National Cemetery Administration

National cemeteries originated out of necessity during the American Civil War. In the summer of 1862, as casualties mounted at an alarming rate, Congress empowered President Abraham Lincoln to purchase and enclose burial plots as national cemeteries to inter the growing number of Union dead. Army Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs developed the Meigs Plan to accomplish this.

Nine individuals in U.S. history have obtained the five-star general officer rank, all but one directly on account of their World War II service. Only one of this select group, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, is interred in a VA national cemetery.

A Togus time capsule filled with objects and historical materials provides a snapshot of a particular time and place. This capsule was found on the Togus National Cemetery in Maine while masons were working on a monument.

President Abraham Lincoln’s famed 272-word Gettysburg Address, cast in iron tablets, was placed in national cemeteries in 1909 as part of a nationwide birthday centennial program. When the popular president, born February 12, was honored again in 2009, NCA began to produce more tablets to ensure the speech is in all new national cemeteries.

National cemeteries played a role in the repatriation process for servicemembers who died outside of the United States during the two world wars.

The first permanent informational plaques placed in national cemeteries after the Civil War were affixed to upright cannons to brand these sites as a shrine to Union dead. These bronze shield plaques were installed after a 1872 report and served as early monuments to Union dead from the Civil War at national cemeteries.

On July 13, 1895, renowned suffragist and social activist Susan B. Anthony visited Fort Scott National Cemetery, Kansas. Sitting on a table within the cemetery superintendent's lodge was a leather-bound visitor register, which she signed.

After a night raid by German forces on Nov. 2, 1917, a group of U.S. soldiers became the first group taken prisoner in WWI. These POWs included Sgt. Edgar Halyburton and Pvt. Clyde Grimsley, and each suffered the privations that occurred in early 20th Century imprisonment.

On September 1, 1973, the Veterans Administration (VA) became the steward of 103 national cemeteries, 22 soldiers’ and government lots in private cemeteries, 7 Confederate cemeteries, and 3 monument sites with the absorption of the National Cemetery System. It also took responsibility for the procurement of government headstones and markers for eligible veterans. VA was now in the cemetery service.

In 1945, as World War II was ending, the U.S. cruiser USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine, igniting a quest for survival for the hundreds of sailors stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Today, only a few of those survivors remain, and National Cemetery Administration Historian Richard Hulver memorializes some of those Veterans, who are buried at national cemeteries across the world.

The American Civil War began in April 1861 and within a month, enslaved African Americans, like those from Loutre Island, seeking shelter behind Union lines shifted the war’s objectives - improving emancipation policies. NCA intern Jacob Klinger dives into the experience of Soldier John Pitzer, who served in this dynamic time period and is memorialized at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis.

VA History Exhibit - When the U.S. had to increase enlistments to handle the burden of manpower demands for the battlefield, a draft was legislated in 1863. A provision was written in that gave a drafted person the choice to pay someone who was willing to serve in their place. This was called substitution.