Memorials Inventory Project (MIP) Final Report, January 2006

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NATIONAL HOMES FOR DISABLED VOLUNTEER SOLDIERS' MONUMENTS

Nearly identical monuments were found at national cemeteries established on sites of three former National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS). Although NCA has nine cemeteries originally affiliated with NHDVS homes, only three have monuments like these: Togus, Maine; Hot Springs, South Dakota; and Los Angeles, California.

TWICE REMEMBERED

During preliminary MIP research in 2005, we discovered that two 19th century individuals were memorialized twice — at different NCA sites.

Colonel Edward D. Baker, a Mexican War veteran who went on to serve as a representative for Illinois and a senator for Oregon, and later commanded the 71st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War, has a small headstone-style memorial (left) erected to him at the Ball’s Bluff National Cemetery, Virginia. Baker was killed during the Battle of Ball’s Bluff on October 21, 1861. His remains are buried at the San Francisco National Cemetery (Presidio), California, and marked with a private headstone (below).

David Heaton served as a Congressman in the House of Representatives during the first session after North Carolina was re-admitted to the Union in 1868. A Benjamin Latrobe-designed cenotaph for Heaton is located at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., the city where he died (below right). His remains are interred at New Bern National Cemetery in North Carolina and marked with a private headstone (below left).

NON-TRADITIONAL DONORS

A recent phenomenon discovered through the MIP was the fact that memorials are being placed by organizations other than the usual veteran advocates, such as the federal government, states, and veteran’s service organizations.

The National Council of State Garden Clubs has erected eight Blue Star Memorials in various national cemeteries across the country to-date. The first one was dedicated in 1997 at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona in Phoenix: the latest one was installed in 2005 at Willamette National Cemetery in Oregon (above). In recent years, an increased number of memorials have been installed by fraternal, religious, ethnic, and other organizations, such as local unions and firefighters.

FOREIGN NATIONALS

Foreign soldiers and prisoners of war are buried in various national cemeteries throughout the country and four monuments were found.

The French Cross was erected at Cypress Hills National Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, during the 1920s (left) in memory of 25 French sailors who died while on duty in American waters during World War I. The British Navy memorial, also located at Cypress Hills, was erected in 1939 to British Revolutionary War sailors who died “on the coast off Sandy Hook on December 30 or 31, 1783.” A memorial to 91 German POWs from World War I was erected by the German government at Chattanooga National Cemetery, Tennessee, in 1935 and contains German inscriptions.

The Japanese Mound located at Fort Richardson National Cemetery near Anchorage, Alaska, was originally erected in 1953 to remember more than 200 Japanese soldiers who died while prisoners of war on Attu Island during World War II. The soldiers are interred at the cemetery. The monument, now in its third incarnation, is a totem-shaped wooden memorial inscribed with Japanese calligraphy.

Due to the short life span of wood, replacement totems with inscriptions were erected in 1981 and most recently in September 2003.

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