Cold Harbor National Cemetery

Significant dates

Cold Harbor National Cemetery
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Virginia Landmarks Register
The Lodge at Cold Harbor National Cemetery
Show map of Virginia Show map of the US
Location	Jct. VA 156 and 619, .5 mi. E, Mechanicsville, Virginia
Coordinates	37°35′22″N 77°16′48″W / 37.58944°N 77.28000°W / 37.58944; -77.28000Coordinates: 37°35′22″N 77°16′48″W / 37.58944°N 77.28000°W / 37.58944; -77.28000
Area	1.4 acres (0.57 ha)
Built	1866
Architect	Meigs, Montgomery C.
Architectural style	Second Empire
MPS	Civil War Era National Cemeteries MPS
NRHP Reference #	95000922^[1]
VLR #	042-0136
Added to NRHP	August 10, 1995
Designated VLR	April 28, 1995^[2]

American Civil War cemeteries
Antietam Cold Harbor Gettysburg Philadelphia Salisbury

Cold Harbor National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery in Mechanicsville, Hanover County, Virginia. It encompasses 1.4 acres (5,700 m²), and as of the end of 2005, had 2,110 interments. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it is managed by the Hampton National Cemetery.

History

Cold Harbor National Cemetery was established in 1866 on the site of the Battle of Cold Harbor, an American Civil War engagement. Interments were collected from a 22-mile (35 km) area, taken from the battlefields and field hospital sites of Cold Harbor, Mechanicsville (Beaver Dam Creek), Gaines's Mill, and Savage's Station. The land was appropriated in April 1865 during the first post-war search and re-burial operations conducted on local area battlefields, but not fully purchased until the cemetery was officially established the following year. Another search for buried and unburied remains occurred in 1867 and yielded over 1,000 full and partial skeletons that had been missed the previous year. Due to space limitations at Cold Harbor these remains, of which only a handful were identified, were re-interred in the larger Richmond National Cemetery.

In the book Magnolia Journey: A Union Veteran Revisits the Former Confederate States, Russell H. Conway stated that in 1870 the remains of Union soldiers were still being unearthed from the battlefield by poverty-stricken local residents searching for Minie Balls to sell as lead scrap in nearby Richmond, Virginia. Although reported to cemetery superintendent Augustus Barry, who was mortally ill at the time, it does not appear that another search and reburial operation was made. Conway feared that many soldiers remains may have ended up in Richmond's fertilizer factories mixed in with the bones of dead artillery horses. Soldier remains at Cold Harbor have been occasionally discovered by farmers and construction crews well into the 21st century.

Room for the burial of American veterans of later periods was made when the original design of the cemetery was altered by removing several paths and walkways that bisected the cemetery. The cemetery is now closed to further interments.

Notoriety

Cold Harbor National Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

Notable monuments

Monument to the Unknowns, a 5-foot-high (1.5 m) marble sarcophagus erected by the federal government in 1877 to commemorate the 889 unknown Union soldiers buried in two trench graves at the back of the cemetery.
The Pennsylvania Monument, a 30-foot-tall (9.1 m) granite spire with a statue of a soldier at the top, was erected in 1909 by the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and dedicated to its regiments lost at Cold Harbor.
The 8th New York Heavy Artillery Monument, a granite block with a bronze plaque listing the names of those from the detachment who died at Cold Harbor, erected in 1909 by the state of New York.

Notable interments

Sergeant Major Augustus Barry, Medal of Honor recipient for action in the Civil War.^[3] Sergeant Major Barry was also the first superintendent of Cold Harbor National Cemetery.

References

↑ National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
↑ "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
↑ Augustus Barry at Find a Grave

External links

Protected areas of Virginia

Federal

National Parks	Shenandoah

National Historical Parks, Historic Sites & Monuments	Appomattox Court House NHP Arlington House Booker T. Washington NM Cedar Creek and Belle Grove NHP Claude Moore Colonial Farm Colonial NHP Cumberland Gap NHP Fort Monroe NM George Washington Birthplace NM Harpers Ferry NHP Maggie L. Walker NHS

National Military Parks, Battlefields & Battlefield Parks	Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP Manassas NBP Petersburg NB Richmond NBP

National Cemeteries	Alexandria Arlington Balls Bluff City Point Cold Harbor Culpeper Danville Fort Harrison Fredericksburg Glendale Hampton Hampton VA Poplar Grove Quantico Richmond Seven Pines Staunton Winchester Yorktown

National Parkways	Blue Ridge Parkway George Washington Memorial Parkway

National Trails	Appalachian Trail Captain John Smith Chesapeake NHT Overmountain Victory NHT Potomac Heritage Trail Star-Spangled Banner NHT

National Wildlife Refuges	Back Bay Chincoteague Eastern Shore of Virginia Mason Neck Featherstone Fisherman Island Great Dismal Swamp James River Nansemond Occoquan Bay Plum Tree Island Presquile Rappahannock River Valley Wallops Island

