National Cemeteries and Battlefield Parks

Soldiers' Cemetery at Alexandria
Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Responding to the concerns of the country, Congress passed a joint resolution in 1866 and the National Cemetery Act in 1867. This legislation authorized the Secretary of War to acquire land for national cemeteries. The arduous task of creating the cemeteries and locating and reinterring the dead began immediately. By 1870 nearly 300,000 Union soldiers were interred in 73 national cemeteries. Because of the burial practices described earlier, only about fifty percent of those soldiers could be identified.
The National Cemetery System modified the rural cemetery model, creating sites that not only honored the dead, but welcomed the living and encouraged nationalistic inspiration. Similar sites of memorialization, commemoration, and remembrance were created in the form of battlefield parks.

Dedication of Gettysburg Battelfield
Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division