Wood National Cemetery was started on the grounds of (what was) the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Northwest Branch. The Home was established in 1865 and the cemetery was opened in 1871. Between those years, Civil War veterans who died at the Home were buried in private cemeteries in Milwaukee.
Wood National Cemetery (WNC) and Calvary Cemetery are separated only by a corridor of high-tension electrical wires. According to a history of WNC, the Home began using a lot in Calvary Cemetery in 1875. Within Calvary’s numbering system, this is Lot 14, and within WNC’s system it is Section 1.
Intrigued by the idea that an entire section of a national cemetery – one dedicated to Civil War veterans – was located within a private cemetery, I decided to research and document these veterans.
There are 635 burials in this section; all but five (5) were Civil War veterans. Three (3) served only in the Mexican War, one was the wife of a Civil War veteran, and one served in the Indian Wars before the Civil War started.
Each veteran was researched to identify birth and death information, military service (branch, unit, war service).
Additionally, I identified and recorded 103 inscription errors among these headstones – a significant number of them inscribed on “brand new” replacement stones.
My findings are published in “In Slumber Beneath”.