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Several letters, documents and other ephemeral items concerning the establishment and upkeep of United States National Cemeteries in the years following the Civil War. Including a monthly report of the progress of cemeteries, for April 1868, showing the number of bodies interred, yet to be interred, etc. Also, a manuscript fair copy of a letter to Edwin Stanton with details specific to the National Cemeteries in Virginia; two manuscript copies of the Regulations governing the Superintendents in charge of National Cemeteries; instructions and proposed route for inspections of 54 National Cemeteries in more than a dozen states, mostly Southern; sketches of monuments; newspaper clippings regarding cemeteries; a broadside of "A Selection of Mottos Suitable to be Erected in the National Cemeteries"; etc. Also, a manuscript copy of the inscription on the Civil War Unknowns Monument in Arlington National Cemetery: "Beneath this stone repose the bones of two thousand one hundred and eleven unknown soldiers gathered after the war from the fields of Bull Run and the route to the Rappahannock. Their remains could not be identified, but their names and deaths are recorded in the archives of their country and its grateful citizens honor them as of their noble army of martyrs. May they rest in peace. September, A.D. 1866"

A unique and interesting archive regarding the internment of the fallen soldiers of the Civil War.