CEMETERY PLANS FOR A NEW MILLENNIUM; HISTORIC CEMETERY SEEKS MORE LAND; HOUSE SAVED FROM DESTRUCTION

MOUND CITY, Ill. -- One of the nation's oldest national cemeteries, Mound City National Cemetery, is nearing capacity.

The cemetery near the small community of Mound City is the resting place for more than 7,500 people listed on the cemetery's burial register.

Unless additional space is obtained, however, the cemetery will reach capacity sometime between 2010 and 2020.

The 12-acre national cemetery was established as a burial place for those who died at Civil War military hospitals that were established in Mound City and nearby Cairo in 1861. It was placed on the National Historic Register in October.

The first patients at the Mound City hospital were men wounded in the Battle of Belmont, Mo., in November 1861. Combat at Shiloh and Fort Donelson in Tennessee in 1862 sent more wounded to Mound City and the burial rate began to soar.

Although burials had already taken place, it wasn't until 1862 that President Abraham Lincoln authorized the establishment of national cemeteries for soldiers "who shall die in the service of our country." A dozen cemeteries were established, and the Mound City National Cemetery was among the first.

Mound City was chosen as the cemetery site because it had a large Civil War hospital and a Navy yard along the banks of the Ohio River.

In addition to burials from the Mound City hospital, remains were brought from Cairo, Belmont, Paducah and Columbus in Kentucky, accounting for the 2,895 burial listings for Jan. 1, 1862.

Now the cemetery holds more than 7,500 people, and space is tight. It had been on a closure list for four years.

Burials in the cemetery range from 25 to 50 a year, and any honorably discharged veteran, spouse and veteran's children under age 21 are eligible for burial in a national cemetery.

Veterans Affairs had planned to close the Mound City cemetery and refer burials to national cemeteries at Jefferson Barracks or Springfield, Mo.

"We didn't want to have to send our veterans somewhere else for burial," said James M. Larry, a member of the Mound City National Cemetery Preservation Commission Inc., but adjoining land is available, and the commission is considering expansion.

"We need more space for the future," said Larry. "There's a lot of history to the cemetery and we don't want to see it closed."

The preservation commission was founded two years ago to save the 120-year-old brick caretaker's lodge at the cemetery. Its goal is to preserve the building, lease it from Veterans Affairs and keep it open as a museum and visitor center.

Larry of Olmsted, Clayton Bierbaum of Mound City and F. Ann Nottage of Villa Ridge are directors of the committee.

"The building was scheduled to be taken down in 1974," said Larry. "The Veterans Administration deferred the razing to give us time to preserve it."

The group was assured the building would not be destroyed when it was placed on the National Historic Register.

MOUND CITY NATIONAL CEMETERY AT A GLANCE

-- More than 7,500 U.S. service men are buried in the Mound City National Cemetery at highways 51 and 37, seven miles north of Cairo.

-- Almost 5,000 of the burials occurred during the first 10 years of the cemetery's existence. More than 3,000 were buried in the first year. The majority of them were Civil War soldiers from both the North and the South.

-- The first soldiers were buried in the cemetery Jan. 1, 1862.

-- That same year, President Abraham Lincoln authorized establishment of national cemeteries for solders "who shall die in the service of our country."

-- A dozen cemeteries were established, and the Mound City National Cemetery was among the first.

-- Records indicate there are 2,759 "unknown" soldiers in the cemetery.

-- Burials are still conducted in the cemetery, from 25 to 50 a year.

-- The projected closing date for burials is 2020.

-- Illinois Soldiers Monument was constructed in 1874 to honor Illinois soldiers and sailors.

-- On-site caretaker's lodge was built in 1875.

-- On-site superintendents and caretakers were used until 1985.

-- The cemetery is one of five under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs at Jefferson Barracks.

-- The cemetery and caretaker's lodge were placed on the National Historic Register in October.

-- Brig. Gen. John B. Turchin, a Civil War officer known as the "Mad Russian," was buried in the cemetery on June 18, 1901.

-- Nadine Turchin, wife of the general, was the first woman to command a U.S. military regiment. She was buried in the cemetery on July 17, 1904.