Fredericksburg National Cemetery

Approximately 20,000 soldiers died in this region during the Civil War, and their remains lay scattered across the countryside in shallow, often unmarked graves. In 1865 Congress established Fredericksburg National Cemetery as a final resting place for Union soldiers who died on area battlefields, while Confederate soldiers were buried in cemeteries at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Court House. Work on the cemetery began in 1866 and was completed in 1869. In the late 19th century, veterans erected two major monuments there, and before 1945 the remains of 300 veterans of later wars were interred. When the cemetery closed to new burials in 1945, 15,300 men were buried there, and fewer than 3,000 of them were known by name.

Fredericksburg, Virginia · United States