Springfield National Cemetery....Springfield, Missouri

DATE:  November 14, 2015

HISTORICAL SITE:  Springfield National Cemetery

 

LOCATION:  1702 E. Seminole St., Springfield, Greene Co., Missouri

MARKER #:  99001045

DEDICATED:  August 27, 1999

"This national cemetery has been listed in The National Register of Historic Places"

MARKER PLACED BY:  United States Department of the Interior

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS: 

“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived” – General George S. Patton

I think I’ve mentioned before that there is this fascination when one place I’ve blogged about becomes connected to another. That’s the case with the Springfield National Cemetery.

This area was home to the Kickapoo Indians and the area around the cemetery was known as Kickapoo Prairie. Missouri was truly the edge of civilization before people started making their way west. We’ve seen, as with the Patee hotel, that people knew they were going into or coming out of the wilderness.

Slavery, among other issues, had always been a dividing point in the United States and it came to a head on April 12, 1861, when the Confederates opened fire on the Union garrison at Fort Sumter, South Carolina.

Not long after, the Missouri legislators met and voted against secession but said if the north declared war on the south, then they would fight for the Confederacy.

In August 1861, the first major engagement west of the Mississippi River took place at Wilson’s Creek, about 15 miles north of the cemetery. The win really went to the Confederates but they failed to push forward and gave the federal military time to regroup. The south would never really hold Missouri although the state was full of southern sympathizers.

The city bought 80 acres on the outskirts of Springfield. The cemetery was named Springfield National Cemetery, not because it was part of the federal government, but because that was the name of the street that used to run on the south border of the land. The street disappeared when the cemetery was expanded.

 The civic leaders gave the U.S. government the choice of areas within the cemetery for the sole purpose of burying Union soldiers and most had fought at Wilson’s Creek. The cemetery opened in 1867, and soldiers buried around the area were disinterred and reburied here.

In the end, there would be 1,514 Union soldiers buried with 719 unknowns. There were 566 Confederates and the majority of those were unknown. There’s something about standing there and you can see a sea of “Unknown Confederate Soldier” tombstones.

There are several monuments within the cemetery. The first one you see was placed in 1888 to the memory of Union General Nathaniel Lyon, the commanding officer at Wilson’s Creek and the 1st Union General to die in the Civil War.

A few years later, in 1901, a monument to Confederate General Sterling Price was raised. Price was once the Governor of Missouri and the Confederate Commander at Wilson’s Creek.

A local doctor, T.J. Bailey, had wanted a monument put up upon his death so in 1907 it was placed with the inscription “erected under the provisions of the last will of Dr. Thomas Bailey to show his love for the Union and its gallant defenders”

But this wasn’t the only cemetery around. Right next to the National Cemetery, there was a smaller one for Confederate soldiers. In 1911, the Confederate Cemetery Association donated 6 acres with the stipulation that only men who fought on the side of the Confederacy could be buried there. An Act of Congress in 1911 ordered the Secretary of War to accept the confederate cemetery as part of the Springfield National Cemetery.

After WWII, with a lot of space on the Confederate side, the Dept. of Veterans Affairs asked permission of the Confederate Association to bury soldiers from other wars in the area. The permission was given except for a smaller walled off section.

In 1958, the Daughters of the Confederacy put up a monument to all the unknown Confederate soldiers who died at Wilson’s Creek.

It wasn’t until the 1980’s, with amendments to the agreement with the Confederate Cemetery Association, that all veterans were eligible to be buried in the smaller Confederate section.

Yeah, they waited until no one was alive who could argue the point, but then again, who would be buried there as all Confederate soldiers were gone at this point.

There are soldiers buried here from most of America's wars including one revolutionary war veteran. Private William Freeman, born in North Carolina, was a scout for General George Washington. In 1912, his remains were removed from the family farm and re-interred here.

A monument was erected by the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association in 1992 as a tribute to those who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and in 1999, the Sons & Daughters of the American Revolution honored those who died in the revolution with another monument.

In addition, five Buffalo Soldiers are buried here. These were members of African American army regiments created after the Civil War. They were the protectors of settlers moving west, they built and renovated Army posts and camps, and maintained law and order in the western expanses of the country. 

There are also 5 recipients of the Medal Of Honor buried in the cemetery. This is our nation's highest military decoration, given for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.”

1999 was also when the cemetery was given the designation and put on the register of historic places.

“I don't have to tell you how fragile this precious gift of freedom is. Every time we hear, watch, or read the news, we are reminded that liberty is a rare commodity in this world.” – President Ronald Reagan