Tour Stop 8

	TOUR STOP 8 National Cemetery

Vicksburg National Cemetery lies on ground once manned by the extreme right of Major-General William T. Sherman's XV Army Corps. Embracing 116 acres it is the final resting place of 17,000 Union Soldiers, a number unmatched by any other national cemetery. The cemetery was established in 1865 and open for burials a year later. Soldiers buried here had been interred originally in scattered locations in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi during the campaign for control of the Mississippi River.

Others who died during the Federal occupation of Vicksburg were buried at various points in the Vicksburg vicinity before the national cemetery was established. Record keeping was haphazard under wartime conditions and grave locations were often lost. After the conclusion of the Civil War the U.S. Army located and exhumed the remains of 300,000 Union veterans buried in the South, then reinterred these remains in a national cemetery. Nationwide, 54% of the number reinterred was classified as "Unknown". At Vicksburg National Cemetery 75% of the Civil War dead are listed as unidentified. At Salisburg (N.C.) National Cemetery 99% of the 12,126 Federal soldiers interred are listed as unidentified

The first national cemeteries were established in 1862 by an act of Congress to provide a burial place for "soldiers who shall die in the service of the country". At the time, this provision applied only the Union War dead. Following the Spanish-American War veterans of later wars became qualified for burial in national cemeteries. Approximately 1,300 veterans of conflicts subsequent to the Civil War are interred in Vicksburg National Cemetery. A scattering of other burials include wives and children of veterans and government workers of the past century.

Upright headstones with rounded tops mark the graves of known soldiers. Small, square blocks, incised with a grave number only, designate the unknown veterans. A few graves are marked by other than government issued headstones.

No one of national fame is buried in Vicksburg National Cemetery. Brevet Brigadier-General Embury D. Osband qualifies as the highest ranking veteran interred. (Grave #16648, Section O). In the late 1860's, two Confederates were mistakenly buried in Section B of the cemetery. (Private Reuben White, 19th Texas Infantry Regiment, Grave #2637, and Sergeant Charles B. Brantley, 12th Arkansas Sharpshooters Battalion, Grave #2673. The Confederate dead from the Vicksburg campaign were buried behind Confederate lines in what is now the Vicksburg City Cemetery (Cedar Hill Cemetery). There are approximately 5,000 Confederates interred there, of which 1,600 are identified.

The Vicksburg National Cemetery has been closed for burials since 1963, except for a few individuals whose applications for interment had been validated prior to that time.

Opposite the National Cemetery, on the high ground to the South, is Fort Hill, the extreme left flank of the Confederate defenses.

National Cemetery Interments


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	Last update: Friday, November 05, 1999 http://www.nps.gov/vick/ts_8/ts_8.htm Editor: G. Zeman

TOUR STOP 8 National Cemetery

TOUR STOP 8
National Cemetery