National Cemetery Administration

Office Hours: Monday thru Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Closed federal holidays.

Visitation Hours: Open daily from sunrise to sunset.

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.

Albany Rural Cemetery
Phone: (518) 463-7017
Fax: (518) 463-0787
Website: www.albanyruralcemetery.org
NOTE: Link will take you outside the VA website. VA does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of the linked website.

This soldiers' lot is overseen by the Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga 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.

Rules and regulations play an important part in the beautification and preservation of the resting places. They are intended not as restraining, but rather as defining an orderly plan of operation, care and permanent maintenance.

The cemetery reserves the right to remove all flowers, wreaths and other decorations from lots as soon as they become unsightly.

Also the cemetery reserves the right to restrict the planting of shrubs and trees and to remove any shrubs or tree.

All flowers and decorations will be removed from lots for spring cleanup. Cleanup starts March 15 and lasts approximately two weeks. (Signs will be posted at each entrance).

Glass or ceramic containers, vigil lights and candles are not permitted at any time.

Albany Rural Cemetery is located in the city of Albany, New York, on an elevated plateau overlooking the Hudson River. The cemetery was established as a result of a public reaction to overcrowded and deteriorating church burial grounds in the state's capital. The citizens sought a "rural cemetery" outside the city proper, which was incorporated on April 2, 1841. Albany Rural, true to its name, opened Oct. 7, 1844, and it remains one of the oldest examples of this style of picturesque cemeteries in the country. The cemetery, now 467 acres, is the last resting place for the 21st U.S. president, Chester Arthur, along with legions of national and state politicians.

The Albany Rural Soldiers' Lot is located in Lot 7, Section 75. Although no deed was located, the 0.16-acre lot was donated to the federal government by the Albany Cemetery Association on June 17, 1862, for the "burial of soldiers who have fallen or may fall in the Civil War." The majority of burials consist of soldiers who died of injury or illness in hospitals around Albany during the Civil War. The last of the 149 interments was made in 1897.

Albany Rural Cemetery, including the National Cemetery Administration's soldiers' lot, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in October 1979.

Monuments and Memorials
About 1873, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) erected a monument to remember local men who lost their lives during the Civil War. The 15-foot-tall GAR Monument is composed of a bronze figure of a Civil War soldier atop a granite shaft, adorned on each side with bronze inscription plaques listing the names of those who died during the Civil War. On the front of the shaft there is an oval bas-relief portrait of Abraham Lincoln, signed "Pickett 1873."