Culpeper National Cemetery

About this property

Culpeper National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in the town of Culpeper, in Culpeper County, Virginia. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it encompasses 29.6 acres (120,000 m2) of land, and as 2021, had over 14,000 interments. During the American Civil War, the territory around the city of Culpeper was defended vigorously by both sides, as it was a strategic point almost exactly between Washington D.C. and the capital of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia. Numerous battles took place in the region, including the Battle of Cedar Mountain and the Battle of Chancellorsville. The dead from those conflicts were buried nearby in makeshift grave sites. After the war a reburial program was initiated, and in 1867, Culpeper National Cemetery was established to reinter many of the remains from the makeshift sites. The original cemetery comprised 6 acres (2.4 ha), bought from Edward B. Hill of Culpeper for $1,400. The original Second Empire Victorian caretakers lodge was built in 1872 and was designed by Montgomery C. Meigs. Many improvements to the grounds and facilities at the cemetery were made during the 1930s as part of the New Deal. These make-work improvements included replacing the original 1870s tool house at the cost of $8,000 in 1934, raising and realigning 912 headstones in May 1934, by the Civil Works Administration, and realignment and re-setting 402 headstones in 1936 though a Works Project Administration project. Having operated without any major improvements since the 1930s, the cemetery was closed to new interments on November 17, 1972. On September 1, 1973, administration of the cemetery was transferred from the U.S. Army to the Veterans Administration's new National Cemetery System created by the National Cemetery Act of 1973. In 1975 another 10.5 acres (42,000 m2) was donated by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Burton–Hammond Post 2524, and in 2001 another plot of 12.3 acres (50,000 m2) was purchased, which has been developed for future interments. The cemetery was reopened to interments on January 16, 1978. Culpeper National Cemetery was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. It is included in the South East Street Historic District. American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell, who had served in the US Navy until his discharge in 1960, was to be buried at the cemetery after his assassination in 1967 but the cemetery refused to inter him after neo-Nazis who attended the service displayed Nazi insignia. Rockwell was later cremated instead. The states of Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have erected markers dedicated to regiments from those states who had members die in the Battle of Cedar Mountain.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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