Vicksburg National Cemetery

Rows of soldier's graves with American flags on Memorial Day.

NPS

Quick Facts

Location:

Vicksburg National Military Park

Amenities

1 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

Vicksburg National Cemetery was established in 1866 as the final resting place for all soldiers who gave their lives in the campaign, siege, and occupation of Vicksburg, Mississippi during the Civil War. As part of the larger post-war Federal Reburial Program, the first large scale attempt at locating, indentifying, and commemorating the losses of the Union war dead, Vicksburg National Cemetery would bring together 17,000 Union soldiers who lost their lives.

While reinterment burials began in early 1867, the soldiers now buried here were scattered throughout Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, predominently in locations along the Mississippi River. Other burials were those soldiers who died during the Federal occupation of Vicksburg and buried at various points in the Vicksburg area before the national cemetery was established. Record keeping was haphazard under wartime conditions and grave locations were often lost.

Nationwide, 54% of the soldiers re-interred in national cemeteries were classified as "Unknown". Here at Vicksburg National Cemetery, 75% of the Civil War dead are listed as unidentified. This is due to the lack of standardized identification discs, now commonly referred to as "dog-tags" which list the basic information of a soldier on them.

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

Approximately 1,300 veterans of conflicts subsequent to the Civil War are also interred in Vicksburg National Cemetery. A scattering of other burials include wives and children of veterans, cemetery superintendents, and government workers of the past two centuries.

Vicksburg National Cemetery has been closed to burials since 1961, with the exception of those individuals whose reservations for interment had been validated prior to that time.

• Tour Stop #8 - Vicksburg National Cemetery

  
  

  This track discusses the creation of Vicksburg National Cemetery in 1866.

  Date created:

  12/31/2021