Why are there no Confederate soldiers buried in the National Cemetery?
When the National Cemetery System was enacted in 1862, only “…the soldiers who shall die in the service of this country…” (which at the time meant those in the Union Army), were allowed to be buried. In 1873, Congress extended the right of burial in National Cemeteries to all honorably discharged Union Civil War veterans. Confederate veterans became eligible for interment in National Cemeteries only if they later served the United States in the Indian Wars or Spanish-American War. There are some exceptions which include Confederate prisoners interred in Arlington National Cemetery (originally given civilian burials), and three Confederate soldiers known to have been mistakenly buried in Vicksburg National Cemetery in the 1860s.
