Danville National Cemetery is located on the grounds of the Department of Veterans Affairs Illiana Health Care System, formerly the Danville Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.  Although the cemetery was developed concurrently with the National Home branch, the formal compass rose design stands in sharp contrast to the more picturesque layout of the rest of the grounds.  The Soldiers' Monument stands prominently at the center of the cemetery.

Congress authorized the creation of a new National Home branch in Danville in 1897 at the urging of U.S. Representative Joseph Cannon, who was often referred to as the “Father of the Home” and who later served as Speaker of the House from 1903 to 1911.  The branch, which opened in 1898, provided housing, medical care, education, and employment opportunities for veterans of Illinois and Indiana.  It became a neuropsychiatric hospital in 1935.  The site is still used today as a VA medical center, providing healthcare and a variety of services to America’s veterans.

Shortly after opening, the National Home Danville branch established a small burial ground for veterans who died at the facility.  In 1901, a new cemetery opened at the east end of the campus and the remains of 99 veterans who were previously interred in the old burial ground were moved to the new site.

The cemetery is square in shape with the burial sections laid out in three concentric circles. The Soldiers' Monument is located in the innermost circle and burials occupy sections in the two outer rings. Four pathways extend from the inner circle to the north, south, east and west. Additional burial sections are outside of the circle in the four corners of the cemetery.  A divided avenue with a landscaped median passes from the medical center campus through the cemetery gates and toward the middle of the circle.  The monument, designed by Clark Noble and dedicated on Memorial Day 1917, consists of a granite base topped with a life-sized bronze sculpture of a young Civil War soldier holding his musket.  The 30-acre cemetery is divided into 22 sections and is bordered to the north and south by heavy tree cover, to the east by a chain link fence along South Kansas Avenue, and a masonry wall to the west.  The modern administrative building is located at the northwest corner of the cemetery.

Danville National Cemetery is the final resting place for a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration, given for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.”