National Cemetery Administration

Visitation Hours: Open daily from dawn to dusk.

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

Danville National Cemetery is closed to new interments. The only interments that are being accepted are subsequent interments for veterans or eligible family members in an existing gravesite. Periodically however, burial space may become available due to a canceled reservation or when a disinterment has been completed. When either of these two scenarios occurs, the gravesite is made available to another eligible veteran on a first-come, first-served basis. Since there is no way to know in advance when a gravesite may become available, please contact the cemetery at the time of need to inquire whether space is available.

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 supervised by the Kentucky National Cemetery Complex. Please call 859-885-5727 for further information. In the event you are unable to reach us, please call Lebanon National Cemetery at 270-692-3390 and someone will assist you.

This cemetery is within Bellevue Cemetery (City of Danville, Boyle County).

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

Danville National Cemetery is not responsible for any items left at gravesites.

Floral arrangements (up to six arrangements only) accompanying the casket or urn at the time of burial will be placed on the completed gravesite by cemetery staff. 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.

Perma-vases are not permitted.

Artificial flowers and/or potted plants, in unbreakable containers only (cardboard, plastic, metal), are permitted on gravesites from October 10 until April 15. They will also be permitted on graves 10 days before and 10 days after Easter Sunday and Memorial Day.

Items are subject to removal on the first and third Fridays during mowing season, and depending on the added frequency of mowing more often, up to twice a week.

Depending on the growing season, artificial flowers/potted plants may have to be removed to accommodate the early mowing season, up to twice per week.

Christmas wreaths, grave blankets, and related arrangements will be permitted on graves from December 1 until January 20. Grave floral blankets may not be larger than two by three feet, please do not wrap them in plastic, as it kills the grass.

Visitors may secure floral items and other decorations in place (in the ground). They may not be attached to headstones or markers. Floral stands and saddles are prohibited.

Unauthorized decorations such as permanent plantings, statues, vigil lights, upright metal flag holders and breakable objects of any kind, and similar commemorative items are not permitted on the gravesites or on the monuments.

Understanding that families may desire to keep certain floral arrangements, we have in place a procedure that, upon the families written request, cemetery personnel will place the arrangement in a designated location for 30 days, after which arrangements will be disposed of.

The staff at Danville National Cemetery would like to thank you for your cooperation in helping us to make Danville National Cemetery a national shrine, a final resting place of honor and dignity in honor to the veterans of this great nation.

Danville National Cemetery is located within the municipal Bellevue Cemetery in the city of Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky. Danville is the county seat, situated about 40 miles south of Frankfort. The Dix River, a primary watershed and a principal geographic reference during the late 18th century, is located three miles east of the city. Walker Daniel laid out the town in 1783–1784, and gave the community its name. Danville was chartered in 1787 by the legislature of the Commonwealth of Virginia; it was among the first incorporated settlements in what was then the county of Kentucky.

Kentucky's first governor, Isaac Shelby, made his home just outside of Danville. The city hosted Kentucky's first Constitutional Convention in 1784; after nine additional meetings, the original constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky was adopted in 1792. Later that same year, the state capital was relocated to Frankfort.

Bellevue Cemetery was established in the 1840s, and was originally known as Danville City Cemetery. At the beginning of the Civil War, the federal government appropriated 18 lots in the cemetery from the city. In 1876, the small rectangular soldiers' lot was designated a national cemetery.

Danville National Cemetery encompasses less than a half-acre in the northwest corner of Bellevue Cemetery. Each corner of the federal property is marked with a square post inscribed with the letters "U.S." on the upper face. There is a centrally located U.S. flagpole. The cemetery is divided into six burial sections; five for soldiers and one for the interment of civilians. Most of the initial interments were Union soldiers who died in several Danville hospitals, including one set up in the courthouse; the rest of the burials were primarily reinterments from regional cemeteries. A Confederate lot in the Bellevue Cemetery with 66 interments adjoins the national cemetery. Bellevue Cemetery continues to be operated by the city of Danville and remains open for burials.