Loudon Park National Cemetery

In December 1861, the U.S. Sanitary Commission designated a small area of Loudon Park Cemetery for the burial of Union soldiers who died in Baltimore hospitals, and the half-acre lot in the northeast corner of this private cemetery became one of the first national cemeteries. By 1874, an estimated 1,646 Union soldiers and five civilians lay there. In 1884, the remains of approximately 238 U.S. Colored Troops were relocated from a government lot in Baltimore's Laurel Cemetery to the national cemetery, and five notable Union monuments were installed between 1885 and 1898. In 1912, the Commission for Marking Graves of Confederate Dead identified 256 imprisoned soldiers and civilians who died in the Baltimore area during the Civil War; twenty-nine, originally buried at Fort McHenry, had been reinterred at the national cemetery, but because the commission could not locate these graves, it erected one granite monument with a bronze tablet listing the soldiers’ names. During the Civil War, Maryland was divided over secession although slavery remained legal, and after President Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers on April 15, 1861, Massachusetts troops passing through Baltimore four days later were attacked by pro-Confederate residents, fired into the crowd, killed dozens of civilians, and wounded many more. On May 13, Lincoln ordered Union forces to occupy Baltimore, and they remained throughout the war. Fort McHenry became a prison for disloyal Maryland civilians and captured Confederate soldiers, while pro-Union Baltimore supported the war, escaped slaves came to Maryland and many enlisted in the 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, thousands of soldiers trained in and around the city, and sick and wounded soldiers were treated at Jarvis U.S. General Hospital, the Steuart Mansion, and other facilities. Two Civil War recipients of the Medal of Honor are buried in the cemetery: Pvt. James T. Jennings of the 56th Pennsylvania Infantry, who captured the flag of the 55th North Carolina Infantry at Petersburg, Virginia, on August 20, 1864, and died at Jarvis U.S. General Hospital on March 22, 1865; and Second Lt. William Taylor of the 1st Maryland Infantry, who burned a bridge at Front Royal, Virginia, in May 1862 to prevent a Confederate pursuit and on August 20, 1864, replaced a wounded officer at Petersburg and led a reconnaissance mission.

Baltimore, Maryland · United States