From Cairo exit of I-57, go north on old US 51 to Rt. 37. Cemetery is at the intersection.
From Mounds exit 8, go east to Route 37, then south through Mound City to the cemetery.
near Mound City and Cairo in Southernmost Southern Illinois.
Mound City and Cairo were staging areas for Union troops, shipbuilding and repair, and care for the wounded of both the Blue and the Gray. The hospital ship Red Rover returned many wounded soldiers from as far away as the Battle of Vicksburg, MS. A burial ground was established just outside of town.
Mound City National Cemetery, one of twelve original National cemeteries, was established in 1864 following an act of July 17, 1862 whereby President Lincoln was authorized "to purchase cemetery grounds... to be used as a National Cemetery for soldiers who shall have died in the service of their country."
Though Mound City and nearby Cairo, Illinois were not in the combat theater of the Civil War, their location near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers made these areas important staging points for dispatch of men and material during the campaigns of the west which opened the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers for Union forces.
Several of the famous Eads ironclad gunboats were built at the Mound City Marine Ways and Shipyard. These specially designed shallow draft ironclads played an important part in the western campaign giving valuable support to the Union troops on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers and at Vicksburg.
Grim causality lists of the wounded and sick became a part of life as the war dragged on. Large army general hospitals were established at Mound City and at Cairo to care for some of the war casualties. In 1861 a large brick building in Mound City was taken over by the U.S. government for use as a general hospital. In service throughout the war, it was one of the largest military hospitals in the west.
Another large hospital was established at Cairo. The services of Roman Catholic nuns of the Order of the Holy Cross at Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, were utilized as nurses to staff these hospitals. The establishment of these large hospitals was a determining factor in the location of the cemetery at Mound City, which later became Mound City National Cemetery.
The Hospital at Mound City was able to accommodate 1,000-1,500 patients, and has been described as one of the best administered of the military general hospitals. Mother Angela, who was in charge of a school at South Bend when the war began, became supervisor of nurses at the Mound City hospital and rendered outstanding service. Among the outstanding surgeons at the hospital were Dr. E. S. Franklin and Dr. H. Warder, who was later in charge of the Illinois State Hospital at Anna, Illinois.
The first patients at the Mound City General Hospital were the wounded from the battle of Belmont, KY, November 7, 1861. Heavy fighting at Fort Donelson, February 13-16, 1862, and at Shiloh April 6-7, 1862, brought many more patients to the Mound City and Cairo hospitals. The death rate from wounds and all too prevalent diseases was high in the hospitals of the Civil war period.
The report of the Inspector of National Cemeteries for 1869 indicated that original interments in the Mound City National Cemetery from the area hospitals numbered 1,644 decedents. Additional reinterments of remains recovered from isolated locations along the Mississippi, Cache and Ohio rivers and from Cairo, Illinois, Columbus and Paducah, Kentucky, brought the 1869 total of interments in the cemetery to 4,808, of which 2,441 remains could not be identified and were buried as unknowns.
A large monument commemorating the Civil War services of soldiers and sailors from Illinois stands at the center of the Mound City National Cemetery. This at a cost of $25,000 was erected in 1874, appropriated by the Illinois legislature.
By 1874, the number of unknown soldiers and sailors was as high as 2,637. The inscription reads: "There are buried here 2,637 soldiers and sailors, names unknown, who lost their lives in defense of their country. Their services are here commemorated although their names are lost from the roll of honor."
"Known But to God" are the identities of 2.789 who rest in the hallowed ground of Mound City National Cemetery. Since the great conflict in 1861-1865, this cemetery is the final resting place of veterans, their spouses and dependent children from the Mexican War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Korean conflict, Vietnam and Persian Gulf. More than nine-thousand interments have been made in Mound City National Cemetery since its establishment in 1864.
The Mound City National Cemetery Preservation Commission, Inc., is a charitable 501-c-3 organization formed by local concerned citizens and members of local Veterans' organizations. It was incorporated in 1994, and meets monthly to raise funds for the repair of the cemetery, caretaker's home and purchase additional property for burial ground. The Illinois Department of Transportation estimates it would cost nearly $1 Million dollars to renovate the building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. An additional 3.6 acres of property was purchased since 1994.
The above information is from a cemetery brochure, provided in 2004 by:
Mound City National Cemetery Preservation Commission, Inc.
PO Box 45
Mound City, IL 62963
$25 buys a lifetime membership in the commission. Burials continue, under the supervision of Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery at St. Louis.
Those buried at Mound City National Cemetery
Directions to the cemetery
From Cairo exit of I-57, go north on old US 51 to Rt. 37. Cemetery is at the intersection.
From Mounds exit 8, go east to Route 37, then south through Mound City to the cemetery.