History

Many national cemeteries began as burial grounds beside Civil War hospitals, prisons and battlefields; others opened in the last few years. The pages listed below carry the history the VA publishes for each cemetery, reproduced word for word and labeled as the VA’s text.

Source: each cemetery’s page at the VA National Cemetery Administration, retrieved November 11, 2026. This site has not written or independently checked these histories. State, territorial and tribal veterans cemeteries have no history in the VA’s listing, so none is shown for them yet.

Where Medal of Honor recipients rest: 97 cemeteries where the VA lists recipients as interred or memorialized.

The standard for anything written here

• Official and primary sources are preferred; secondary sources are named as such.
• Confirmed facts are kept separate from tradition, attribution and legend.
• Nothing is inferred from a cemetery’s name alone, and no service history is assumed from a burial location.
• Photographs appear only with verified rights and a credit.

The full standard is in the methodology.

Share a source

If you work at a cemetery, belong to a historical society, or hold records or photographs relating to a veterans cemetery, we would be glad to hear of them. Send a source or a lead.