Battleground National Cemetery

See the Park Map web page for an interactive fort location map.

Battleground National Cemetery, one of the smallest National Cemeteries at only one acre in size, is located at 6625 Georgia Avenue. Street parking is available. The National Park Service has an office for the Civil War Defenses of Washington in the former superintendent’s office, the only building on the property.

Street parking along Georgia Avenue

Battleground National Cemetery was created as the burial ground for the Union soldiers who fought in the Battle of Fort Stevens. There were approximately 900 casualties during the fighting (dead and wounded), with around 350 of these being Union. Shortly after the battle, forty men were buried at this location, and President Abraham Lincoln declared it a National Cemetery. Only one other man who fought in the battle elected to be buried here, and that was upon his death in 1936.

Aside from being one of the smallest National Cemeteries, Battleground is the only one in which every person buried has been identified. In addition to the forty-one soldiers, the wife and three children of Augustus Armbrecht, the cemetery’s first superintendent, are also buried here. The cemetery is now closed to new burials.