| A Brief History of Freedmen's Cemetry |  |
Freedmen's Cemetery served as the burial place for about 1,800 African Americans who fled to Alexandria to escape from bondage during the Civil War.
During the War, African American refugees flooded into Union-controlled areas, including Alexandria and Washington. Although many of the freedmen found work and some served in the Union army, others arrived destitute, malnourished, and in poor health. After hundreds of freed people perished in the area, a parcel of undeveloped land was seized from a pro-Confederate owner. The cemetery opened in February 1864.
Reverend Gladwin, the Superintendent of Contrabands, arranged for burials and a record book was kept for the cemetery. The graves were marked with whitewashed headboards. Initially, African American soldiers were buried there as well. But in December 1864, injured black soldiers, convalescing in Alexandria's L'Ouverture Hospital, petitioned for the right to be buried in the "Soldiers' Cemetery" on Wilkes Street. In January 1865, about 75 soldiers' graves were removed from Freedmen's Cemetery and reburied in the Alexandria National Cemetery. The remaining soldiers were moved there through the Spring of 1865.
In 1868, Congress ended most functions of the Freedmen's Bureau, and the cemetery was closed. The last recorded burial was in January 1869. The property returned to the original owners, and the wooden markers eventually disappeared. The disused cemetery was rezoned for commercial use in 1946, and in 1955 a gas station was erected on a portion of the site.
The history of the site became known during the planning phase of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project, and the Friends of Freedmen's Cemetery was formed to advocate for return of the land to public ownership, and for a permanent memorial to be created on the land. This is now coming to fruition with the Contraband and Freedmen's Cemetery Memorial Project.