National Forests	George Washington and Jefferson

USFS National Recreation Areas	Mount Rogers National Recreation Area

Other NPS Areas	Assateague Island National Seashore Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network Prince William Forest Park Wolf Trap NP for the Performing Arts

Wilderness Areas	Barbours Creek Mountain Lake Priest Ramsey's Draft Rich Hole Rough Mountain Saint Mary's Three Ridges

National Estuarine Research Reserves	Chesapeake Bay

State

State parks	Bear Creek Lake Belle Isle Biscuit Run Breaks Interstate Caledon Chippokes Plantation Claytor Lake Douthat Fairy Stone False Cape First Landing Grayson Highlands High Bridge Trail Holliday Lake Hungry Mother James River Kiptopeke Lake Anna Leesylvania Mason Neck Natural Tunnel New River Trail Occoneechee Pocahontas Powhatan Sailor's Creek Battlefield Shot Tower Shenandoah River Sky Meadows Smith Mountain Lake Southwest Virginia Museum Staunton River Staunton River Battlefield Tabb Monument Twin Lakes Westmoreland Wilderness Road York River

State forests	Appomattox-Buckingham Big Woods Bourassa Browne Channels Chilton Woods Conway-Robinson Crawfords Cumberland Devil's Backbone Dragon Run Hawks Lesesne Matthews Moore's Creek Niday Place Paul Prince Edward-Gallion Sandy Point Whitney Zoar

Natural Area Preserves	Antioch Pines Bethel Beach Big Spring Bog Blackwater Buffalo Mountain Bull Run Mountains Bush Mill Stream Camp Branch Wetlands Cape Charles Coastal Habitat The Cedars The Channels Cherry Orchard Bog Chestnut Creek Wetlands Chestnut Ridge Chotank Creek Chub Sandhill Cleveland Barrens Clover Hollow Cowbane Prairie Crow's Nest Cumberland Marsh Dameron Marsh Deep Run Ponds Dendron Swamp Difficult Creek Elklick Woodlands False Cape Folly Mills Creek Fen Goshen Pass Grafton Ponds Grassy Hill Grayson Glades Hickory Hollow Hughlett Point Johnsons Creek Magothy Bay Mark's and Jack's Island Mount Joy Pond Mutton Hunk Fen Naked Mountain New Point Comfort North Landing River Northwest River Ogdens Cave Parkers Marsh Parramore Island Pedlars Hill Pinnacle Poor Mountain Red Rock Mountain Savage Neck Dunes Unthanks Cave William B. Trower Bayshore Wreck Island

Wildlife Management Areas	Amelia Big Survey Briery Creek Chester F. Phelps Cavalier Chickahominy Clinch Mountain Crooked Creek Dick Cross Fairystone Farms Featherfin G. Richard Thompson Game Farm Marsh Goshen and Little North Mountain Hardware River Havens Hidden Valley Highland Hog Island Horsepen Lake James River Land's End Mockhorn Island Pettigrew Powhatan Princess Anne Ragged Island Rapidan Saxis Stewarts Creek T. M. Gathright Turkeycock Weston White Oak Mountain

Other

Registered Historic Places in Virginia	Virginia Landmarks Register National Register of Historic Places listings in Virginia Bridges National Historic Landmarks

U.S. National Register of Historic Places in Virginia

Lists by county	Accomack Albemarle Alleghany Amelia Amherst Appomattox Arlington Augusta Bath Bedford Bland Botetourt Brunswick Buchanan Buckingham Campbell Caroline Carroll Charles City Charlotte Chesterfield Clarke Craig Culpeper Cumberland Dickenson Dinwiddie Essex Fairfax County Fauquier Floyd Fluvanna Franklin County Frederick Giles Gloucester Goochland Grayson Greene Greensville Halifax Hanover Henrico Henry Highland Isle Of Wight James City King and Queen King George King William Lancaster Lee Loudoun Louisa Lunenburg Madison Mathews Mecklenburg Middlesex Montgomery Nelson New Kent Northampton Northumberland Nottoway Orange Page Patrick Pittsylvania Powhatan Prince Edward Prince George Prince William Pulaski Rappahannock Richmond County Roanoke County Rockbridge Rockingham Russell Scott Shenandoah Smyth Southampton Spotsylvania Stafford Surry Sussex Tazewell Warren Washington Westmoreland Wise Wythe York

Lists by city	Alexandria Bristol Buena Vista Charlottesville Chesapeake Colonial Heights Covington Danville Emporia Fairfax Falls Church Franklin Fredericksburg Galax Hampton Harrisonburg Hopewell Lexington Lynchburg Manassas Manassas Park Martinsville Newport News Norfolk Norton Petersburg Portsmouth Radford Richmond Roanoke Salem Staunton Suffolk Virginia Beach Waynesboro Williamsburg Winchester

Other lists	Bridges National Historic Landmarks

Keeper of the Register History of the National Register of Historic Places Property types Historic district Contributing property

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/25/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.