Cypress Hills National Cemetery

Cypress Hills National Cemetery is a 18.2-acre (7.4 ha) cemetery located in the Cypress Hills neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It is the only United States National Cemetery in New York City and has more than 21,100 interments of veterans and civilians.

This article is about the national cemetery mostly at 625 Jamaica Avenue. For the nearby private cemetery at 833 Jamaica Avenue and along Cooper Avenue, see Cypress Hills Cemetery.

Cypress Hills National Cemetery
United States National Cemetery
The Union Plot of Cypress Hills National Cemetery
For the Americans of all wars
Location40°41′17″N 73°52′55″W
near 
Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, Kings County, New York
Total burials21,108 (through FY 2007)
Statistics source: http://www.cem.va.gov/CEM/cems/nchp/cypresshills.asp

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.[1]

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.

History

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.

Section 2, Cypress Hills National Cemetery.

In 1870 the private Cypress Hills Cemetery Association deeded the Union Grounds property to the federal government for a consideration of $9,600. Three years later, Congress approved a change in legislation to extend burial rights to honorably discharged soldiers, sailors, and Marines who served in the war. This would necessitate a larger cemetery location for the Brooklyn location. To accommodate the large number of burial requests, the government sought to expand the cemetery. Congress balked at the price asked by the Cypress Hills Cemetery Association, so it went outside the cemetery's boundaries for a new tract. In 1884 the government purchased a 15.4-acre (6.2 ha) parcel from Isaac Snediker, located approximately one half-mile away from the Union Grounds.

These two parcels were joined by a third piece of the private Cypress Hills Cemetery. On September 17, 1941, a 0.06-acre (0.024 ha) parcel known as The Mount of Victory was donated to the United States by the State of New York. There are approximately one dozen graves in this plot, most from the War of 1812. These three parcels combined equal 18.2 acres (7.4 ha), and make up the Cypress Hills National Cemetery.

By the 1950s the area for burials was running out. The government decided that henceforth all New York City area veterans, and spouses, would be interred at the Long Island National Cemetery in Suffolk County, New York. Today the administration of the cemetery is the responsibility of the Farmingdale staff. Cypress Hills National Cemetery has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1997.

Cypress Hills National Cemetery opened in 1862, the same year as Mill Springs National Cemetery in Kentucky, the oldest active national cemetery in the United States. Cypress Hills National Cemetery is two years older than Arlington National Cemetery.

Sections

The Union Grounds (Cypress Hill Cemetery)

Located on the east slope of the Ridgewood Reservoir, the Union Grounds are in the southwest portion of Cypress Hills Cemetery, 833 Jamaica Avenue. There are more than 3,170 Union soldiers and sailors, and more than 461 captured or surrendered Confederates buried in the Union Grounds. Over the years the bowl-shaped space accepted veterans from other conflicts, up through World War I. Re-interments from other cemeteries added more graves. Most other interments, however, were largely local in nature, due to the cemetery's location in New York State (which contributed the largest numbers of fighting forces in the Civil War) and the adjacent proximity of the cemetery to New York City, the nation's most populous and hence the prime source of Federal enlistments for the war effort.

The Mount of Victory (Cypress Hill Cemetery)
Mount of Victory section contains War of 1812 graves.

Several hundred yards southeast of the Union Grounds, at one of the highest parts of Cypress Hill Cemetery, is another section of the national cemetery. Less than an acre and possessing less than 30 graves, The Mount of Victory is the smallest parcel of federal land. It is dominated by the Eagle Monument (see below), and is easily visible from West Dolorosa Road. Many of those buried here are veterans of the War of 1812. The Mount of Victory is in Section 2 of the cemetery nearby West Dolorosa Road.

Cypress Hills National Cemetery

The largest of the three sections of the national cemetery is located at 625 Jamaica Avenue. Visitors enter through decorative wrought iron gates constructed in 1886. The visitors lodge, built in 1887, is on the right. This Queen Anne style building has an office, meeting room and museum. There is a grave locator outside the lodge door. This section of the cemetery contains approximately 15,000 graves. Although the parcel is quite narrow, it is long, and leads to a hilltop. The cemetery is divided into 16 sections.

