Beaufort VA National Cemetery

Beaufort National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in Beaufort County, in the city of Beaufort, South Carolina. It encompasses 33.1 acres (13.4 ha), and as of the end of 2005, had 18,511 interments. The original interments in the cemetery were men who died in nearby Union hospitals during the occupation of the area early in the Civil War, mainly in 1861, following the Battle of Port Royal. Battlefield casualties from around the area were also reinterred in the cemetery, including over 100 Confederate soldiers. It became a National Cemetery with the National Cemetery Act by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. The remains of 27 Union prisoners of War were reinterred from Blackshear prison following the war. Beaufort National Cemetery now has interments from every major American conflict, including the Spanish-American War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War. On May 29, 1989, nineteen Union soldiers of the all black Massachusetts 54th Infantry, whose remains were found on Folly Island, South Carolina in 1987, were buried in the cemetery with full military honors. Members of the cast of the film Glory served as honor guard. Beaufort National Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.