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2004

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Most Endangered Places for 2004

BATTLEGROUND NATIONAL CEMETERY

6625 GEORGIA AVENUE, NW
STEWARD: NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
DC INVENTORY OF HISTORIC SITES (1979)
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES (1966)

Shortly after the Battle of Fort Stevens in the summer of 1864, General Montgomery C. Meigs, Quartermaster General of the United States Army, selected this site and instructed Captain Moore to evacuate and bury the Union dead. With a combined total casualty figure of over 900 killed or wounded during the conflict, 41 Union soldiers who fought and died in Fort Steven’s defense were interred in a specially created cemetery dedicated by Abraham Lincoln. Comprising just one acre of land, Battleground is one of the nation’s smallest national cemeteries. Two 6-pounder, smoothbore guns of Civil War vintage flank the entrance. In the center of the cemetery, a flagpole surrounded by 14 regulation marble headstones marks the remains of the honored dead. In the rear of the property stands a marble rostrum, which was built in 1914 in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Stevens and is used to conduct yearly Memorial Day services. Poor maintenance and lack of funding have led to severe deterioration of the cemetery. The former superintendent’s lodge, based on General Montgomery Meigs’s prototype, was restored in the mid-1990s but is now closed. There is no onsite professional staff to monitor the condition of the cemetery and the only routine maintenance done is lawn mowing. The threats to the historic integrity of Battleground National Cemetery are increasing every year without adequate maintenance or restoration of the historic structures.

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