Fredericksburg National Cemetery: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park
Commisso M and Roberts L. 2025. Fredericksburg National Cemetery: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 300179. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
Fredericksburg National Cemetery is located in the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia, approximately fifty-five miles from Washington, D.C., and is part of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. The twelve-acre cemetery is located on Willis Hill, situated at the southern end of Marye's Heights—a formidable position held by the Confederates during the Federal attacks on December 13, 1862. The cemetery was established in 1865 to inter the thousands of Union soldiers who died of illness in the camps around Fredericksburg, or were killed in the four major Civil War battles that took place around Fredericksburg (1862–1864) as well as the Mine Run and North Anna campaigns. The federal government established the cemetery as part of the first systematic national effort to provide burial grounds for those who died in service to the country. The U.S. War Department (later Department of the Army), maintained exclusive control over the national cemetery and park until 1933 when it transferred the properties to the National Park Service within the Department of the Interior. Today, Fredericksburg National Cemetery is one of fourteen of the nation's 147 national cemeteries within the National Park Service. Fredericksburg National Cemetery contains over 15,000 Union soldiers who died in the battles and camps around Fredericksburg. These burials are marked by granite and marble headstones inscribed with the soldier's name and state. Most of the graves at the cemetery contain the remains of unidentified soldiers and are marked by simple square granite posts inscribed with the number of the grave plot and the number of bodies in the grave. Fredericksburg National Cemetery remains predominately a Civil War cemetery, but does contain approximately one hundred graves containing veterans of later wars. The cemetery was closed to veteran interments in 1945. Fredericksburg National Cemetery remains relatively unchanged since 1945. Situated atop Willis Hill, at the southern end of Marye's Heights, the cemetery is characterized by the asymmetrically designed open space bounded by the eleven-sided brick inclosure (perimeter) wall with granite and iron entrance gates. It includes thousands of granite and marble gravestones and numerous monuments set within lawns dotted with trees. The graves are laid out along terraces and square- or rectangular-shaped grids, themselves defined by brick roads and grass paths. Other historic features that remain include a stone Second Empire style superintendent's lodge, a hitching post, flagstaff, boxwood hedge, and a variety of deciduous and evergreen specimen trees.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Commisso, Michael; Roberts, Laura
- Date of Issue
- 2025
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- FRED , NER
- Keywords
- Brick Wall, Carriageway, Cemetery, Cemetery Design, Cemetery Lawn, Cemetery Shrubs, Cemetery Specimen Trees, Civil War, CLI, Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Flagstaff, Fredericksburg, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, Fredericksburg National Cemetery, Graves, Headstones, Historic Designed Landscape, Lodge, Marye's Heights, National Cemetery System, Quartermaster, Service Road, Spotsylvania, Terraces, Union, War Department, Willis Hill