Jefferson Barracks Cemetery - A place of peace and tranquility

 Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery

Looking for a place of awe and wonder, a place of peace and tranquility to wander through?  Whether you wish to enjoy a gentle walk, or take a hike, you should check out Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery.  Not the new section, but the old.

Visit the graves of the first ones buried there – children born to the wives of soldiers stationed at the Post when it was first built in 1826. Stop by the graves of the Revolutionary War soldiers who are buried there. Explore the monuments, many placed by the wives and mothers of soldiers from other states who were buried there during the Civil War.  The Minnesota Monument stands alone in her grief, looking over the fields of graves.

Marvel over the monuments erected there for private citizens buried there as well as soldiers whose families erected monuments over their graves before the standardization of monuments began. 

And let us not forget the section for the soldiers from Fort Bellefontaine, whose remains were moved from the Ft Bellefontaine post cemetery to the Jefferson Barracks cemetery in 1904.

Stop for a moment at the mass graves – from soldiers who died and were buried on “Smallpox Island” during the Civil War whose markers were lost during floods, to those who died in plane crashes during WWII and helicopter crashes during Vietnam, when the remains could not be individually identified.  There are 560 mass or “grouped” graves, the largest holding 123 American prisoners killed in the Philippines by the Japanese in 1944.

Slow as you go by the remains of prisoners of war who are buried there.  From the Civil War section, where civilian traitors (including 2 women) are buried along with Confederate Soldiers (the section easy to identify with the tops of the monuments shaped as triangles), to the burial sites of German and Italian prisoners of war from WWII who were buried with full military honors by their fellow prisoners.

Slow also for the monument to the 175 soldiers of the 56^th US Colored Infantry who died of cholera in 1866.  Their remains, originally interred at the Koch Quarantine Hospital in St Louis were moved to Jefferson Barracks in 1939.

Other burials include 8 Medal of Honor recipients as well as an airman who was originally entombed in the Tom of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, then later, as forensics improved, identified and returned to his family for burial at Jefferson Barracks. Check out https://www.pinterest.com/daleweir/jefferson-barracks-national-cemetery/ for pictures of the Cemetery.