Yorktown National Cemetery: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Colonial National Historical Park, National Park Service

Killion, Jeff; Bundy, Jessica C.; Berriault, Ethan

Yorktown National Cemetery is located approximately 0.7 miles south of Yorktown, Virginia, at the corner of Cook Road (State Route 238) and Goosley Road. The cemetery is within Colonial National Historical Park’s Yorktown Unit, which is most famous as the site of the last major battle of the Revolutionary War where British General Cornwallis and his army surrendered to the Americans, securing the new nation’s independence. However, its strategic location on the Virginia Peninsula also made it key to the military strategies of both the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War. Yorktown National Cemetery is one of 14 national cemeteries managed by the National Park Service. The 2.91-acre, rectangular-shaped cemetery was established in 1866 for Union soldier burials and developed through the 1870s according to design guidelines issued by the US Army’s Quartermaster Department for the National Cemetery System. The cemetery contains 1,596 marked and 608 unmarked graves, of which 747 are known and 1,457 are unknown. The graves also include ten Confederate soldiers, three wives, several other civilians, and the child of a cemetery superintendent. In addition, at least one World War I seaman and one former cemetery superintendent who was a Civil War veteran are buried in the cemetery. The last burials by the War Department were in the 1920s. The War Department transferred the cemetery to the NPS in 1933. The national cemetery is enclosed by a three-foot tall brick wall on all sides. The main entrance located in the center of the west wall has a double-wrought iron gate flanked by pedestrian gates on either side. Another pedestrian gate is at the northwest corner of the site near the parking lot, and a service entrance is at the southwest corner. Grass walkways divide the cemetery into four burial sections, at the center of which is the footing of the original iron flagpole. Grave markers are flush, 2-by-1-foot, engraved marble stones that replaced upright marble headstones ca.1940. The markers are set out in linear rows within maintained lawns, themselves dotted with a few evergreen trees and shrubs. The superintendent’s lodge, located just inside the main entrance, was designed by US Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs and features the distinctive mansard roof common to the Second Empire style. The only other structures onsite include a flagpole on the western edge of the northwest burial section and a utility building at the southwest corner of the cemetery. The Yorktown National Cemetery Cultural Landscape Inventory (CLI) documents the landscape’s location, size, physical development, landscape characteristics, character-defining features, and condition. The information contained in the CLI is compiled from primary and secondary sources and through onsite surveys of the landscape. The CLI includes historic maps, drawings, and images; photographs of existing conditions; and a site plan that indicates major features. The CLI documents the existing condition of park landscape resources and identifies impacts, threats, and measures to stabilize condition. This inventory was completed as part of a national effort to document all cultural landscapes in the national park system. The National Park Service Cultural Landscapes Inventory (CLI) includes landscapes that are listed, or eligible for listing, on the National Register of Historic Places, or are otherwise managed as cultural resources, which the National Park Service has, or plans to acquire, legal interest. The completed inventories are included in the Servicewide Cultural Resources Information System (CRIS-CL) database.

Yorktown National Cemetery: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Colonial National Historical Park, National Park Service

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