National Cemetery Administration

Visitation Hours: Open daily from sunrise to sunset.

Office Hours: Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Closed federal holidays except Memorial Day.

This soldiers' lot is closed to interments.

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.

The private and community cemeteries that contain NCA soldiers' and government lots, and Confederate cemeteries, do not always have staffed offices on site. When administrative information for the larger cemetery is available, it is provided below.

This soldiers' lot is overseen by Indiantown Gap National Cemetery.

Please contact the national cemetery for more information.

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

No floral regulations are available for this cemetery.

Ashland Cemetery Soldiers' Lot is located in Section D of Ashland Cemetery in Carlisle, PA. The soldiers buried here were stationed at Carlisle Barracks, one of the oldest military posts in the United States. Initially, the dead from Carlisle Barracks were interred in a post cemetery. In March 1866, the federal government purchased approximately 0.25 acres of land in Ashland Cemetery, and by 1871, the War Department transferred the remains from the post cemetery to the government plot in Ashland Cemetery.

Carlisle Barracks has a long history both as a post and as an educational institution. President George Washington met the garrison here in 1794 before journeying to Western Pennsylvania to quash the Whiskey Rebellion. In the first half of the 19th century, the Army established educational programs at Carlisle Barracks, including the School of Cavalry Practice and the School of Horse-Drawn Light Artillery. Major J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry set fire to the barracks during the Civil War, when the Confederate Army invaded Pennsylvania in the Gettysburg Campaign. In 1879, the War Department transferred control of the post to the Department of Interior, which opened the Carlisle Indian Industrial School on the site. Carlisle Barracks returned to the War Department in 1918, which continued to operate educational programs on the campus. The U.S. Army War College, established in Washington, D.C., in 1903, was relocated to Carlisle Barracks in 1951. Today, the Army War College trains the upper ranks of military personnel.

Monuments and Memorials
In 1934, the federal government erected a headstone with the inscription "500 Unknown U.S. Soldiers." Subsequent research identified the remains of 35 soldiers interred in the soldiers' lot. In July 1960 the federal government erected a replacement monument bearing a plaque with the inscription: "500 U.S. Soldiers of the Civil War Are Here Interred. [List of the 35 Names] The Others Are Known But to God." In addition to the mass grave, there are 23 individual graves of soldiers who died at Carlisle Barracks, 19 known and four unknown.