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Camp Butler National Cemetery | |
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| Location | 5063 Camp Butler Rd, Clear Lake Township, Sangamon County, Illinois |
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| Coordinates | 39°50′01″N89°33′25″W / 39.8334963°N 89.5568939°W /39.8334963; -89.5568939 |
| Area | 39.2 acres (15.9 ha) |
| Built | 1865 |
| Architectural style | Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements |
| MPS | Civil War Era National Cemeteries MPS |
| NRHP reference No. | 97000891 |
| Added to NRHP | August 15, 1997[1] |
Camp Butler National Cemetery is aUnited States National Cemetery located a few miles northeast ofSpringfield and a few miles southwest ofRiverton, a small town nearby to Springfield, inSangamon County, Illinois. It was named for theIllinois State Treasurer at the time of its establishment, William Butler. Administered by theUnited States Department of Veterans Affairs, it occupies approximately 53 acres (21 ha), and is the site of 19,825 interments as of the end of 2005. Camp Butler National Cemetery was placed on theNational Register of Historic Places in 1997.
During theCivil War, Camp Butler was the second largest military training camp in Illinois, second only toCamp Douglas inChicago. AfterPresident Lincoln's call for troops in April, 1861, theU.S. War Department sent thenBrigadier-GeneralWilliam T. Sherman to Springfield, Illinois, to meet with GovernorRichard Yates for the purpose of selecting a suitable site for a training facility.
Since Governor Yates was unfamiliar with the land around Springfield, the state capital of Illinois, he enlisted the aid of then-State Treasurer William Butler, who along withOzias M. Hatch,Secretary of State of Illinois, took a carriage ride with William T. Sherman to examine land about 5 and 1/2 miles northeast of downtown Springfield. An area near Riverton, Illinois (then known as "Jimtown", short for Jamestown) was selected, and named in honor of William Butler. AUnion training facility was officially established there on August 2, 1861. By the war's end, over 200,000 Union troops would pass through Camp Butler.
Along with the soldiers who fought on both sides of the Civil War, veterans who lost their lives in theSpanish–American War, bothWorld War I andWorld War II, theKorean War, and theVietnam War are also buried at Camp Butler. There are alsoGerman andKorean prisoners of war buried there, relocated from a cemetery nearIndianapolis, Indiana.
Originally the camp was designed to train and "muster-in" Illinois troops for the Civil War. It was quickly pressed into service to house the approximately 2,000Confederate soldiers who had been taken prisoner at the surrender ofFort Donelson, inTennessee on February 16, 1862.
An area was set aside for the burial of Confederateprisoners of war who died at the camp. As many as 700 prisoners died in 1862 whensmallpox and other diseases were rampant in the camp. The situation was aggravated by the poor living conditions the prisoners endured there, and they were interred in the cemetery in their own Confederate section. A total of 866 Confederate prisoner's graves can be found today in the National Cemetery. The Confederate graves are easily distinguishable by the pointed headstones, which were instituted under the superstition that it was a means of preventing thedevil from sitting on their graves. They are buried side by side with 776 graves of Union soldiers and enlistees, making a total of 1,642 Civil War graves.
Media related toCamp Butler National Cemetery at Wikimedia Commons
Municipalities and communities ofSangamon County, Illinois,United States | ||
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| Footnotes | ‡This city also has portions in adjacent county or counties | |
