In 1862, as the Civil War, or the War Between the States, raged on American soil, President Abraham Lincoln recognized the need to provide a system of national cemeteries for "...soldiers who shall die in the service of their country." On July 17, 1862 Mr. Lincoln signed legislation authorizing the creation of a series of national military cemeteries.

The painting,left was done by Rachel Villnow, of Kennesaw, Georgia, and is based upon our photograph, right.� Rachel, a 9th grade homeschooled student, won first place in the 22nd Annual National Young American Creative Patriotic Art Contest sponsored by the Ladies Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.  Well done, Rachel!

During the War soldiers who died on the battlefields, in field hospitals or in prison camps were buried where they fell. At the end of the war, search and recovery teams visited battlefields, churchyards, plantations, and any other sites where the dead soldiers had been hastily interred during the battle years. Their efforts resulted in the disinterment of more than a quarter million sets of remains; the reinterment process took nearly five years.

By 1870, 73 national military cemeteries had been established. Many of these cemeteries, as one might imagine, were located in the Southeastern United States as this was the site of many battles and the location of many field hospitals.

As Annapolis had two field hospitals - one at St. John's College and another at the U.S. Naval Academy (which school's scholastic functions had been temporarily relocated to Newport, Rhode Island for the duration of the War) - as well as a nearby parole camp, the city was selected as the site for one of the first cemeteries established under the program.

In August of 1862 Judge Nicholas Brewer leased to the government four and one-eigth acres of land, located roughly one mile from the two field hospitals, to be used as a cemetery for war casualties. The cemetery was originally called Ash Grove.

Since that summer 136 years ago, more than 2900 souls - war dead and veteran alike, their spouses and children - have been laid to rest within the gentle slopes of the Annapolis National Cemetery.

In the following pages one will find a map of the cemetery and lists of the persons interred here. The alphabetical lists have up to three types of entries per grave: data in black type is transcribed directly from the tombstone; data in blue is from cemetery records, and data in red is from sources indicated on the acknowledgements page.