Histopolis Place-of-the-Day

The Histopolis Place-of-the-Day for Sunday, January 30, 2011 is National Cemetery in Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee.

"Knoxville National Cemetery is located in Knox County, in the northern section of the city of Knoxville, Tenn.

"Union Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside established the cemetery during the Civil War after the siege of Knoxville and subsequent Battle of Fort Sander.

"Capt. E.B. Chamberlain, the assistant quartermaster, was assigned the task of designing the national cemetery at Knoxville. The first interments were remains exhumed from Cumberland Gap, Concord and many other regional sites. Chamberlain’s design and system for recording interments was so effective that, in 1866, Gen. E.G. Whitman, observed that the cemetery had been “the only burial ground of Union soldiers…originally laid out and conducted to the present time in a manner and on a system that render[ed] it suitable to be converted into a national cemetery without material alteration or change, or removal of a single body.”

"Knoxville National Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

"Memorial and Monuments

"The Union Soldier monument, known locally as the Tennessee or Wilder monument, is an unusual, large Gothic Revival-style memorial that was erected between 1890 and 1901."

Source: Cemeteries - Knoxville National Cemetery - Burial and Memorial Benefits

The Histopolis Grave Index for National Cemetery contains 8,222 entries with 3,055 unique surnames.

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