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

  Audio Transcript

  Here, beneath magnolia trees and manicured grounds, rest the remains of those that paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country.

  With the remains of Union soldiers and sailors buried at every hospital, camp site, and battlefield in the region, Vicksburg National Cemetery was established in 1866 as a final resting place for all Union remains found south of the Arkansas state line and north of Grand Gulf, Mississippi.

  Ultimately, more than 17,000 Unions servicemen were disinterred and reburied, making Vicksburg National Cemetery the largest Civil War burial ground in the nation. Unfortunately, due to the primitive burial practices of the armies on the move, such as marking graves with wooden slats, 75% of the dead could not be identified.

  Although primarily containing Union burials, the cemetery remained open until 1961, accepting the remains of over 1,280 casualties from Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean Conflict, as well as honorably discharged veterans and their spouses.

  Among the civilians in the cemetery are: 129 spouses, 9 children, 4 park superintendents, and 27 government workers.

  The remains of Vicksburg’s valiant Confederate defenders lay at Soldier’s Rest in Vicksburg Municipal cemetery not far from here.

  Signs along the tour road contain stanzas taken from the Bivouac of the Dead, a poem written in 1847 in honor of the men who died during the Battle of Buena Vista in the Mexican-American War. The poem’s message was so universal, however, that it became a staple of cemeteries and memorial services in both the north and the south.