Battle of Yorktown

20. Yorktown National Cemetery

Yorktown, VA

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Yorktown was selected for the location of a national cemetery because of its proximity to a number of Civil War battles. Many of the people who are interred at the cemetery lost their lives during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign. In 1862, President Lincoln was determined to end the war by taking Richmond, the Confederate capitol. Major General George B. McClellan convinced the President that the best route was to march up the Virginia Peninsula from Fort Monroe to Richmond. McClellan's first move after arriving at Fort Monroe was to lay siege to Yorktown. Confederate troops were forced to abandon Yorktown, and later that day they battled Union troops at Williamsburg at the cost of 2,300 Union casualties and 1,600 Confederate deaths. Yorktown remained under Union control for the remainder of the war, but Richmond did not fall until April 1865. 600 Union soldiers who were killed during the Peninsula Campaign were among the first to be buried in the cemetery. Today the cemetery has 1,596 marked graves and is the final resting place of 2,204 soldiers. Out of that number, 1,457 are unknown. Eleven graves are those of African American soldiers who served as members of the United States Color Troops, and ten are Confederate burials. The cemetery covers 2.7 acres and is surrounded by a four-foot-tall brick wall. It is divided into four burial sections that are separated by unpaved walkways. One of the best-known soldiers who rests at the Yorktown National Cemetery is the so-called "Sleeping Sentinel," Private William Scott, who is buried in Grave 351. Scott fell asleep at his post during picket duty in 1861 and was the first soldier sentenced to death in the Army of the Potomac, but President Lincoln pardoned him for his good character and previous good conduct. Scott was killed in 1862 during the Battle of Williamsburg.