National Cemetery Administration

Office Hours: Monday thru Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Closed federal holidays except Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

Visitation Hours: Open daily from dawn until dusk.

Hampton National Cemetery is closed to new interments. The only interments that are being accepted are subsequent interments for veterans or eligible family members in an existing gravesite. Periodically however, burial space may become available due to a canceled reservation or when a disinterment has been completed. When either of these two scenarios occurs, the gravesite is made available to another eligible veteran on a first-come, first-served basis. Since there is no way to know in advance when a gravesite may become available, please contact the cemetery at the time of need to inquire whether space is available.

Burial in a national cemetery is open to all members of the armed forces who have met a minimum active duty service requirement and were discharged under conditions other than dishonorable.

A Veteran's spouse, widow or widower, minor dependent children, and under certain conditions, unmarried adult children with disabilities may also be eligible for burial. Eligible spouses and children may be buried even if they predecease the Veteran.

Members of the reserve components of the armed forces who die while on active duty or who die while on training duty, or were eligible for retired pay, may also be eligible for burial.

» Eligibility for Burial in a VA National Cemetery

Fax all discharge documentation to the National Cemetery Scheduling Office at 1-866-900-6417 and follow-up with a phone call to 1-800-535-1117.

For information on scheduled burials in our national cemeteries, please go to the Daily Burial Schedule.

Cemetery Contact Information
Phone: (757) 723-7104
Fax: (757) 723-0027

For educational materials and additional information on this cemetery, please visit the Education section, located below.

Our cemetery floral/grounds policy exists only to reflect the honor and respect we hold for our Nation's Veterans, by preserving the dignity and solemnity of their final resting place.

Fresh cut flowers may be placed on graves at any time. Artificial flowers are allowed from December 1st - March 1st and five days before and after Memorial Day. Floral containers are provided by the cemetery for public use for all fresh cut and artificial flowers.

Fresh cut or artificial floral arrangements taller than the headstone/marker must be laid on top of the grave, never affixed to or exceed the height of the headstone/marker and will be removed and disposed of when they become unsightly. Floral stands are not permitted at any time.

The cemetery will remove unsightly fresh cut and artificial floral arrangements on the 3rd Wednesday of each month.

Floral items or seasonable adornments cannot be secured to headstones or markers or exceed height of the headstone/marker at any time of the year. Unauthorized items will be removed by cemetery personnel and discarded.

Funeral arrangements may include 1 casket spray and up to 3 floral pieces accompanying the casket or urn at the time of the burial will be placed on the completed grave. They will be removed when they become unsightly or when it becomes necessary to facilitate cemetery operations such as mowing.

Potted plants may be placed on the grave 5 days before and 5 days after Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Hanukkah and Christmas.

Winter seasonal adornments are permitted on graves from December through January. Seasonal wreaths/grave blankets must be no larger than 2 feet by 3 feet. Cemetery will remove and dispose all seasonal items on last Friday in January.

Cemetery is not responsible for floral or seasonal arrangements after they have been placed on gravesites. Flowers are placed at your own risk and will not be replaced by the cemetery if damaged, lost, or stolen. Deer and other wildlife may eat the fresh flowers and arrangements.

To preserve the dignity and appearance of the cemetery, the following items are prohibited: Balloons, pinwheels, wind chimes, lights, statues, stuffed animals, alcoholic products, offensive items, permanent in-ground planting/pots, non-government supplied floral containers or other similar items inconsistent with the cemetery setting.

To maintain a safe environment for visitors and staff the following items are also prohibited: Breakable items of any kind, such as vigil lights, glass vases, decorative glass/plastic items, candles, explosives, weapons of any kind, ammunition, any objects that could become projectiles when caught in ground maintenance equipment such as rocks, coins or small durable objects. (While placement of rocks or coins on gravesite may reflect religious or military traditions, please remove from headstone or grave after personal visitation.)

