Hampton National Cemetery

The U.S. Army established Hampton National Cemetery in 1866 about two miles from Fort Monroe, and after the Southern Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers opened in 1870, it used the cemetery for deceased residents. By 1874, the 11-acre cemetery contained 5,209 individuals, including 83 citizens, women, and children, and 475 of the graves were unknown. Land to the east was purchased in 1892 for additional burial space, and this Phoebus Section was expanded again in 1894 and 1934. A second Empire-style superintendent’s lodge was finished in 1872 and replaced in 1940. Sections D and E contain the remains of 272 Confederate prisoners of war who had been held at Fort Monroe, Newport News, Portsmouth, and other Tidewater Virginia locations, and both sections contain granite blocks inscribed “To Our Confederate Dead.” The Hampton area also saw major Civil War events: in 1861 at Fort Monroe, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler declared three slaves seeking protection behind Union lines to be contraband of war, helping free enslaved persons before President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863; in 1862, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan used Fort Monroe as his Peninsular Campaign base; at nearby Hampton Roads, the U.S.S. Monitor and C.S.S. Merrimac fought to a draw in the first engagement of ironclad warships; and in 1864 Butler launched his Richmond campaign from the fort. Troops from these and other campaigns often returned to Hampton as casualties, and Chesapeake Military Hospital and Hampton Military Hospital, with a total of 1,800 beds, treated sick and wounded officers and enlisted men. Six Civil War Medal of Honor recipients are buried here: Michael Cassidy, James R. Garrison, Sgt. Alfred B. Hilton, First Lt. Harry Henry J. Mandy, Pvt. Charles Veale, and David Warren.

Hampton, Virginia · United States