because that was the month of her father’s birth.  The first official Father’s Day celebration was held on June 19^th, 1910 in Spokane, Washington.

A bill to gain national attention for the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913.  In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge publicly backed the idea, but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation.  It was 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation honoring fathers by declaring the 3^rd Sunday of June as Father’s Day.    President Richard Nixon made it a permanent national holiday by signing it into law in 1972.

 

A day to celebrate fathers is held in over 50 countries around the world, usually in May, June or the early autumn.  Some Catholic countries celebrate it on the Feast of St. Joseph.  The flower symbolic of Father’s Day, is the rose.  Red is to be worn for a living father and white for a father who has passed on.

Statistics show that Father’s Day is the fifth most popular holiday for the sending of cards.  It is estimated that $95 million is spent on cards each year.  This includes cards not just for fathers, but grandfathers, uncles, sons and son-in-laws.  And although more direct phone calls are made on Mother’s Day, more collect calls occur on Father’s Day.

There are many quotes about fathers including:

"It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was." -- Anne Sexton

"I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection." -- Sigmund Freud

"If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in

any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right."

-- Bill Cosby

 In cemeteries too, fathers are remembered and honored in many ways and by various names.  A father who acted as teacher, disciplinarian, protector and friend is one to be honored and remembered.

Miss me, but let me go

When I come to the end of the road

And the sun has set for me

I want no rites in a gloom filled room

Why cry for a soul set free

Miss me a little - but not too long

And not with your head bowed low

Remember the love that we once shared

Miss me - but let me go

For this is a journey that we must all take

And each must go alone

It's all a part of the Master's plan

A step on the road home

When you are lonely, and sick of heart

Go to the friends we know

And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds

Miss me - but let me go

~ Anonymous

Death is nothing at all

I have only slipped away into the next room

I am I, and you are you.

Whatever we were to each other

That we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name

Speak to me in the easy way which you always used

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes

We enjoyed together.

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me,

Let my name be ever the household word that

It always was.

Let it be spoken without effort,

Without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant

It is the same as it ever was

There is absolutely unbroken continuity.

Why should I be out of mind because I am

Out of sight? I am but waiting for you

For an interval

Somewhere very near

Just around the corner .

All is well.

~ Canon Henry Scott Holland (1847-1918)

Happy Father’s Day!

~ Joy

The Reason for Memorial Day

In the U.S., we celebrate Memorial Day on the last Monday of May. But over the years the real reason for the observance has been diminished.  It is not about having a three-day weekend or the opening of the pool; it’s also not about having a parade, watching the Indy 500 or the ‘official’ start of summer.  It is a day set aside to remember and honor those who sacrificed their lives, fighting in wars, for this country’s freedom.

John A. Logan

Decoration Day was officially decreed on May 5, 1868 by General John A. Logan, the first Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, to honor those who died fighting in the Civil War. It was first observed that same year, on May 30th at Arlington Cemetery when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers. Many women’s groups took up the practice of decorating the graves of the war dead with flowers and flags each May 30^th, thereafter. 

In a speech given at Arlington Cemetery in 1870, Logan asked, “Shall we, the freest of all nations, in our paradise of liberty feel less patriotic fire in our breasts...? Shall we neglect the graves of those who sacrificed their lives to defend the palladium of our liberty, to perpetuate our national unity, and shield our rights forever? ...”

By 1882 the name Memorial Day was being used interchangeably with Decoration Day.  By 1890, every state in the north had declared Memorial Day as an official holiday.

The South, however, refused to acknowledge Memorial Day, insisting on honoring their dead on other days throughout the spring.  After World War I, the observance was declared to be in honor and remembrance of all who died fighting for America in any war. Though many states in the South still have a separate day to honor the Confederate dead, Memorial Day is now observed throughout the country on the last Monday in May.

At the start of the twentieth century, Memorial Day had evolved into an occasion to remember not only the war dead, but deceased family members and ancestors as well.  Buggies were hitched up, picnic baskets were prepared, and flowers were gathered for the journey to the cemetery to decorate the graves of loved ones and soldiers, alike.

VFW Buddy Poppies

During WWI, Moina Michael started the tradition of wearing a red poppy in honor of those who died during war.  In 1922, just before Memorial Day, the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) organization became the first war veterans group to sell red poppies nationally. 

In the late 1950’s, the 3^rd U.S. Infantry began placing small American flags by each of the gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery.  The practice continues today with over 260,000 flags being posted, one by each grave.  Communities and cemeteries across the country hold similar ceremonies, including the laying of wreathes, the placing of flags and the lighting of candles – all in remembrance and in honor of those who died while in military service.

In 1967, the name was officially changed from Decoration Day to Memorial Day. Then in 1968, Congress passed the National Holiday Act, which specified that Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day and Washington’s Birthday would always fall on a Monday, thereby ensuring convenient three-day weekends.  The law took effect in 1971 marking Memorial Day as an official federal holiday. There have been attempts by several organizations and some political officials to return to the traditional date of May 30^th, but the proposed revisions do not appear to have had much support.

On May 30, 1870, General Logan gave an address in honor of the new commemorative holiday. In it he said: 

"This Memorial Day, on which we decorate their graves with the tokens of love and affection, is no idle ceremony with us, to pass away an hour; but it brings back to our minds in all their vividness the fearful conflicts of that terrible war in which they fell as victims.... Let us, then, all unite in the solemn feelings of the hour, and tender with our flowers the warmest sympathies of our souls! Let us revive our patriotism and love of country by this act, and strengthen our loyalty by the example of the noble dead around us...."

This weekend, when we gather with friends for the first picnic of the summer, when we watch the Indy 500, when we go to the weekend’s parade or festival, let us consider the real reason for this day and take a moment to remember those who have served, and honor those who lost their lives in service to our country.  Memorial Day is not just a day of celebration – but also a day to celebrate being American! And for remembering the price other Americans have paid.

~ Joy