History
The cemetery was established in 1863, by an order from Major General George Henry Thomas after the Civil War Battles of Chattanooga, as a place to inter Union soldiers who fell in combat. 75 acres (30 ha) of land was initially appropriated from two local land owners, but later purchased. It became a Chattanooga National Cemetery in 1867. By 1870 more than 12,000 interments had been made, most of whom were unknown. Many nearby battlefield burials were also reinterred in Chattanooga, including nearly 1,500 burials from the Battle of Chickamauga.
During World War I several German prisoners of war who died while in captivity were buried in Chattanooga National Cemetery. After the war, the German government paid to have other POWs disinterred from Hot Springs National Cemetery and moved to Chattanooga.
Chattanooga National Cemetery was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
Originally the site was expected to close for new burials in 2015. However, due to a recent expansion project that will add the capacity for more than 5000 internments, the cemetery is now expected to be available for burials until 2045. Other changes include digging graves and adding concrete crypts instead of digging them as requested. This will create a more stable grave and allow for faster internment. The lids are removed on demand and then covered with a few inches of soil.
Read more about this topic: Chattanooga National Cemetery
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)