Poplar Grove National Cemetery

 

Petersburg trenches

 

Located twenty-five miles south of Richmond,Va., Petersburg National Battlefield contains 2,460 acres and is made up of six major units. These units contain battlefields, earthen forts, trenches and Poplar Grove National Cemetery. Collectively, they reveal the story of the longest siege in American warfare and the experiences of the nearly 150,000 soldiers from both sides of the trenches.

During the Civil War a gothic-style church called Poplar Grove was constructed by the 50th NY Engineers and a cemetery was chosen on its grounds.

A year after the War ended work began to move approximately 5,000 Union Soldiers from nearly 100 separate burial sites around Petersburg.

 Poplar Grove Church

 
Burials

 

A Soldier's Burial

During the siege of Petersburg, Union soldiers who were killed in battle were hastily buried near where the fighting took place, some in single shallow pits, others in mass graves. Identification was as simple as a name carved on a wooden headboard, if there was time to leave even that. Most of these soldiers were not given a proper burial.

 

 

In July of 1866, work began by the US Burial Coprs to locate and move the bodies of soldiers killed during the Petersburg Campaign from at least 95 separate field burial sites to the new cemetery at Poplar Grove.

[100 men, 12 saddle horses, 40 mules and 10 army wagons comprised the corps]

 

Battlefields of recovered bodies:

*Richmond Turnpike (June 17&18,1864)

*Meade Station (June 21&22, 1864)

*Crater Battle (July 30, 1864)

*Weldon Railroad (August 18, 1864)

*Yellow Tavern (August 21, 1864)

*Reams Station (August 25, 1864)

*Poplar Springs Church (Sept. 30, 1864)

*Hatcher's Run (October 27, 1864)

*Stoney Creek (December 6, 1864)

*Fort Stedman (March 25, 1865)

*Hatchers's Run (March 27, 1865)

*Burgess Mill (March 30, 1865)

*White Oak Road (March 31, 1865)

*Five Forks (April 1, 1865)

*Jetersville (April 4, 1865)

*Sailor's Creek (April 6, 1865)

*Appomattox Station (April 9, 1865)

 

 

The burial corps worked for three years until 1869. In that time they re-interred 6,718 remains. Only 2,139 bodies were positively identified.

The Confederate dead were re-interred in the nearby Blandford Church Cemetery in Petersburg. Of the nearly 30,000 Confederate dead buried here, only about 2,000 names are known.

Poplar Grove is one of 14 National Cemeteries administered by the National Park Service. It is closed for burials but visitors are invited to walk the grounds, which are open daily.

Blandford Church

 

 

A Soldier's Grave

Robert Douglas

Company: A

Unit Number: 11th

State/Federal: Maine

Military Organization: Infantry

Date of Death: April 9, 1865

Original Burial Place:Appomattox

Gravestone Number: 4803

 

Douglas headstone

 

Thanks

The CWSS staff and National Park Service wishes to thank the Petersburg staff and volunteers for supplying the data and text history for Poplar Grove National Cemetery. Special thanks goes to Richard Easterbrook for organizing the release of the records; Ranger Mike Bremer, who took most of the grave images; and Ranger Betsy Dinger for editing and updating the records.

If you have any questions about the soldiers buried at Poplar Grove, please contact Petersburg National Battlefield. If you are looking for information on Confederate soldiers who may be buried in the Petersburg area, the battlefield park maintains a list of known information about those men.

Petersburg National Battlefield