Located in the Wilkes Street Cemetery Complex, this is one of the oldest national cemeteries in the nation, if not the oldest, based on 1862 Congressional legislation. During the Civil War, there was a great need for a military cemetery in Alexandria. Many soldiers died in battles nearby and thousands died in Alexandria’s Union hospitals. There were 26 such hospitals in Alexandria. Many soldiers buried in this cemetery died of disease or wounds rather than on the battlefield. There are 3,533 Civil War veterans buried here, including 123 unknown soldiers and 229 African Americans who were members of the United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.), moved here from the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery. The U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs Database lists the names of those interred. All the Civil War veterans buried here are Northern. Thirty-nine Southerners were originally interred here, and then later were moved to Old Town Christ Church Cemetery in 1879. The original wooden headboards were replaced by marble headstones in 1876. A red stone lodge near the gate is apparently the third to stand on this location. A small stone monument across the road from the lodge commemorates four soldiers who died in 1865 chasing John Wilkes Booth.