You are here

Virginia: Tidewater and Piedmont » Fredericksburg Metropolitan Area » Lower Caroline Street–Sophia Street » University of Mary Washington and Environs » United States National Cemetery

United States National Cemetery

-A A +A
1866–1870 and later; Montgomery C. Meigs, Quartermaster General, U.S. Army
  • Butterfield 5th Corps Monument (center) (Photograph by Mark Mones)
  • Butterfield 5th Corps Monument (far left) (Photograph by Mark Mones)
  • Superintendent's house (far right) (Photograph by Mark Mones)

Laid out after the war on a portion of the former battlefield with a commanding view, the cemetery contains 6,603 graves of Union dead, of whom about half are unknown. The terracing apparently dates from Meigs's involvement in the 1860s, and his office—possibly with the participation of Alfred B. Mullett, then Supervising Architect of the Treasury—designed the stone, mansard-roofed superintendent's house. The cemetery contains several monuments of note, including the 38-foot-tall Doric column of the Butterfield 5th Corps Monument (1900, Hoffman and Prochzka of New York, contractors) and the bronze Humphreys Monument (1908, Herbert Adams), which stands atop a base of smooth pink granite from Stony Creek, Connecticut.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Richard Guy Wilson et al.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,