|800 West Street|
Anne Arundel County
Postal Code: 21401
Phone: (410) 644-9696
|Cemetery notes and/or description:|
Annapolis National Cemetery was one of the fourteen national cemeteries established by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862. The original land was leased in August 1862 from a local resident, Nicholas Brewer, for a period of ninety-nine years. Five years later, Brewer’s heirs sold the land outright to the federal government.
During the Civil War, Annapolis was a site of Union training and recruiting. Despite efforts to keep the camps sanitary, a large number of men died due to illnesses such as small pox and typhoid, as well as accidents and violence. As a result, most original interments at the cemetery were men who died at the training camps or nearby hospitals.
Annapolis was also used for the exchange of prisoners between Union and the Confederacy. As early as the War of 1812, there was a well_established practice of paroling prisoners of war so neither side incurred the expense of holding and maintaining the others’ troops for an extended period. While City Point, VA was the official exchange location, Confederate prisoners were held at Annapolis while arrangements were negotiated. Union soldiers, held by the Confederacy, were often moved to the hospital at Camp Parole, near Annapolis, after their release. At least twenty-four men buried at Annapolis National Cemetery were former Confederate POWs who died in captivity.
Annapolis National Cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.