Individual gravesite flag, no larger than 8" by 12", are permitted on graves placed by family and friends for private memorialization. The following military and military-related service flags are allowed: United States, Armed Services of the U.S (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Public Health Service, American Merchant Marines, Army & Air National Guards, Prisoners of War/Missing in Action, Medal of Honor and Foreign Allies pertaining to the decedent. Veterans Service Organizations (VSO) gravesite flags are not permitted. Flags will be removed and retired when needed for grounds maintenance or when become unserviceable IAW Title 4 U.S.C. Chapter 1.

In order to preserve the dignity and honor of our Veteran's final resting place, please observe the following rules of behavior while visiting the cemetery grounds:

• Pets are not allowed on the cemetery grounds at any time. Service Animals are allowed.
• No soliciting.
• Recreational activities.
• Picnicking.
• Public gatherings of a partisan nature are prohibited, no unauthorized gatherings are permitted.
• Littering is not allowed, please use receptacles provided.
• Smoking is allowed in designated areas only.
• No cutting, digging or otherwise damaging the landscape.
• Boisterous activity, including the playing of loud music, is prohibited.
• Altering a headstone in any manner is prohibited. (i.e., marking, sitting on, placing objects upon, attaching photographs or keepsakes to, etc.)

These rules are covered by the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations 38 C.F.R. §1.218. All items placed on gravesites become the property of the US Government and will be disposed of under federal regulations.

Thank you in advance for respecting and observing our Floral/Grounds Policy. We want to ensure our Veterans and their eligible dependents have an honorable landscape to memorialize their final resting place in our National Shrine.

Hampton National Cemetery is located in Hampton, Va., near Hampton Roads, in the vicinity of where the historic Civil War naval battle between the Confederate Merrimac/Virginia and the Union Monitor iron-clad ships occurred in 1862. The cemetery's first burials took place in 1862 and the cemetery is among numerous national cemeteries with origins that date to the Civil War.

The great number of sick and wounded soldiers during the Civil War resulted in numerous military hospitals being set up near battle sites. A 1,800-bed military hospital was established at Fort Monroe, near Hampton. Although the Fort Monroe hospital was better staffed and organized than many Civil War hospitals, the mortality rate was high. Consequently, burials at Hampton National Cemetery included many soldiers who died at Fort Monroe and other military hospitals in the vicinity. Although burials began at the cemetery in 1862, it was not classified by the U.S. Government as a national cemetery until 1866. The legal transfer of 4.749 acres for the cemetery did not occur until 1868.

There are 638 unknowns soldiers buried at Hampton National Cemetery — most of them Civil War soldiers who fell in combat and were originally hastily buried on the battlefield. There are also 272 Confederate soldiers buried in a separate section.

Hampton National Cemetery is one of 13 national cemeteries in which World War II prisoners of war are interred. There are 55 German and five Italian POWs buried in the Phoebus Addition section of Hampton National Cemetery, which is a discontiguous tract of the cemetery.

During World War II, on April 14, 1942, a German U-boat, U-85, was sunk by the U.S.S. Roper on April 14, 1942 off of Cape Hatteras. The entire crew was lost and the boat sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. On April 15, 1942, full military honors were provided for 29 German sailors from U-85 and they were interred at Hampton National Cemetery. The bodies and a few life jackets were all that surfaced after the submarine was sunk. On board the ship, when it sank, was an Enigma decoding machine. The machine was recovered from the ship during a dive in 2001 and is currently on loan from the German government to the Atlantic Graveyard Museum located in Cape Hatteras, N.C.

Through acquisition of additional land parcels since 1862, the cemetery has grown in acreage from its original size of 4.749 acres to its present size of 27.071 acres. Hampton National Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 26, 1996.

Monuments and Memorials
The Union Soldiers monument is a 65' tall granite obelisk that was erected through the efforts of Dorothea Dix, the superintendent of women nurses in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. In 1868 Dix transferred ownership of the monument to the United States. The monument inscription reads: "In Memory of Union Soldiers Who Died to Maintain the Laws."

Two small, rusticated granite blocks inscribed "To Our Confederate Dead" are situated near the burial location of 272 Confederates in the cemetery.