Knoxville National Cemetery
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Knoxville National Cemetery
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Union Soldier monument
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| Location | 939 Tyson St., NW Knoxville, Tennessee |
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| Coordinates | 35°58′32″N 83°55′39″W / 35.97556°N 83.92750°WCoordinates: 35°58′32″N 83°55′39″W / 35.97556°N 83.92750°W |
| MPS | Civil War Era National Cemeteries MPS |
| NRHP Reference # | 96000966 |
| Added to NRHP | September 12, 1996 |
Knoxville National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in the city of Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee, United States. Established in 1863, the cemetery currently encompasses 9.8 acres (4.0 ha), and as of the end of 2007, had 9,006 interments. The 60-foot (18 m) Union Soldier monument, which stands in the eastern corner of the cemetery, is one of the largest Union monuments in the South. In 1996, the cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of a multiple properties submission for national cemeteries.
Knoxville National Cemetery was established by Major General Ambrose Burnside, whose Union forces had liberated Knoxville in September 1863 at the height of the Civil War. Burnside assigned the task of layout out the cemetery to his assistant quartermaster, Captain E.B. Chamberlain. The cemetery's first burials were Union dead exhumed and moved from Cumberland Gap and other parts of the region. Chamberlain's plan was so effective, that the cemetery was one of the few in the nation that required no alterations upon being designated a national cemetery at the end of the war.
The graves at Knoxville National Cemetery are arranged in a circular pattern, with each burial section separated by walkways. The burial sections each form one quarter of the circle, with the headstones converging toward the middle, where there is a flagpole and cloth canopy. A stone wall surrounds the perimeter, the southeast section of which divides the cemetery from the adjacent Old Gray Cemetery. The northeast section of the wall, which contains the main entrance, is topped by an iron fence, with the entrance secured by an iron double-gate. The administrative office and service building is located just inside the gate. A marker containing several lines from the Theodore O'Hara poem, Bivouac of the Dead, faces the graves in the northeast corner.
Most of the grave markers are marble headstones of a standard size and shape, although a few have larger and more elaborate markers. Inscriptions typically give the deceased's name and years lived, and in some cases, note the deceased's rank, company, and/or war in which they served. The burials are limited to veterans and spouses of veterans. After the Civil War, the cemetery only accepted Union burials, although the cemetery contains at least one Confederate grave. The cemetery is currently administered by Chattanooga National Cemetery, and contains veterans of every war since the Civil War.
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