Cemeteries

The area around Bristoe became the final resting place for hundreds of soldiers who died in Northern Virginia. Soldiers from Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia created state cemeteries to bury their comrades. Burial details were a daily occurrence, and military honors were conducted by an honor guard. The following year, Federal soldiers passed the Confederate graves in the area and noted that many had wooden headboards identifying names and units. The first burials here were of Alabama soldiers who died of disease at Camp Jones. Later Alabama deaths at other camps in Fairfax County and some casualties from the Battle of Dranesville were also buried here. Most of the Confederate burials remain here today. Currently, only the Alabama Cemetery has been positively identified and is on park property. Hundreds of other soldiers lie in cemeteries in unknown locations somewhere in the Bristoe area. Burial of the dead was a daily occurrence at Bristoe, and military homage was paid to each departed soldier by comrades firing a musketry volley over the grave at the interment, with reports heard throughout the brigade's camping grounds as a well-understood signal.

Linton Hall, Virginia · United States