Cypress Hills National Cemetery

Cypress Hills National Cemetery
United States National Cemetery
The Union Plot of Cypress Hills National Cemetery
For the Americans of all wars
Location	40°41′17″N 73°52′55″W / 40.68806°N 73.88194°W / 40.68806; -73.88194Coordinates: 40°41′17″N 73°52′55″W / 40.68806°N 73.88194°W / 40.68806; -73.88194 near Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, Kings County, New York
Total burials	21,108 (through FY 2007)
Statistics source: http://www.cem.va.gov/CEM/cems/nchp/cypresshills.asp

Cypress Hills National Cemetery is the only United States National Cemetery in New York City and has more than 21,100 interments of veterans and civilians. There are 24 Medal of Honor recipients buried in the cemetery, including three men who won the award twice. Although Cypress Hills was established to honor Civil War veterans, its grounds include the graves of soldiers who fought in the American Revolutionary War, Spanish–American War, Korean War and Vietnam War.

Cypress Hills National Cemetery opened in 1862 and gravesites were exhausted in 1954. However, burials of veteran’s spouses continues at the rate of approximately ten per year. The two sections of this national cemetery are located approximately one half mile apart (see below, three sections of Cypress Hills).

The cemetery is located in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, and encompasses 18.2 acres (7.4 ha). It is easily reached on the J line at the Cypress Hills station, approximately 45 minutes from Manhattan.

In 1849 the private Cypress Hills Cemetery was established as a nonsectarian burial ground. On April 21, 1862, the cemetery’s board of directors acted upon the request of undertaker A. J. Case to establish a place for burial of United States veterans who died in Brooklyn and the vicinity. With the American Civil War underway, a location was needed for casualties who died in New York hospitals. The board of directors authorized 2.7 acres (1.1 ha) for deceased veterans and was known colloquially as the Union Grounds. Private Alfred Mitchell, a young soldier of the 1st New York Engineers who died on April 13, 1862, was the first Civil War casualty to be interred in the new Union Grounds. Eight years later, an inspection report noted that 3,170 Union soldiers and 461 Confederate prisoners of war were already buried here. Others were brought from cemeteries on Long Island Sound and as far away as Rhode Island.