National Cemetery Administration

Visitation Hours: Open daily from 8:00 a.m. to sunset.

Office Hours: This cemetery is administered by Washington Crossing National Cemetery. Closed federal holidays except Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

This cemetery has space available for cremated remains. We may be able to accommodate casketed remains in the same gravesite of previously interred family members.

Burial in a national cemetery is open to all members of the armed forces who have met a minimum active duty service requirement and were discharged under conditions other than dishonorable.

A Veteran's spouse, widow or widower, minor dependent children, and under certain conditions, unmarried adult children with disabilities may also be eligible for burial. Eligible spouses and children may be buried even if they predecease the Veteran.

Members of the reserve components of the armed forces who die while on active duty or who die while on training duty, or were eligible for retired pay, may also be eligible for burial.

» Eligibility for Burial in a VA National Cemetery

Fax all discharge documentation to the National Cemetery Scheduling Office at 1-866-900-6417 and follow-up with a phone call to 1-800-535-1117.

For information on scheduled burials in our national cemeteries, please go to the Daily Burial Schedule.

This cemetery is managed by the Director of the Washington Crossing National Cemetery. The mailing address is 830 Highland Road, Newtown, PA 18940.

Military Funeral Honors
The funeral director arranges Military Funeral Honors for families that request them.

For educational materials and additional information on this cemetery, please visit the Education section, located below.

Our floral and grounds policy exists to reflect the honor and respect we hold for our Nation's Veterans, by preserving the dignity and solemnity of their final resting place.

These items are welcome:

• Fresh-cut flowers (Anytime)
• Temporary Floral Containers (Located throughout the cemetery for public use)
• Artificial Flowers (November 1st – April 1st)
• Flags (Anytime)
• Potted Plants (a week before until a week after Easter Sunday)
• Holiday Wreaths & Grave Blankets less than 2 x 3ft (December 1 – January 10 and will be removed after January 20).

All items placed at gravesite are inspected daily and:

• May be removed when they become withered, faded, or unsightly.
• May be removed for mowing and trimming, in season.
• May NOT stand taller than the headstone.
• May NOT be secured to the headstone.

These items are prohibited: permanent plantings and vases, statues, vigil lights, breakable objects, and similar items. This includes, but is not limited to, hazardous materials, glass, metal, toys, candles, balloons, wind chimes, and pinwheels.

The Department of Veterans Affairs does not permit adornments which might be considered offensive, inconsistent with the dignity of the cemetery, or considered hazardous to cemetery personnel. For example, items incorporating beads or wires which may become entangled in mowers or other equipment and cause injury. Unauthorized items will be removed immediately.

Finn's Point National Cemetery is located about six miles northwest of Salem, NJ, at the north end of what was Fort Mott Military Reservation. Today, the picturesque cemetery is entirely surrounded by the Killchohook National Wildlife Refuge and is adjacent to Fort Mott State Park. Originally, the United States purchased the land for the construction of the Finn's Point Battery to protect the Port of Philadelphia. By 1863, however, the grounds increasingly served as a burial site for Confederate prisoners of war who died while imprisoned at Fort Delaware.

Fort Delaware was on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River, one mile east of Delaware City. The island was named after a colonial-era tale that a boat loaded with peas ran aground on a river shoal, and the peas sprouted in the sandy loam. In 1847, Congress appropriated $1 million to construct the largest modern coastal defense fort in the nation here, surpassing Fort Sumter in size, to protect the ports of Wilmington, DE, and Philadelphia. In April 1862, Fort Delaware received its first POWs — 358 Confederate soldiers from the Battle of Kernstown, VA. By January 1866 when the prison closed, approximately 22,773 men occupied the fort, including soldiers, officers and other prisoners.

An estimated 2,502 men died while imprisoned at Fort Delaware. Even prior to its designation as a national cemetery, the remains of POWs were transported to Finn's Point across the river for burial. When weather or ice made trips to the mainland hazardous, it was necessary to bury the bodies on Pea Patch Island. On May 12, 1875, Virginia Gov. James L. Kemper wrote to the secretary of war concerning the neglected Confederate graves on Pea Patch Island. In response, Gen. E.D. Townsend advised the governor that Finn's Point would be made a national cemetery and the remains of soldiers—both Union and Confederate — would be reinterred there. Finn's Point was official declared a national cemetery October 3, 1875.

Today, the small cemetery is nearly surrounded by tidal marshes and tall grass that encroach the stone enclosure walls. The Meigs lodge is a particularly elegant construction of stone with contrasting quoins and other architectural details. Finn's Point National Cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Monuments and Memorials
The Union Monument was installed in 1879 in memory of 135 Union guards who died while on duty at Fort Delaware and who were interred at the cemetery.

The Confederate Monument was erected by the U.S. government in 1910 to memorialize Confederate soldiers buried at the cemetery. The 85-foot tall concrete and granite obelisk features bronze tablets listing the names of 2,436 Confederate prisoners of war who died at Fort Delaware during the Civil War.