Alexandria National Cemetery (Historical Marker)
GPS Coordinates: 38.8016111, -77.0582545
Closest Address: 1450 Wilkes Street, Alexandria, VA 22314

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:
Alexandria National Cemetery
Securing the Capital
On May 24, 1861, Gen. Winfield Scott ordered eleven regiments of Union troops from Washington, D.C., across the Potomac River, where they captured Arlington and Alexandria.
After their defeat in July at Manassas, Virginia, the Union Army began constructing fortifications to protect the capital city. Fort Albany, Battery Rogers, and Fort Ellsworth near Alexandria anchored the southern end of Washington's defenses. The city became an important Union base of operations.
Military Hospitals
The influx of troops to Alexandria prompted the need for military hospitals. Thousands of sick and wounded Union soldiers were treated in area hospitals throughout the Civil War. The army opened Madison House Hospital, Old General Hospital, Sickel General Hospital, and Slough Barracks General Hospital. It also established a large convalescent camp in Alexandria for soldiers who were discharged from the hospital but were still recovering.
Beginning if March 1863, the federal government began actively recruiting black men for the Union Army. A few months later, the War Department created the Bureau of United States Colored Troops (USCT). USCT regiments fought in battles and engagements from Virginia to Texas. L'Overture General Hospital, designed by the Quartermaster Department, opened in Alexandria in February 1864 for the treatment of black soldiers and civilians.
(sidebar)
The First National Cemeteries
Despite the numerous medical facilities in Alexandria, many soldiers died. The federal government acquired 4 acres adjoining the city cemeteries in 1862 to bury the dead. Initially it was known as Soldiers Cemetery. In 1871, the Quartermaster Department built a Second Empire-style lodge of Seneca sandstone at the entrance. A matching stone wall enclosed the cemetery. Today, Alexandria National Cemetery is the final resting place of about 4,000 individuals, including 280 USCT soldiers.
A simple boulder monument with a bronze plaque, erected in 1922, honors four civilian employees of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corp. The men drowned attempting to cross the Potomac River on April 24, 1865, while pursuing John Wilkes Booth, President Abraham Lincoln's assassin. Their graves are located near the monument.
Erected 2015 by U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration.
<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>
<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>
Here follows an excerpt from the Clio Foundation website as written by Marina Coma and Genna Duplisea:
Introduction
When the Civil War tore apart the country, protecting the capital became the Union’s priority. Shortly after the beginning of the conflict, Alexandria was captured by Union troops, who promptly garrisoned the city. The huge influx of soldiers prompted the need for both hospitals and cemeteries, so the Alexandria National Cemetery was established in 1862, one of fourteen cemeteries established that year. Several thousand Civil War combatants rest in this cemetery, as well as civilians. Several structures were added to the cemetery in the late nineteenth century. The cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
Backstory and Context
Initially known as Soldiers' Cemetery, the Alexandria National Cemetery is one of the first national cemeteries in the US, established in 1862. It stretches across 5.5. acres and by 1864 was almost filled to capacity, which led to the construction of the Arlington National Cemetery.
The original grave markers were wooden; however, in 1876, all were replaced by marble headstones. Most of the soldiers buried here were enlisted men, as it was customary for dead officers to be embalmed and shipped home. Although originally about 40 Confederate soldiers were buried in the Alexandria National Cemetery, the Daughters of the Confederacy had their bodies reinterred at Christ Church in 1879. The Alexandria National Cemetery is the final resting place of over 4,500 soldiers. It is a constant reminder of the brutality of war and of the impact it had on Alexandria.
However, not only military men rest in this cemetery. Four civilians who died while chasing John Wilkes Booth after President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination are also buried here. These men drowned trying to cross the Potomac River on April 24, 1865. Their deaths are honored by a simple monument built in 1922. This boulder monument with a bronze plaque was erected near their graves.
The cemetery's superintendent's lodge is the largest surviving structure in the cemetery. U.S. Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs designed the lodge in the Second French Empire style. Built around 1870 of Seneca sandstone, it is emblematic of architecture in Washington, D. C. in that time period. In 1887 the cemetery built a "comfort station," later converted into a kitchen and shed in 1927 when the cemetery built a summer dining room of brick.
