National Cemetery Administration

Visitation Hours: Open daily from sunrise to sunset.

Office Hours: Monday thru 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.

There is no office at this cemetery. It is overseen by Wood 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.

Floral arrangements accompanying the casket or urn at the time of burial will be placed on the completed grave. Natural cut flowers may be placed on graves at any time of the year. They will be removed when they become unsightly or when it becomes necessary to facilitate cemetery operations such as mowing.

Christmas wreaths, grave blankets and other seasonal adornments may be placed on graves from Dec. 1 through Jan. 20. They may not be secured to headstones or markers.

Permanent plantings, statues, vigil lights, breakable objects and similar items are not permitted on the graves. The Department of Veterans Affairs does not permit adornments that are considered offensive, inconsistent with the dignity of the cemetery or considered hazardous to cemetery personnel. For example, items incorporating beads or wires may become entangled in mowers or other equipment and cause injury.

Permanent items removed from graves will be placed in an inconspicuous holding area for one month prior to disposal. Decorative items removed from graves remain the property of the donor but are under the custodianship of the cemetery. If not retrieved by the donor, they are then governed by the rules for disposal of federal property.

Fort Winnebago Cemetery Soldiers’ Lot is located near the site of Old Fort Winnebago, 2.5 miles north of Portage, Wisconsin. Established in 1828, Fort Winnebago was one in a series of forts along the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway, a portage used to link the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, connecting Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. Jefferson Davis was stationed at Fort Winnebago as a young soldier, before going on to become the president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.

Interments in the post cemetery began in 1835. Fort Winnebago closed in 1853 and was sold at a public sale. Although not exempted from the sale, the cemetery property was omitted from the deed. As a result, by default, the United States retained the post cemetery. The 2-acre site was designated as a soldiers’ lot in 1862. There are 75 gravesites in the lot, including dead from the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American War and World War I.

Monuments and Memorials
In 1924 the Wau-Bun chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution erected a granite boulder monument dedicated to the memory of the unknown dead. The monument also marks the site of the surrender of Winnebago chief Red Wing in 1827 to the Euro-American settlers of the region.