Veteran Cemeteries

VA national cemetery

Grafton National Cemetery

Grafton, West Virginia

Location

431 Walnut Street
Grafton, WV 26354

The map point uses coordinates from a VA dataset. It marks the site approximately and has not been checked against the visitor entrance. Get directions · View on OpenStreetMap

Visiting

Address
431 Walnut Street, Grafton, WV 26354
Phone
304-265-2044 · Fax 304-265-4336
Visiting hours
Open daily from dawn until dusk.
Office hours
The office at the Grafton National Cemetery is closed. For assistance please contact the office at the West Virginia National Cemetery .
Time zone
Eastern Time
Burial space
Closed
Accessibility
Not yet verified — call the cemetery to ask about parking and paths.
Official page
cem.va.gov

Hours and contact details are as published on the VA’s page for this cemetery, checked November 11, 2026. Hours change for holidays, weather and ceremonies.

Flowers and grounds policy, from the VA

The Grafton National Cemetery is not responsible for any items left at the gravesite. Flowers are placed at your own risk; they will not be replaced by the cemetery if they are lost, stolen or damaged.

Floral arrangements accompanying the casket or urn at the time of burial will be placed on the completed grave.

We welcome and encourage fresh-cut flowers throughout the year. They will be removed when they become withered, faded or otherwise unsightly. The cemetery supplies temporary vases for visitors to use when placing flowers at a gravesite. The vases are located in receptacles throughout the cemetery. Water is also available at that same location.

Permanent in-ground flower containers are not permitted.

During the growing seasons, all floral items will be removed from graves weekly or when it becomes necessary to facilitate cemetery operations such as for mowing and trimming.

Artificial flowers are allowed after the end of mowing operations in the fall and must be removed when mowing operations resume in the spring.

Christmas wreaths, grave blankets and other seasonal adornments may be placed on graves from December 1 through January 20.

Floral items and other types of decorations cannot be secured to the headstones. Unauthorized items will be removed and discarded.

Permanent plantings, statues, vigil lights, breakable objects and similar items are not permitted on the graves. The Department of Veterans Affairs does not permit adornments that are considered offensive, inconsistent with the dignity of the cemetery or considered hazardous to cemetery personnel. For example, items incorporating beads or wires may become entangled in mowers or other equipment and cause injury.

Any questions or concerns please feel free to contact the cemetery.

Weapons Policy
VA regulations 38 CFR 1.218 prohibit the carrying of firearms (either openly or concealed), explosives or other dangerous or deadly weapons while on VA property, except for official purposes, such as military funeral honors.

Possession of firearms on any property under the charge and control of VA is prohibited. Offenders may be subject to a fine, removal from the premises, or arrest.


General information, from the VA

Military Funeral Honors
The Grafton National Cemetery is fortunate to have several groups in the local area that will render Military Funeral Honors upon request for any veteran interred in this cemetery. They perform a very dignified and compassionate service and consider it an honor to do this for a fellow comrade. For information please contact the cemetery.

Directions from Nearest Airport
The Grafton National Cemetery is in North Central West Virginia, located on Walnut Street in Grafton, WV, 16 miles East of Clarksburg, WV. From Interstate 79, take Exit 124 (Jerry Dove Drive-West Virginia-279 E), then onto Route 50 East for 14 miles.


Planning a visit to a veterans cemetery

Pay your respects

Visitors to veterans’ graves sometimes leave a coin on the headstone to show that someone came. You can leave a symbolic coin here. No money is involved, and nothing about you is published. About the custom, and what each coin is said to mean.

History

Reproduced from the VA National Cemetery Administration’s page for this cemetery, retrieved November 11, 2026. This is the VA’s text, unedited; it is not independent research by this site.

Grafton National Cemetery is located in West Grafton, Taylor County, WV.

In 1867, Maj. R. C. Bates was ordered by the War Department to locate a permanent burial site for the Union soldiers who had died in hospitals and battlefields throughout West Virginia. Bates chose the Grafton location because it was relatively level in a region noted for mountainous terrain and it was near Maple Avenue Cemetery where many war dead had already been buried. The federal government appropriated the three-acre site in 1867. The steep slope was graded into three terraces with a walkway down the center that divides the cemetery into two equal parts. The first interments were in the lower two terraces: 1,252 Union soldiers, 613 of them unknown. Six-inch square markers distinguish the unknown remains. Approximately half the original interments came from Clarksburg, WV. Other remains were brought to the national cemetery from Wheeling, Rich Mountain and Fayette County.

In 1903, Thornesberry Baily Brown was reinterred at Grafton National Cemetery. Brown was rumored to be the first Union casualty of the Civil War, having been killed May 22, 1861, when he refused a Confederate sentry's order to halt and shot the sentry in the ear. The sentry responded by shooting Brown through the heart. The Brown monument is a marble obelisk that was erected by the GAR, Reno Post No. 7, and dedicated on April 28, 1904.

Grafton National Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.


Notable burials and memorials

Reproduced from the VA’s page for this cemetery, retrieved November 11, 2026, including Medal of Honor recipients where the VA lists them. Links lead to the VA’s own records. To correct an entry, contact the VA; to tell us our copy is out of date, report it.


Nearby veterans cemeteries

Distances are straight-line, not driving distances. All listed sites in West Virginia

Sources

  1. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration. Find a Cemetery: all national cemeteries, and each cemetery’s own page. U.S. government work (public domain). Retrieved November 11, 2026. Used for: name, address, phone and burial-space status, hours, policies, history and notable burials.
  2. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration. Grafton National Cemetery (official cemetery page). Retrieved November 11, 2026.
  3. Map position: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration. VA National Cemetery Sites (dataset).

This page was imported from the sources above and has not yet been individually reviewed by an editor. See the methodology.