Search and Recovery Efforts - Poplar Grove National Cemetery

Poplar Grove in fall

NPS

Quick Facts

Location:

5008 Vaughan Road, Petersburg, VA

Significance:

National Cemetery

Amenities

1 listed

Wheelchair Accessible

Search and Recovery Efforts

In May 1866, Lt. Col. James Moore chose the former camp of the 50th New York Volunteers as the site for Poplar Grove National Cemetery. That summer, Acting Superintendent Major William S. Johnson oversaw site preparations. Crews dismantled the camp structures, including officers’ quarters, barracks, fences, and even the large wooden church, transforming the engineers’ camp into a cemetery ready to receive thousands of burials.

The burial corps began work on June 18, 1866. By June 1867, the team had grown to 96 men, supported by 13 wagons, an ambulance, four carts, 87 mules, and 28 horses. They searched the battlefields and graveyards around Petersburg and beyond, recovering U.S. soldiers’ remains from The Crater, Five Forks, Fort Stedman, Fort Gregg, Fort Hell, Weldon Railroad, Dinwiddie Court House, Hatcher’s Run, Meade Station, and Ream’s Station, as well as from several field hospitals. They also retrieved remains from battlefields at Lynchburg, Appomattox Station, and Harrison’s Landing.

When the team discovered a body, they placed it in a casket. If they found a headstone or marker, they attached it to the casket to help identify the soldier, along with the original burial location. The casket was then transported to Poplar Grove, where burials followed the order of arrival. Workers began in the cemetery’s center, numbering graves sequentially and filling them clockwise. Known and unknown graves lay side by side without formal arrangement. Each received a pine headboard, painted white with black lettering that recorded the grave number, the soldier’s name and rank, and the original burial location.

In addition to the burial corps efforts, locals in the Petersburg area recovered burials from surrounding farms. The War Department compensated citizens for retrieving the bodies of the war dead.

Major Thomas conducted the first inspection on June 10, 1867. By then, the cemetery held 5,196 U.S. remains: 2 sailors, one civilian, 84 officers, and 306 African Americans. Crews had identified 2,126 of the dead, while 3,070 remained unknown. The burial corps continued until June 1869, by which time Poplar Grove contained 6,182 burials. Only 35 percent, 2,164 soldiers, had been positively identified.