Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery

Not to be confused with Leavenworth National Cemetery or Fort Leavenworth Military Prison Cemetery.

Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery
Location	Within Fort Leavenworth military reservation, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
Coordinates	39°21′5″N 94°55′48″W
Area	36.1 acres (14.6 ha)
Built	1862
Architectural style	Second Empire
MPS	Civil War Era National Cemeteries MPS
NRHP reference No.	99000834
Added to NRHP	July 15, 1999

Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located on Fort Leavenworth, a United States Army installation north of Leavenworth, Kansas. It was officially established in 1862, but was used as a burial ground as early as 1844. The cemetery is the resting place of eight Medal of Honor recipients, but most are the unknown soldiers of war. It was named for Brigadier General Henry Leavenworth, who was re-interred there in 1902 from Woodland Cemetery in Delhi, New York. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it occupies approximately 36.1 acres (14.6 ha) and was site to 22,679 interments, as of the end of 2005. It is maintained by Leavenworth National Cemetery.

History

On July 17, 1862, Congress enacted legislation that authorized the purchase of cemetery grounds to be used "for soldiers who shall have died in the service of the country". By 1870, the remains of nearly 300,000 Union dead had been buried in 73 national cemeteries. Most of the cemeteries were located near former battlefields or what were once war time camps. Fort Leavenworth National cemetery was one of the largest, at 36.1 acres. The Leavenworth cemetery was also closely associated with the Western Branch National Military Home, "old soldiers' home" (now VA Eisenhower Medical Center) and became a National Cemetery in 1973.

Due to military tradition, the cemetery was originally divided into burial areas for enlisted personnel and a separate area for officers, but in 1858 the remains were re-interred into a single site. In the years following the Civil War, the bodies of Union soldiers from Kansas City, Kansas and Independence, Missouri, were re-interred at Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery. In addition, the cemetery was used as the burial ground for soldiers who served at frontier posts of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Wyoming. By 1870, there were more than 1,000 Union soldiers interred at Fort Leavenworth, along with approximately 170 civilians and 7 Confederate prisoners of war. After the Indian Wars, between 1885 and 1907 many of the western Army outposts were vacated and as many as 2,000 remains were re-interred at Fort Leavenworth.

Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 15, 1999.

Notable burials

• Medal of Honor recipients
  • Captain Harry Bell, for action in the Philippine–American War
  • Captain Thomas W. Custer, brother of George Armstrong Custer, two time recipient – the first for action at the Battle of Namozine Church, the second for action at the Battle of Sayler's Creek, both during the Civil War
  • Lieutenant Junior Grade William E. Hall, for action in World War II
  • Corporal John Kile, for action in the Indian Wars
  • Private Fitz Lee, for action in the Spanish–American War
  • Private George Miller, for action in the Indian Wars
  • Private Edward Pengally, for action in the Indian Wars
  • First Sergeant Joseph Robinson, for action in the Indian Wars
• Others
  • Brigadier General Henry Leavenworth, namesake of Fort Leavenworth
  • Sergeant Donald Walters, Silver Star recipient killed in action in the Iraq War
  • Captain George Wilhelmus Mancius Yates, 7th Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstong Custer, killed in action at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Montana

External links

• National Cemetery Administration
• Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery
• Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) No. KS-1, "Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery, 395 Biddle Boulevard, Fort Leavenworth, Leavenworth, KS", 41 photos, 4 photo caption pages