A National Cemetery System -- Chattanooga National Cemetery, Chattanooga TN - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

This is the second of two signs at the Chattanooga National Cemetery describing how the American Civil War created the National Cemetery System as a whole, and also preserving the history of the Civil War in Chattanooga, and the development and designation of the Chattanooga National Cemetery and its unique Civil War monuments in particular.

The sign reads as follows:

"A NATIONAL CEMETERY SYSTEM
Civil War Dead
An estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died in the Civil War between April 1861 and April 1865. As the death toll rose, the US government struggled with the urgent but unplanned need to bury fallen union troops. This propelled the creation of a national cemetery system.

On September 11, 1861, the war Department directed commanding officers to keep “accurate and permanent records of deceased soldiers.” It also required the US Army Quartermaster General, the office responsible for administering to the needs of troops in life and in death, to mark each grave with the headboard. A few months later, the department mandated interment of the dead in graves marked with numbered headboards, recorded in the register.

Creating National Cemeteries

The authority to create military burial grounds came in an Omnibus Act of July 17, 1862. It directed the president to purchase land to be used as “a national cemetery for the soldiers who shall die in the service of the country.” Fourteen national cemeteries were established by 1862.

When hostilities ended, a grim task began. In October 1865, Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs directed officers to survey lands of the Civil War theater to find Union dead and plan to reinterred them in new national cemeteries. Cemetery sites were chosen where troops were concentrated: camps, hospitals, battlefields, railroad hubs. By 1872, 74 national cemeteries and several soldiers lots contained 305,492 remains, about 45 percent were unknown.

[Graphic of Knoxville National Cemetery]

Knoxville was established after the siege of the city and battle of Fort Sanders in 1863. Cemetery plan, 1892, National Archives and Records Administration.

Most cemeteries were less than 10 acres, and layouts varied. In the Act to Establish and to Protect National Cemeteries February 22, 1867, Congress funded new permanent walls or fences, grave markers, and lodges for Cemetery Superintendants.

At first only soldiers and sailors who died during the Civil War were buried in national cemeteries. In 1873, eligibility was expanded to all honorably discharged Union veterans, and Congress appropriated $1 million to mark the graves. Upright marble headstones honor individuals whose names were known; six- inch square blocks mark unknowns.

By 1873, military post cemeteries on the Western frontier joined the national cemetery system. The National Cemeteries Act of 1973 transferred 82 Army cemeteries, including 12 of the original 14, to what is now the National Cemetery Administration.

REFLECTION AND MEMORIALIZATION

The country reflected upon the Civil War’s human toll – 2 percent of the US population died. Memorials honoring war service were built in national cemeteries. Most were donated by regimental units, state governments and veterans’ organizations such as the grand Army of the Republic. Decoration Day, later Memorial Day, was a popular patriotic spring event that started in 1868. Visitors place flowers on graves and monuments, and gathered around rostrums to hear speeches. Construction of Civil War monuments peaked in the 1890s. By 1920, is the number of aging veterans was dwindling, more than 120 monuments had been placed in the national cemeteries."

Group that erected the marker: United States Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: Chattanooga National Cemetery 1200 Bailey Chattanooga, TN URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Take a picture of the marker, preferably including yourself or your GPSr in the photo. A very detailed description of your visit may be substituted for a photo. In any case please provide a description of your visit. A description of only "Visited" or "Saw it while on vacation" by anyone other than the person creating the waymark may be deleted by the waymark owner or the category officers.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   08/20/2017 gmarkusic visited it 08/02/2017 Benchmark Blasterz visited it

View all visits/logs