View source for Cold Harbor National Cemetery

{{Short description|Veterans cemetery in Hanover County, Virginia}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name                           = Cold Harbor National Cemetery
| nrhp_type                      =
| designated_other1              = Virginia Landmarks Register
| designated_other1_date         = April 28, 1995<ref name=register>{{cite web|title=Virginia Landmarks Register|url=http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/register_counties_cities.htm|publisher=Virginia Department of Historic Resources|access-date=5 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921053819/http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/register_counties_cities.htm|archive-date=21 September 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| designated_other1_number       = 042-0136
| designated_other1_num_position = bottom
| image                          = Cold Harbor National Cemetery, 6038 Cold Harbor Road, Mechanicsville (Hanover County, Virginia).jpg
| caption                        = The Lodge at Cold Harbor National Cemetery
| location                       = Jct. VA 156 and 619, .5 mi. E, [[Mechanicsville, Virginia]]
| coordinates                    = {{coord|37|35|21|N|77|16|48|W|source:GNIS|display=inline,title}}
| locmapin                       = Virginia#USA
| built                          = 1866
| architect                      = [[Montgomery C. Meigs (1816–1892)|Meigs, Montgomery C.]]
| architecture                   = Second Empire
| added                          = August 10, 1995
| area                           = {{convert|1.4|acre}}
| mpsub                          = {{NRHP url|id=64500016|title=Civil War Era National Cemeteries MPS}}
| refnum                         = 95000922<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2009a}}</ref>
}}
{{American Civil War cemeteries}}
'''Cold Harbor National Cemetery''' is a [[United States National Cemetery]] in [[Mechanicsville, Hanover County, Virginia]]. It encompasses {{convert|1.4|acre|m2}}, and as of the end of 2005, had 2,110 interments. Administered by the [[United States Department of Veterans Affairs]], it is managed by the [[Hampton National Cemetery]].

== History ==
Cold Harbor National Cemetery was established in 1866 on the site of the [[Battle of Cold Harbor]], an American Civil War engagement. Interments were collected from a {{convert|22|mi|km|adj=on}} area, taken from the battlefields and field hospital sites of Cold Harbor, [[Battle of Mechanicsville|Mechanicsville]] (Beaver Dam Creek), [[Battle of Gaines's Mill|Gaines's Mill]], and [[Battle of Savage's Station|Savage's Station]].  The land was appropriated in April 1865 during the first post-war search and re-burial operations conducted on local area battlefields, but not fully purchased until the cemetery was officially established the following year. Another search for buried and unburied remains occurred in 1867 and yielded over 1,000 full and partial skeletons that had been missed the previous year. Due to space limitations at Cold Harbor these remains, of which only a handful were identified, were re-interred in the larger [[Richmond National Cemetery]].

In the book ''Magnolia Journey: A Union Veteran Revisits the Former Confederate States'', [[Russell Conwell]] stated that in 1870 the remains of Union soldiers were still being unearthed from the battlefield by poverty-stricken local residents searching for [[Minie Ball]]s to sell as [[lead]] [[scrap]] in nearby [[Richmond, Virginia]].  Although reported to cemetery superintendent [[Augustus Barry]], who was mortally ill at the time, it does not appear that another search and reburial operation was made.  Conwell feared that many soldiers' remains may have ended up in Richmond's [[fertilizer]] factories mixed in with the bones of dead [[artillery]] [[horse]]s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Conwell |first1=Russell |author1-link=Russell Conwell |editor1-last=Carter |editor1-first=Joseph |title=Magnolia journey: a Union veteran revisits the former Confederate States |date=1974 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscaloosa |page=23}}</ref> Remains in the Cold Harbor area have been occasionally discovered by farmers and construction crews well into the 21st century.

Room for the burial of American veterans of later periods was made when the original design of the cemetery was altered by removing several paths and walkways that bisected the cemetery.  The cemetery is now closed to further interments.

== Notoriety ==
Cold Harbor National Cemetery was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1995.

== Notable monuments ==
* Monument to the Unknowns, a {{convert|5|ft|m|adj=mid|-high}} marble [[sarcophagus]] erected by the federal government in 1877 to commemorate the 889 unknown [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] soldiers buried in two trench graves at the back of the cemetery. 
* The Pennsylvania Monument, a {{convert|30|ft|m|adj=mid|-tall}} granite spire with a statue of a soldier at the top, was erected in 1909 by the commonwealth of [[Pennsylvania]], and dedicated to its regiments lost at Cold Harbor.
* The 8th New York Heavy Artillery Monument, a granite block with a bronze plaque listing the names of those from the detachment who died at Cold Harbor, erected in 1909 by the state of [[New York (state)|New York]].

== Notable interments ==
* Sergeant Major [[Augustus Barry]], Medal of Honor recipient for action in the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].<ref>[http://vconline.org.uk/augustus-barry/4590247612 vconline.org.uk]</ref>  Sergeant Major Barry was also the first superintendent of Cold Harbor National Cemetery.

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.cem.va.gov/ National Cemetery Administration]
* [http://www.cem.va.gov/CEM/cems/nchp/coldharbor.asp Cold Harbor National Cemetery]
* {{HALS |survey=VA-4 |id=va1930 |title=Cold Harbor National Cemetery, 6038 Cold Harbor Road, Mechanicsville, Hanover, VA}}
* {{GNIS|type=retired|1471335}}
* {{Find a Grave cemetery}}

{{Protected areas of Virginia}}
{{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia}}

[[Category:Second Empire architecture in Virginia]]
[[Category:1866 establishments in Virginia]]
[[Category:Cemeteries in Hanover County, Virginia]]
[[Category:Protected areas of Hanover County, Virginia]]
[[Category:United States national cemeteries]]
[[Category:American Civil War cemeteries]]
[[Category:Virginia in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Hanover County, Virginia]]
[[Category:Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia]]
[[Category:Historic American Landscapes Survey in Virginia]]
[[Category:Cemeteries established in the 1860s]]