Histopolis Place-of-the-Day

Histopolis features a different cemetery, town, county or other place every day on the Place-of-The-Day.

Monday, September 27, 2010

The Histopolis Place-of-the-Day for Monday, September 27, 2010 is the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in Lemay Township, Saint Louis County, Missouri.

"Jefferson Barracks, one of the National Cemetery Administrations oldest interment sites, has served as a burial place soldiers from all wars. The original military post was built south of St. Louis, Mo., on the banks of the Mississippi River to replace Fort Bellefontaine. Selected for its strategic geographic location, the post was opened in 1826. Jefferson Barracks became the army’s first permanent base west of the Mississippi River. By the 1840s, it was the largest military establishment in the United States. During the Civil War, Jefferson Barracks served as a training post for the Union Army. There was also a hospital at the post for the Union army’s sick and wounded.

"Although Jefferson Barracks was formally established as a national cemetery in 1866 by passage of a join resolution, the first burial, at what is now Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery is believed to have occurred the year after the post’s founding, on Aug. 5, 1827. On that date, Elizabeth Ann Lash, the infant daughter of an officer stationed at Jefferson Barracks was interred at the post cemetery. The Civil War initiated the beginnings of a formal network of military cemeteries. The first general U.S. cemetery legislation was an omnibus bill enacted July 17, 1862, authorizing President Lincoln “to purchase cemetery grounds, and cause them to be securely enclosed, to be used as a national cemetery for the soldiers who shall have died in the service of the country.” By the end of the year, the first 14 national cemeteries were created. Jefferson Barracks was formally established as a national cemetery in 1866 by passage of a joint resolution authorizing the Secretary of War to take action to preserve graves from desecration and “secure suitable burial-places in which they may be properly interred….”

"The original portion of the cemetery is located in the northeastern section of the present acreage, appropriately delineated by four roads designated as Old Post Drive—East, West, North and South, respectively—containing Sections 1-4, and OPS-1, OPS-2, and OPS-3. It was set aside for the burial of military and civilian personnel who died at the garrison. In 1869 the cemetery experienced enormous growth when more than 10,200 recovered remains of soldiers originally buried at other Missouri locations including Cape Girardeau, Pilot Knob, Warsaw, and Rolla were removed here. About 470 victims of smallpox at Arsenal Island were also reinterred here.

"The old cemetery contains approximately 20,000 gravesites, including more than 1,000 Confederate dead. During this era, Union dead were interred in sections by state, as far as that could be determined, including: 7,536 Whites, 1,067 African Americans, 1,010 Confederate POWs, and 556 “not of military service.” Within the original cemetery tract, Sections 5 through 53 were laid out; the sections currently numbered 54-66, and 88, contain older burials but are irregularly numbered because the ponds, sink holes and administrative open space was converted to burial areas.

"... In 1922 an Executive Order assigned 170 acres of military reservation to the Veterans Bureau (now Department of Veterans Affairs). In July 1936, the War Department formally named Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery as a component of Jefferson Barracks, along with similar designations of military reservations at instillations including those named in honor of persons, target ranges and national cemeteries.

"... Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

Explore Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery on Histopolis now. If you have a place that you would like to see featured as the Histopolis Place-of-the-Day, contact the webmaster to suggest it.

September 2010

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Note: The first Place-of-the-Day was in September 2010