|Alexandria National Cemetery in Pineville, Arkansas|
On a recent visit to Pineville, Louisiana we stopped at the small Alexandria National Cemetery - established in 1867 and one of the earlier cemeteries built for burial of Union Civil War soldiers who died in the region. Despite occasional wars and skirmishes after the establishment of the United States, no need for mass burials arose until the horrible losses in the Civil War. In 1862, Congress recognized the numbers of dead just from the North were so large that sites needed to be dedicated to individual and group burials. The Act gave Congress the ability to buy sufficient land to bury those who died “in the service of their country.”
|One of several graves of Unknown Soldiers in |
Alexandria National Cemetery
The last soldier killed in the Civil War was William J. Williams, who is buried at Alexandria. The battle of Palmito Ranch took place at the border of Texas and Mexico one month after the official end of the war. Mr. Williams’s 34th Indiana regiment fought unsuccessfully with two Buffalo Soldier regiments against the remaining Confederate soldiers. When Fort Brown, near Brownsville, Texas, was closed in 1909, the remains of Mr. Williams and 1537 other Union soldiers were reinterred at the Alexandria Cemetery. He once again joined the ranks of 57 Buffalo Soldiers also buried here.
|North Africa American Cemetery, Tunis, Tunisia|
|Gettysburg Address in Alexandria National Cemetery - Part of Campaign to|
Put the Address in all National Cemeteries