Woodlawn National Cemetery

Woodlawn National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in the city of Elmira, in Chemung County, New York. It encompasses 10.5 acres, and as of the end of 2005, had 8,693 interred remains.

History

In 1861, Camp Rathbun, near the town of Elmira was established as a training camp at the beginning of the Civil War. As the Union troops who trained there were sent to their respective assignments, the facilities emptied and in 1864 it was turned into a prisoner of war camp. The facilities were not adequate to house the thousands of Confederate prisoners, and many succumbed to exposure, malnutrition, and smallpox and were subsequently interred at the cemetery.

Woodlawn National Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

Notable monuments

*The U.S. government erected the Shohola Monument in 1911 to commemorate a tragic railroad accident that took the lives of both Confederate and Union soldiers during the Civil War.
*In 1937, the United Daughters of the Confederacy erected a monument in memory of those Confederate prisoners of war who died while imprisoned in Elmira.

See also

*United States Department of Veterans Affairs
*United States National Cemetery

External links

* [http://www.cem.va.gov/ National Cemetery Administration]
* [http://www.cem.va.gov/CEM/cems/nchp/woodlawn.asp Woodlawn National Cemetery]