Wilmington National Cemetery, Military cemetery in Wilmington, United States.
Wilmington National Cemetery is a 5.1-acre (2.1 ha) United States national cemetery in Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina, administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Its graves, more than 6,000 by the end of 2005, lie in rows of uniform white markers on maintained lawn. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
The federal government bought the land in 1867, and most early burials were remains moved from Wilmington City Cemetery and forts such as Fort Fisher. By 1870 more than 2,000 people were interred. In 1918, 28 Puerto Rican laborers who died of influenza aboard a ship on the Cape Fear River were buried here. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
Among the graves are those of John S. W. Eagles, a soldier and politician, and George "Possum" Whitted, a major league baseball player and World War I veteran. A single British Commonwealth war grave, of a Royal Artillery gunner of World War II, is also maintained here.
The cemetery lies in Wilmington, in New Hanover County, North Carolina, and is administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Its 5.1 acres (2.1 ha) hold more than 6,000 interred remains as of the end of 2005. The grounds are open daily from sunrise to sunset, and admission is free.
The grounds contain graves of 28 Puerto Rican laborers who died in 1918 during an influenza outbreak while working on Camp Bragg construction. These burials tell a lesser-known story of civilian losses tied to World War One efforts.
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