Chattanooga National Cemetery

GPS Coordinates: 35.035313, -85.288830
County: Hamilton
Record count: 63,576

Ownership: National Cemetery Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Directions: Located near the center of Chattanooga, just east of downtown, the cemetery's main entrance is along S Holtzclaw Ave, between Bailey Ave and 13th St.

Background: Chattanooga National Cemetery was established on December 25, 1863, when Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas ordered its creation to honor the soldiers who fought in the Battles of Chattanooga. Thomas selected a 75-acre round hill that had served as Gen. Grant’s headquarters during the battle for Lookout Mountain, and Chaplain Thomas B. Van Horne oversaw its early development. Despite rocky terrain limiting usable ground, Van Horne implemented a unique design featuring concentric circles of graves around central monuments. By 1870, over 12,800 burials had taken place, including thousands of soldiers from Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, and Lookout Mountain, with many reinterments from surrounding battlefields. The cemetery also holds 78 German prisoners of war from World War I, with the German government funding a monument to honor them. Officially designated as Chattanooga National Cemetery in 1867, it was recognized on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

Burial Records

• View All Transcriptions Combined, 63,576 records
  • Unidentified Burials, by Interment.net, April 17, 2025, (4,981 records)
  • Veterans Affairs Database, by Interment.net, April 17, 2025, (58,595 records)

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