Update on Alexandria National Cemetery

The City of Alexandria has posted a reportconcerning the Freedmen's Cemetery in Alexandria during the Civil War and after.  The report contains the story of the petition of black troops for the right to be buried at the Soldier's Cemetery, which was mentioned in my last post.  It turns out that a white officer, the U.S. Quartermaster for Alexandria, forwarded the petition from the African American soldiers at the L'Ouverture Hospital to the Quartermaster General of the United States.  Based on what was written in the forwarding letter, the Contraband Superintendent in Alexandria appears to have opposed any effort to allow such burials.  Unfortunately, the report does not contain a copy of the actual decision by the War Department to allow soldiers of the U.S.C.T. to be buried at the Soldier's Cemetery, but we do know that the Alexandria Quartermaster prevailed in his quest to secure approval to bury all soldiers, whether black and white, at the cemetery.