Chalmette National Cemetery
Chalmette National Cemetery is a 17.5 acre strip of land that sits adjacent to the site of the
Battle of New Orleans along the Mississippi River in Chalmette, Louisiana. The cemetery, which
is closed to future burials, has more than 15,300 interments from every major U.S. conflict between
the American Revolution and Vietnam. While most of the individuals interred are veterans,
civilians such as spouses, children, and employees of the War Department are also included.
The cemetery was established in May of 1864 as a final resting place for Civil
War dead, both Confederate and Union soldiers alike. Approximately 132 Confederate
prisoners of war were buried at Chalmette until the Ladies' Benevolent Association
of New Orleans requested that these soldiers be moved out of Chalmette, which
is comprised entirely of Union soldiers, to the Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans.
In the years following the war, the cemetery took in an additional 7,000 interments
of Union soldiers moved from abandoned cemeteries located all over southern Louisiana,
Ship Island, and Mississippi. Civil War burials at Chalmette number well over
12,000, but almost 7,000 are unknown.
The Confederate Database (30 kb) holds the records
for 130 of the 132 Confederate soldiers moved from Chalmette.
The Union Database is rather large (over 2MB), and may cause problems for
you when downloading, due to the nature of the Internet. Where possible, it
is recommended you use the search mechanisms. For convenience, the Union Database
has been broken up into five parts based on last names beginning with:
[A B
C D
E F
G H
I-J K
L M
N-O P-Q
R S
T U-V
W-Z]
The listings contain many of the same fields:
- LNAME -- Last name of soldier
- FNAME -- First name of soldier
- OLDSEC -- Original section of burial if burial has been moved
- SEC -- Current burial section
- GRAVE -- Current burial site within section
- GRAVE_A -- Denotes burial site where there is more than one burial
- STATE -- Soldier's state where enlisted
- RANK -- Soldier's military rank
- ARM -- Branch of military in which soldier served
- COMPANY -- Soldier's company
- REGIMENT -- Soldier's regiment
- DDATE -- Date of Death, written out (EXAMPLE: August 5, 1862)
- DATE -- Date abbreviated (EXAMPLE: 08/05/62)
- OPB -- Original place of burial if soldier moved to Chalmette
- WAR -- Conflict soldier was involved in (NOTE: can be ?)
- UNKNOWN -- Used when soldiers name is unknown, but other information exists
- COMMENTS -- Extra information about soldier
- REF -- information source (NOTE: usually Chalmette records)
For more information, contact the Chalmette Unit of Jean Lafitte
National Historical Park at: (504) 589-4428.
Special thanks to Ed Basanez for providing updated information
for the Chalmette records.
For Questions/Comments, see our Questions Page
Last modified: 6/13/02
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