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In August, 1862, David Judd of the 33rd New York Infantry wrote upon passing
through Yorktown: "Near to the fortifications [Confederate] was a Union
Cemetery, containing the graves of 300 Union soldiers, each of which was
adorned by a neat head-board, designating the name and regiment of the soldier."
By the end of the Civil War in 1865, the total of Union soldiers buried
in the "Union Cemetery" exceeded 600. The following year, the cemetery formally
became a National Cemetery and Union dead from 50 sites within a 50 mile
radius of Yorktown were re-interred in the newly landscaped cemetery. Today,
the Yorktown National Cemetery, which is closed to burials, contains the
remains of 2,183 soldiers, ten of which are Confederate. Only 747 of the
dead are identified. Many of the dead are from the 1862 Peninsula Campaign
and other battles around Richmond, though some died during the period Yorktown
served as a Union garrison from 1862-1864.
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