Chalmette National Cemetery

The same field that held Jackson's line against the British in 1815 became a federal burial ground in 1864. Two wars fought forty-nine years apart, and the later one fills the cemetery — over 15,300 graves, most of them Union soldiers who died during the occupation of New Orleans.

The city fell to federal forces in 1862. Louisiana was Confederate territory, but New Orleans spent most of the war under Union control, so the dead needed ground. The government established the national cemetery system that same year to provide permanent burial for soldiers who died in service. Chalmette became official in 1864. The land had already been used as a burial ground. Early in the war, former slaves were buried here, as were both Confederate and Union troops.

After the war, the Confederate dead were moved to the now-defunct Cypress Grove #2 Cemetery by the Ladies of the Benevolent Association of New Orleans. Makeshift battlefield burial plots around the state were emptied, and nearly 12,000 soldiers were transferred to Chalmette. Seven thousand are unknown. Around the same time, approximately 7,000 African-American civilians were reinterred at the adjacent Freedmen's Cemetery.

Four graves belong to War of 1812 soldiers. One of them fought at the Battle of New Orleans. Sarah Rosetta Wakeman enlisted in the Union Army disguised as a man under the name Lyons Wakeman. She died of disease in New Orleans in 1864 and is buried here.

The cemetery transferred to the National Park Service in 1933, was listed on the National Register in 1966, and became part of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in 1978. Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita toppled headstones and damaged the perimeter wall in 2005. The cemetery is now closed to new interments but open daily. Free admission.