Sacred Soil: Hidden Civil War History Buried at D.C.’s Battleground National Cemetery
By Gordon Berg
10/10/2018 • America's Civil War Magazine
There are 147 national cemeteries in the United States, but none as unique perhaps as Battleground National Cemetery—one square acre of hallowed ground nestled in a residential neighborhood of Washington, D.C. That’s because to be buried at Battleground, you had to be a Union defender of Fort Stevens during the only Civil War battle fought within the boundaries of the District of Columbia on July 11-12 1864. It was during that battle that Abraham Lincoln became the first and only sitting president to come under enemy fire.
By historynet
Battleground is the nation’s third smallest national cemetery and contains the remains of 40 Union soldiers killed during the battle. But there are 44 headstones. One of the “extra†headstones belongs to Edward R. Campbell who didn’t die until March 10, 1936. In 1864, he was a 19-year-old private in the 2nd Vermont Infantry, one of the 6th Corps regiments sent from Petersburg, Va., by Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to help defend Fort Stevens. Campbell helped bury the Union dead at Battleground. He survived the war, worked at the Pension Bureau from 1883-1915, and lived in nearby Takoma Park, Md. He was the only survivor of Fort Stevens who chose to be buried with his long dead comrades and his burial closed the cemetery. In an interview he gave just before his death, Campbell said he remembered that President Lincoln appeared during the night while the bodies were being gathered and actually chose the place where the soldiers were to be buried. The story may be apocryphal, but it does add to the mystery and allure of the cemetery.
http://www.historynet.com/battleground-national-cemetery.htm
