MRC139 Vicksburg National Cemetery

 

Vicksburg National Cemetery embraces 116 acres, and holds the remains of 17,000 Civil War Union soldiers, a number unmatched by any other national cemetery.  It is located adjacent to the USS Cairo display/museum.  Covering ground once manned by Sherman's XV Army Corps during the siege of Vicksburg, it was established by an act of Congress in 1866.  The Confederate soldiers who were killed or died of disease during the siege of Vicksburg were buried by a local undertaker under contract with the Confederate government at the Vicksburg municipal cemetery at Cedar Hill.  As these men did not meet the criteria established by Congress for burial in a national cemetery, their remains were not disinterred, and remain today in the Soldiers' Rest section of Cedar Hill.  However, in the late 1860's, two Confederates were mistakenly buried in Section B of the Vicksburg National Cemetery where they remain today.