Salisbury National Cemetery Annex burial schedule and eligibility

History of Salisbury National Cemetery Annex

Salisbury National Cemetery was established by Confederate authorities to serve as the burial ground for captured Union soldiers incarcerated at the prison in Salisbury. The practice of prisoner exchange kept the prison populations down until 1864, when exchanges ended. By fall 1864, the number of soldiers at Salisbury prison doubled from 5,000 to 10,000. It suffered from one of the highest prison death rates, with as many as half the men dying of starvation or disease.

Recent historical research has led to a dispute over how many men are believed to have died during the last year or so of the war and are buried in the cemetery. The dead were buried in 18 trenches measuring about 240 feet long, located at the southeast end of the cemetery. Colonel Oscar A. Mack, the inspector of cemeteries, said in his report of 1870–1871, "The bodies were placed one above the other, and mostly without coffins. From the number of bodies exhumed from a given space, researchers estimated that the number buried in these trenches was 11,700. The number of burials from the prison pen cannot be accurately known." The figure of 11,700 was accepted for many years. However, the actual number of burials is probably lower and it is doubtful we will ever know exactly how many unknown remains are buried there.

An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 soldiers were likely buried here after dying at Salisbury Prison. Even in the years immediately after the Civil War, the federal government was unable to verify the number of dead or compile a credible list of interments to a degree that would have allowed them to inscribe names on a single memorial or on individual headstones. The most accurate government-issued document associated with these burials is found in the Roll of Honor, No. 14, compiled by the U.S. Army Quartermaster General's Office, and published in 1868.

After the war this was designated Salisbury National Cemetery, and another 412 remains were relocated here from Lexington, Charlotte, Morgantown, and other places. The cemetery was dedicated in 1874, a wall was built around the perimeter the following year, and by 1876 the headstones and a monument were in place. Salisbury National Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

Notable veterans buried at Salisbury National Cemetery Annex

The National Cemetery Administration lists these people of note at Salisbury National Cemetery Annex, with section and site where it has them.

• Medal of Honor Recipients Landsman Lorenzo Deming (Civil War), U.S. Navy, U.S. Picket Boat No. 1. Plymouth, NC, October 27, 1864. Deming served on the U.S. Picket Boat No. 1 which was destroyed in action with the Confederate ram Albemarle. He was incarcerated at the Confederate prison at Salisbury, and when he died February 8, 1865, he was likely buried in the trench as an unknown. He is honored with an older private memorial marker and a government-issued Medal of Honor headstone in Fairview Cemetery, New Britain, CT.
• Other Burials Marshall C. Sharp (ca.1895–1946) was born in North Carolina and enlisted in the U.S. Army before 1914. He served in two regiments open to black enlisted men, the 9th U.S. Cavalry as a cook and in Company K, 10th U.S. Cavalry. In late 1919, Private First Class Sharp returned from the Philippine Islands where he was stationed with the 9th U.S. Cavalry, and in 1920, he was living on "enlisted men's row" at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, still in military service. Other tours of duty are unknown at this time, but Sharp is recognized as a Buffalo Soldier for his years in the segregated cavalry regiments. He was honorably discharged in 1923 and lived in Los Angeles, CA, for the next twenty years working as a cook and laborer until his death on June 19. He is buried in Section A, Site 680.

Visiting hours at Salisbury National Cemetery Annex

Visitation Hours: Open daily from dawn to dusk. Office Hours: Monday thru Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Closed federal holidays except Memorial Day and Veterans Day. VA will continue its practice of honoring special requests for weekend burials for religious purposes, in cases of service members killed in action and on at least one day of any three-day Federal holiday weekend at all open VA national cemeteries.