Did you know there was once a National Cemetery in London, Kentucky?
Designated as a National Cemetery in 1867, a two-acre plot of land on West 13th Street in London became the resting place of 269 Union soldiers who died in this area during the Civil War.
Union Soldiers buried within an approximate fifty-mile radius of London were removed from their original burial plots and taken to the London National Cemetery for reburial.
Locations from which the soldiers were moved to London included Barbourville, between London and Big Hill, Boston, Camp Pittman at Pittsburg, Camp Wildcat near Hazel Patch, Crab Orchard, Manchester, Mount Vernon, between London and Richmond, Williamsburg, and Wolf Creek.
The original burial sites included numerous small battlefields and skirmish sites, private graveyards, village cemeteries, and many solitary graves by the roadside.
Only 87 of the 269 soldiers who were buried in the London National Cemetery were identified by name or partial name. The remaining 182 were simply listed as “Unknown.”
The remains were removed a year later and reburied at Camp Nelson, near Nicholasville.
After the removal of the Union soldiers from the cemetery atop the hill on 13th Street, burials continued to be made in the old graveyard.
The cemetery is still active, with burials as recent as February 2021 (as of January 2023).
This episode tells more about the long history of the old cemetery, from its founding in the early 1800s to the present day.
Did you know there was once a National Cemetery in London, Kentucky?
Designated as a National Cemetery in 1867, a two-acre plot of land on West 13th Street in London became the resting place of 269 Union soldiers who died in this area during the Civil War.
Union Soldiers buried within an approximate fifty-mile radius of London were removed from their original burial plots and taken to the London National Cemetery for reburial.
Locations from which the soldiers were moved to London included Barbourville, between London and Big Hill, Boston, Camp Pittman at Pittsburg, Camp Wildcat near Hazel Patch, Crab Orchard, Manchester, Mount Vernon, between London and Richmond, Williamsburg, and Wolf Creek.
The original burial sites included numerous small battlefields and skirmish sites, private graveyards, village cemeteries, and many solitary graves by the roadside.
Only 87 of the 269 soldiers who were buried in the London National Cemetery were identified by name or partial name. The remaining 182 were simply listed as “Unknown.”
The remains were removed a year later and reburied at Camp Nelson, near Nicholasville.
After the removal of the Union soldiers from the cemetery atop the hill on 13th Street, burials continued to be made in the old graveyard.
The cemetery is still active, with burials as recent as February 2021 (as of January 2023).
This episode tells more about the long history of the old cemetery, from its founding in the early 1800s to the present day.