Battle of Fredericksburg • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments & Markers • Armies

Two identical Fredericksburg National Cemetery wayside markers are at at the north entrance to the cemetery on the Marye’s Heights walking trail and at the south entrance to the cemetery by the Sunken Road.

Text from the marker:

Fredericksburg National Cemetery

Approximately 20,000 soldiers died in this region during the Civil War, their remains scattered throughout the countryside in shallow, often unmarked, graves. In 1865 Congress established Fredericksburg National Cemetery as a final resting place for Union soldiers who died on area battlefields. Confederate soldiers were buried in cemeteries located at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Court House.

Work on Fredericksburg National Cemetery commenced in 1866 and was completed in 1869. Veterans erected two major monuments here in the late 19th century, and the remains of 300 veterans of later wars were interred before 1945, when the cemetery closed to new burials. Of the 15,300 men buried here, the identities of fewer than 3,000 are known.

From the caption to the main photograph on the right:

Fredericksburg National Cemetery as it appeared about 1900.

From the caption to the photo on the bottom left:

Rounded granite headstones mark the graves of identified Union soldiers.

From the caption to the photo on the bottom, second from left:

The graves of unknown soldiers are marked by a small square stone bearing two numbers. The top number identifies the plot; the bottom number identifies the number of soldiers buried in the plot.

Location of the two markers

The first marker is at the southern end of the Sunken Road where it enters through the cemetery wall about 200 feet from the Visitor Center. (38°17’36.1″N 77°28’03.8″W)