SOLDIERS FROM NORTH, SOUTH BURIED AT CEMETERY

The Mound City National Cemetery was established in 1864 as a burial place for those who died at Civil War military hospitals located in Mound City and at nearby Cairo. Although neither city was in the combat theater of the war, their locations near the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers made the areas important to the war effort on both sides.

In 1861, a large brick building in Mound City was taken over by the government for use as a general hospital accommodating up to 1,500 patients. Another hospital was established at Cairo.

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

In 1862, 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.

There are more than 2,600 "unknown" soldiers in the cemetery, "soldiers known only to God.".

More than 5,000 soldiers were buried at the Mound City cemetery during the first 10 years it was in existence. Civil War soldiers from both the North and South are buried there.

Burials in the 12-acre cemetery have slowed during the past decade, ranging from 25 to 50 a year.

Perhaps one of the most famous soldiers buried at Mound City is Brig. Gen. John B. Turchin, a Civil War officer known as the "Mad Russian." Also buried there is Turchin's wife, who gained fame during the Civil War by assuming command of Gen. Turchin's troops while he was sick.

Nadine Turchin was the first woman to command a U.S. military regiment. Mrs. Turchin accompanied her husband on his Civil War campaigns, serving as a nurse. She assumed command of his regiment when her husband became seriously ill during the early months of conflict in Tennessee.

She led the 19th Illinois Regiment into one of its fiercest battles during the spring of 1862, remaining in command for 10 days. Mrs. Turchin was the daughter of a commander in the Russian army.

The Turchins moved to Southern Illinois following the Civil War.