Cypress Hills National Cemetery - History

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.

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 Sept. 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.