Impressions of Virginia: Fredericksburg National Cemetery

Dawn and I decided to visit the National Cemetery in Fredericksburg, as one of our sites, one morning before the real heat set in on Fredericksburg this summer. Starting at Sunken Road, we walked down toward the Innis house. After taking a few photographs there, we took the walking path up to the cemetery stopping by a barn that was located on the Brompton property that begged to be photographed. That will have to be a painting for another day! As we crested the hill and the cemetery lay before us we were fully aware that before us, there was a lot to take in. Probably more than we expected. As mainly a landscape painter, I'm studying the lay of the land and the trees. But amongst all the greenery and undulating brick walls are white granite headstones of those who came before us.

Fredericksburg Cemetery

© Laural Koons 2021

The Fredericksburg National Cemetery is located at 1013 Lafayette Blvd in Fredericksburg Virginia and is one of 14 national cemeteries managed by the National Park Service.

Established in 1865, it is the “final resting place for more than 15,000 Union soldiers who were originally buried in shallow and often unmarked graves around battlefields and field hospitals.”

After the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, the U.S. Congress authorized the establishment of a national cemetery at Fredericksburg, located at Marye’s Heights, providing a proper burial place for Union soldiers who died at major battles, smaller skirmishes, and illness while camped in the region, many within a 20-mile radius.

Construction on the cemetery began in 1866, with all burials from the Civil War interred in the cemetery by 1869. Of the 15,000 plus Union soldiers buried, only 2,473 have been identified. Burial plots are consecutively numbered and you will notice that the cemetery is not organized by state, unit or campaign. Soldiers buried there are mostly privates because the higher-ranking officers were often able to be transported home by family members. Those that are known have a rounded granite headstone to mark their grave with the graves of unknown soldiers' marked by a small square stone bearing two numbers. The top number identifies the plot and the bottom number indicates the number of soldiers buried in the plot. Confederates who died in the Fredericksburg area were interred in Confederate cemeteries in Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania.

By 1945 the cemetery was closed to further burials. There were an additional 300 burials between 1869 and 1945 of veterans of the Spanish-American War, WW1 and WW2.

Want to know more about Laural and Dawn's impressions of the Fredericksburg National Cemetery and to see the resulting artwork in person? Come to the Opening Night of their exhibit "Impressions of Virginia" on December 10th, 2021 at Dockside Realty in Colonial Beach, VA.