A grave yard for the burial of ‘contrabands’ who may die in this place has been laid off near the Catholic Cemetery.[i]  

Alexandria Gazette, 4 March 1864.

The tremendous influx of freedom-seekers into Alexandria began861 with more than one hundred formerly enslaved individuals entering the city each day in the early years of the war.[ii] The many refugees, arriving destitute and often in poor health, confronted over-crowded, inadequate living situations and suffered from an increased susceptibility to diseases that ravaged the city. These conditions, coupled with a well-documented lack of space in the existing public cemetery, made the creation of a new burial ground a necessity, as many sadly succumbed to disease just as their status as freedpeople came into focus.

With the city under military control throughout the course of the Civil War, the U.S. Army established Freedmen’s Cemetery in March 1864 on the confiscated property of Francis L. Smith, a lawyer and Confederate sympathizer who had fled South.[iii] Administration of the burial ground fell to the Army’s Quartermaster Department during the war with subsequent management by the Freedmen’s Bureau. The cemetery became the final resting place for at least 1,711 African American individuals, primarily those who had made their way to the city in search of freedom and opportunity. Their names live on in a document created by the military government, the Book of Records, Containing The Marriages and Deaths That Have Occurred, Within The Official Jurisdiction of Rev. A. Gladwin: Together, With any Biographical or Other Reminiscences That may be Collected. Alexandria, Va (herein called the Book of Records).[iv

United States Colored Troops were also initially interred at Freedmen’s Cemetery between May and December of 1864. However, one of the earliest successful civil rights protests in the nation led to the disinterment of the remains of 118 African American soldiers by the military government in January 1865 with reburial at Soldiers’ Cemetery (now Alexandria National Cemetery) to recognize and honor their service.[v]

With the conclusion of most of the work of the Freedmen’s Bureau in Virginia by December 1868, management and administration of the cemetery by the federal government ceased in early January 1869.[vi] Burials of community members may have continued after that date, and historical evidence suggests that families continued to care for the graves of loved ones. However, as the decades passed, hundreds of graves were disturbed or destroyed by activities of brick manufacturers in the late-nineteenth century, subsequent development of two major highways, and construction of a gas station and two-story building.[vii] Public awareness of the presence of the burial ground largely faded, certainly obscured by the twentieth-century developments allowed to take place on the cemetery site.

In the 1980s and ‘90s, research historians discovered a 100-year-old newspaper article that revealed the location of the cemetery and a Civil War-era record that documented the deaths of nearly 3,000 African American people in Alexandria during the war, including the names of those buried at Freedmen’s Cemetery. This knowledge became especially important as federal and state plans for replacement of the nearby Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Potomac River took shape, acknowledging the potential for graves to be present within the project area. The Friends of Freedmen’s Cemetery formed to foster public awareness of the cemetery and lobby for a memorial that encompassed the entire site. Federal and city preservation laws helped prevent further desecration, ultimately leading to the creation of the memorial as part of the bridge project. Archaeological investigation, an integral part of memorial development, identified locations of 631 graves, ensuring future protection.

The City of Alexandria serves as the steward of this sacred place, now preserved as the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial. Designed to reflect the historical character of the burial ground, the site highlights the history of Alexandria’s African American community during and immediately after the war. It honors those buried here and the thousands of known descendants (i.e., living relatives, not necessarily all of a direct lineage, because so many of the victims were children) who carry forward their legacy. Recognition by the National Park Service of the significance of Freedmen’s Cemetery has come in the form of its listing on the National Register of Historic Places, National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, and the African American Civil Rights Network.

[i] Alexandria Gazette, 4 March 1864.

[ii] Alexandria Gazette, 26 August 1862, 29 September 1862.

[iii] Alexandria Gazette, 23 July 1863.

[iv] Book of Records, Containing The Marriages and Deaths That Have Occurred, Within The Official Jurisdiction of Rev. A. Gladwin: Together, With any Biographical or Other Reminiscences That may be Collected. Alexandria, Va, Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA, Accession Number 1100408.

[v] U.S. Colored Troops to Major Edwin Bentley, Surgeon in Charge, at L’Ouverture General Hospital, Alexandria VA, 27 December 1864, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, General Correspondence and Reports Relating to National and Post Cemeteries, Record Group 92, Entry 576, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.; J.G.C. Lee, Assistant Quartermaster, to Major General M.C. Meigs, Depot Quartermaster’s Office, Alexandria, VA, 28 December 1864, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, General Correspondence and Reports Relating to National and Post Cemeteries, Record Group 92, Entry 576, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

[vi] National Archives and Records Administration, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (Freedmen’s Bureau) for Virginia, 1865-1872,  https://www.archives.gov/files/research/african-americans/freedmens-bureau/virginia.pdf; Book of Records, Containing The Marriages and Deaths That Have Occurred, Within The Official Jurisdiction of Rev. A. Gladwin: Together, With any Biographical or Other Reminiscences That may be Collected. Alexandria, Va, Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA, Accession Number 1100408, 119-.

[vii] “Alexandria Affairs,” Washington Post, 29 March 1892; Bureau of Public Roads, Classified Central Files, 1912-1950, 420 Right of Way, General Properties, Mount Vernon Virginia, 1928-1942, Record Group 30, Box 1385, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD; Scott Kozell, Capital Beltway History, http://www.capital-beltway.com/Capital-Beltway-History.html;  Alexandria Building Permit #6368, 13 July 1955, City Archives, Alexandria, VA; Alexandria Deed Book 416:460, 462, 29 July 1955, Alexandria Circuit Court, Land Records, Alexandria, VA; Alexandria Building Permit #7130, 25 November 1959, City Archives, Alexandria, VA.