In 1995, the Alexandria National Cemetery, along with 72 other national cemeteries constructed during the Civil War, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The cemetery was documented as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey, and this documentation is held by the Library of Congress.
<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>
<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>
Here follows an excerpt from the Annandale Chamber of Commerce website:
Alexandria National Cemetery
By: Marv Rodney, ENDEAVOR April 2012
Prior to the creation of The Alexandria National Cemetery was originally founded as the Soldiers' Cemetery in 1862.hat all Washingtonians simply refer to as Arlington, various military cemeteries were created. Collectively they are considered national cemeteries both in the US and abroad. One of the oldest is the Alexandria National Cemetery, established in 1862 as the Soldiers’ Cemetery, and located six blocks west of U.S. Highway 1 in the city of Alexandria. The need for military burial ground was especially great with the massive death toll of the Civil War, especially in Virginia where sixty percent of all Civil War battles took place.
The main entrance to the Alexandria National Cemetery is on Wilkes Street. It is the last in a series of aged cemeteries along this lane with graves dating back to the 18th century. An impressive twelve foot wide ornamental wrought and cast iron gate marks the entryway. Defining this relatively small property as a place of importance is a substantial red sandstone wall. It anchors this undulating ground as if to declare, “This ground, in perpetuity, is where heroes lie.”
The graves are marked with simple & dignified white marble headstones laid out like a regiment of soldiers with every two rows facing one another. Remembered for all time are 4,230 men who served in the Union Army of the Potomac.
The City of Alexandria was the site of one of the principal camps for northern Virginia troops sent to defend Washington at the outbreak of hostilities between the North and South. Here, in response to the popular slogan, “On to Richmond,” the Union Army of the Potomac was assembled from a miscellaneous collection of militia regiments. The force was approximately 2,000 strong and 722 of these men, thirty-six percent of the total force, both African American and Caucasian were native Alexandrians in local units.
Located within the city of Alexandria were a number of hospitals and convalescent centers for Federal troops wounded in the field. The Alexandria National Cemetery served as the burial ground for soldiers who died there and in the surrounding area. Two famous hospitals were at Camp Hall, a private residence seized by Union Troops and converted to a hospital at 806 Prince Street and Greens Mansion House Hotel (directly in front of the Carlyle House) along with the property that surrounded it at 121 North Fairfax Street. Known as the Manson House General Hospital, it was a 700 bed facility where Walt Whitman once visited.
The original superintendent’s lodge at the cemetery was constructed in 1862 and destroyed by fire in 1878. Nine years later, a brick Italianate utility building was extended from the original lodge which added a kitchen, store-room, and tool room. Landscaped by ancient yews and substantial boxwood shrubbery, this L-shaped lodge is of the Second Empire style and adds a warm and interesting welcome to the entrance. The first floor has an impressive ten foot ceiling height while three bedrooms can be found on the second floor, one of which has a corner partition for a hall bathroom.
In 1880, the City of Alexandria designated a tree estimated to be 200 years old, as an Alexandria Centennial Tree. It is a Liquidambar styracifua species and graciously shades the central portion of the cemetery. Much later, in 1946, a fieldstone and slate assembly area with flagpole was added where ceremonies to honor these veterans could be conducted. This assembly area is surrounded by low fieldstone walls with stone steps leading down from the flag to the plaza, facing away from the entrance gates and lodge. Although aligned with the main gate, by simply lowering the plaza, the tombstones are respectively allowed to remain the dominant feature.
Dignified white headstones stand as a regiment in this field for over 4,200 soldiers.
A final feature at this solemn yet beautiful place is a special monument, erected on July 7, 1922 by the United States Government in memory of the men who died while in pursuit of John Wilkes Booth. The monument is a bronze tablet on a granite boulder base and located in the center of the ceremonial flag plaza.
The four members of the Quartermaster Corps honored by this monument drowned in the Rappahannock River on April 24, 1865, while in pursuit of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin. They are buried in Section A, Graves 3174 – 3177. By 1864 this hollowed ground was almost filled to capacity which led to the development of the Arlington National Cemetery, the subject of next quarter’s edition of ENDEAVOR.
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, Alexandria National Cemetery is administered by the Veterans Administration. For more photos, please see the April 2012 issue of ENDEAVOR on this website.