CONFEDERATE BURIALS IN THE NATIONAL CEMETERY

Military in St. Louis The Confederate Burials Toward Reconciliation St. Louis had two small Civil War prisons, each housing several hundred Some Confederate who died at the On May 30, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic decorated persons. Gratiot Street was the former McDowell Medical College, Gratiot and Myrtle Street prisons, or in hospitals, Union and Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery. located near Eighth and Gratiot streets and the Mississippi River. When were initially buried in Christ Church Cemetery. Thirty years later President William McKinley proclaimed: the Civil War began, Others were interred by the firm of John A. The Union is once more the common altar of our love and Dr. Joseph Nash Smithers & Brother at Wesleyan Cemetery. About loyalty, our devotion and sacrifice . . . Every soldier’s grave McDowell left 1867, the U.S. Army moved the remains of more made during our unfortunate Civil War is a tribute to American St. Louis, eventually than 1,000 Confederate prisoners interred in valor . . . in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in joining the St. Louis cemeteries to Jefferson Barracks the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers. Confederate army. National Cemetery. This included six burials The War Department created the Confederate section The college became removed from Quarantine Island and a at Arlington in 1901, and marked the graves with Gratiot Street Prison removed from Cape Girardeau, Missouri. distinctive pointed-top marble headstones. Five years in December 1861. later, Congress created the Commission for Marking In 1908, the Commission for Marking Graves of The U.S. Army Graves of Confederate Dead to identify and mark the Confederate Dead placed the distinctive pointed- installed bunks and graves of Confederates who died in Northern prisons. top headstones on the Confederate graves at the stoves in classrooms, Its mission was later expanded to encompass all national national cemetery. Because St. Louis prisons and the dissecting cemeteries that contained Confederate burials. room became a mess also housed Southern sympathizers, many of the Four former Confederate officers headed the hall. The building dead were civilians. Commission over its lifetime. By 1916, it had marked could hold 500, but The Commission in excess of 25,500 graves and erected monuments in often exceeded that was only authorized locations where individual graves could not be identified. number. The first to mark the graves prisoners arrived on of soldiers, but the In 1930, the War Department authorized the addition Christmas Eve 1861. of the Southern Cross of Honor to the Confederate Gratiot Street Prison, c. 1865. Miller’s Photographic History of the Civil War. War Department headstone. authorized the use A two-and-a-half-story brick building—at the corner of present-day Clark of Confederate-style Avenue and Broadway—owned by slave dealer Bernard M. Lynch became headstones to mark Myrtle Street Prison. The army confiscated “Lynch’s Slave Pen” after civilian prisoner Lynch fled south. With barred windows, it needed little alteration. Among graves. Among them the first prisoners was Max McDowell, a son of Dr. McDowell, who had were two women, remained in St. Louis to recruit soldiers for Confederate forces. A Confederate headstone on the grave of Jane N. Foster (Section W. J. Arnett, a . North Alton Confederate Cemetery Both prisons also held civilians, including women and children, deemed 20, Grave 4613) and Monument, 1909, Alton, Ill. Confederate sympathizers. Both facilities closed in summer 1865. Original Commission headstone (left) and Nancy J. Vaughn (Section 21, Grave 4815). headstone with Southern Cross of Honor (right).

U.S. Department of Veterans A˜airs To learn more about benefits and programs National Cemetery Administration for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov

36x24 Confederate Burials - Prison