Existing comment:
The Cemetery Develops
When the cemetery was created, it was a little less than 2 acres. It featured walkways radiating out from a central flagstaff mound. The design divided the burials, in rows of concentric circles, into four sections.
By the 1870s, the U.S. Army reported several improvements. A brick Second Empire-style lodge, the superintendent's home and office, was constructed. An inverted cannon was installed in the walkway between the lodge and flagstaff. A a bronze plaque with the number of known and unknown burials was affixed to the gun monument. A stone wall enclosed the cemetery.
An 1872 law directed the secretary of war to appoint a superintendent for each national cemetery from among "meritorious and trustworthy soldiers, either commissioned officers or enlisted men of the Volunteer or Regular Army." To qualify, an individual must have been honorably mustered out or discharged from the service of the United States. |