Cultural Landscape Report for Fredericksburg National Cemetery, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park

Auwaerter, John; Bartels, Arleen

In 1866, the United States Army established Fredericksburg National Cemetery to inter the thousands of fallen United States soldiers from the Civil War battles that raged across Fredericksburg and neighboring counties between 1862 and 1864, and from associated camps and hospitals. Never expanded in size since its original construction, the cemetery retains its close association with the Civil War with the vast majority of its 15,429 interments made during the establishment of the cemetery between 1866 and 1868. The US War Department administered Fredericksburg National Cemetery until 1933, when the cemetery and surrounding national military park were transferred to the National Park Service within the Department of the Interior. Fredericksburg is today one of fourteen national cemeteries administered by the National Park Service. The National Cemetery Administration, an agency of the Department of Veterans Affairs, manages 139 national cemeteries, about sixty of which date to the Civil War. Fredericksburg National Cemetery is in the upper Tidewater region of Virginia, halfway between Richmond and Washington, D.C. The cemetery is accessed from Lafayette Boulevard (former US 1), a main secondary road into Fredericksburg from the south, about a half mile southwest of downtown bordering park, residential, and mixed-use areas. The cemetery extends across twelve acres on the slopes and plateau of Willis Hill, the southern extent of Marye's Heights that was a Confederate stronghold in the Battle of Fredericksburg, December 1862, and the Battle of Second Fredericksburg, May 1863. The cemetery burial grounds consisted of regular rows of small granite slab and block grave markers organized around a central monument and shaded by widely-spaced deciduous and evergreen trees. The main entrance gates, lodge, flagstaff, and most prominent monuments are at the head of Lafayette Boulevard, facing town. A distinctive feature of the landscape is the terraced front hillside and the perimeter brick wall that steps up the terraces. The cemetery is part of the Fredericksburg Battlefield unit of the national military park, and the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center, completed in 1937, is adjacent to the cemetery entrance. This Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) documents through text and graphics the physical evolution of the cemetery landscape to the present and its historic context as part of the National Cemetery System, supplementing existing research on the cemetery's history to 1933 by park historian Donald C. Pfanz. In keeping with Director's Order #61, National Cemetery Operations, this report will provide information needed to guide management of the landscape and meet the intent of National Park Service National Cemetery regulations (36 CFR Part 12). Treatment recommendations address management and design challenges in the cemetery landscape, including universal accessibility, missing historic features, and interpretation as part of broader agency efforts to improve the condition of the fourteen national cemeteries in the National Park System. A Cultural Landscape Report is the primary document used by the National Park Service to manage historically significant landscapes. This report for Fredericksburg National Cemetery has been developed according to the Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports: Contents, Process, and Techniques (National Park Service, 1998). It consists of Part I (Site History, Existing Conditions, Analysis and Evaluation) and Part II (Treatment). The report has four chapters: Site History, Existing Conditions, Analysis and Evaluation, and Treatment. A resource list and appendix containing important historical documents, graphics, chronology, and list of repositories consulted are at the back of the report.

Cultural Landscape Report for Fredericksburg National Cemetery, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park

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