This cemetery also contains three British Commonwealth war graves from World War I – two sailors of the Royal Navy and one of the Merchant Navy.[2]

Notable monuments

There are several notable monuments in Cypress Hills. These are listed in the order that they were erected:

  • The 1881 Garfield Memorial Oak Tree (Union Grounds, Section 1 F, on Cypress Way and Metropolitan Way). On November 3, 1881, the James A. Garfield Oak Society of Brooklyn planted an oak in honor of the slain 20th President of the United States. Following a storm in 1944 that damaged the oak, a new one was planted. At one time an iron fence encircled the memorial.
  • The Ringgold Monument (Union Grounds, Section 1B). This large obelisk was erected by veterans who served under Colonel Benjamin Ringgold's command in the Civil War.
  • British Navy Monument (Section 2, Grave No. 36). In 1908 workers at Fort Hancock, New Jersey, uncovered a buried earthen brick vault with the remains of a number of men. It was determined this was the crew of a British Navy vessel that perished in 1783 while sailing homeward following the Revolutionary War. On March 5, 1909, the remains were moved to Cypress Hills and interred in a single grave. The headstone—a large granite monument that bears the names of 14 men—was erected in 1939.
  • The French Cross to honor French Sailors (Section 3). This 12-foot (3.7 m) granite cross was erected in memory of 25 sailors of the French Navy who died while on duty in American waters in the fall of 1918. The remains of three sailors were repatriated to France; 22 are interred in Cypress Hills.[3]
  • Second Division AEF Monument (in front of rostrum).
Mount of Victory eagle was erected in the early 1930s.
  • The Eagle Monument (Cypress Hills Section 2, The Mount of Victory). This unique hand-crafted monument of fieldstones was created by cemetery laborers around 1934. An American eagle, carved in stone was placed atop the stone pyramid.

Notable burials
Medal of Honor recipient Henry Rodenburg.
  • Marine Sergeant John Mapes Adams, Medal of Honor recipient for action during the Boxer Rebellion.
  • Chaplain J. H. Hull, veteran of the War of 1812, Mount of Victory section.
  • Mount of Victory section, War of 1812 graves.
  • The "Old Field" with Civil War graves.
  • Union Plot in Cypress Hills.
  • In the distance is the Ringgold Monument in the Union Grounds, Section 1B.
  • Union Grounds in Cypress Hills.
  • Union soldiers from the Civil War in the "Old Field."
  • Confederates and Union veterans buried side by side in the Union Grounds.
  • CSA soldier William Branham, Union Grounds.
  • CSA soldier Andrew Dishman, Union Grounds.
  • Union soldier Isaac Fretz, Union Grounds.
  • Union soldier Godfrey Liebrand, Union Grounds.
  • Union soldier Peter D. Spain, Union Grounds.
  • Main entrance to Cypress Hills Cemetery, the private cemetery where two portions of the National Cemetery are located. The Cypress Hills station is across Jamaica Avenue.
  • Main entrance to Cypress Hills National Cemetery, located at 625 Jamaica Avenue.
  • Entrance to Cypress Hills National Cemetery.
  • Medal of Honor recipient Wilhelm Smith.
  • Spanish–American War veteran Andy Million.
  • Medal of Honor recipient Anton Olsen.
  • World War I aviation corps Lt. Louis J. Merkel.
  • Brevet Brigadier General George W. Von Schack, 7th New York Volunteers.
  • Detail of grave of Medal of Honor recipient Wilbur E. Colyer.
  • Marine veteran Aug. Holmberg.
  • Cypress Hills National Cemetery.
  • Unknown soldier.
  • Plaque dedicated in 1976 for U.S. Bicentennial.
  • Medal of Honor recipient Edwin S. Martin.
  • Two-time Medal of Honor recipient Daniel Daly.
  • Civil War graves.
  • One of the few Vietnam War graves, Marine Lance Corporal Roy G. Rubin, buried more than 15 years after Cypress Hills filled up.
  • The French Cross to honor French Sailors (Section 3).
  • Cypress Hills National Cemetery.
  • Cypress Hills National Cemetery.
  • Memorial to Eunice Gray, daughter of a soldier, who died in Puerto Rico.

References
  1. US Dept of Veterans Affairs. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Cemetery is closed to new interments. The only interments that are being accepted are subsequent interments for veterans or eligible family members in an existing gravesite. Periodically however, burial space may become available due to a canceled reservation or when a disinterment has been completed. When either of these two scenarios occurs, the gravesite is made available to another eligible veteran on a first-come, first-served basis.
  2. CWGC Cemetery Report. Breakdown obtained from casualty record.
  3. "FRENCH NAVY SAILORS WHO DIED IN AMERICAN WATERS". naval-history.net. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
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