M. C. MEIGS,
Quartermaster General,
Brevet Major General, U. S. A.

     GENERAL:  I have the honor to transmit herewith, for publication, lists of Union Soldiers interred in the National Cemeteries of Stone's River, Chattanooga, and Knoxville, Tennessee, with a preface, &c., by Brevet Major E. B. Whitman, A. Q. M., U. S. V., in charge of the mortuary records of the Department of the Tennessee.
 

J. L. DONALDSON,
Assistant Quartermaster General,

     GENERAL:   I have the honor to forward herewith lists of Union Soldiers interred in the National Cemeteries at Chattanooga, Stone's River, and Knoxville, Tennessee, with a brief history of each by the officers in charge of the respective cemeteries.
     The completion of these cemeteries and the publication of the record of the dead who have been transferred to them offers a fit occasion for some statements in regard to the collection and preparation of materials for a complete general record of all the Union Soldiers who have died or been buried in the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, comprising this Department.
     The evils resulting from inexperience in the conduct of the late war, manifest in all other departments, are just beginning to develop themselves in the case of the records of the dead, now oftentimes hopelessly lost, or past correction.
     Doubtless, in many instances, the mortuary records were neglected or left incomplete form the influence of circumstances beyond the control of the officer in charge; but oftener from inexperience and want of forethought, and sometimes, unquestionably, from culpable and inexcusable neglect.
     In several cases a large number of interments were made by contractors, and they records and grave-marks were the work of illiterate or careless employes.  Frequently the lists kept by hospital stewards and quartermaster's clerk, intended to be correct, have been rendered of comparatively little value from barbarous spelling and bad or careless penmanship.

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     Many burials have been made by troops on detached service or or the march.  The regimental returns alone will show any official record of these; and the only source of information within reach is to be found in the inscriptions or marks at the grave itself - sometimes a half-obliterated penciling upon a rough board, or a rude carving upon a neighboring tree.
     In preparing a list of all Union Soldiers who have died or been buried within the limits of the Department, I shall avail myself, as far as possible, of hospital and surgeons' records; of quartermasters', contractors', and undertakers' lists; of private memoranda kept by chaplains of regiments and by agents of Sanitary and Christian Commissions; and then of gleanings in the woods and by the wayside, in the quiet country churchyard, on the battle-field, and wherever the soldier has fallen and found a thoughtful comrade or the friendly hand of a stranger to make the rude record; and, as a final and sometimes sole resort, in the process of disinterring the bodies for removal to National Cemeteries, of the evidence of identity deposited in the grave itself.
     Such records are now being collected, compared, and corrected, and the whole classified according to their respective States, and alphabetically arranged.  To secure any tolerable degree of accuracy, different records often have to be carefully compared to discover discrepancies, and correct errors; and when all is done that persevering effort and diligence can effect, the list must fall far short of the actual number.
     The lists, when prepared, will show, as far as it is possible to ascertain the facts from sources within our reach -
     1st. The name of the deceased soldier;
     2d.  His rank, company, regiment, and arm of service;
     3d.  The date of his death;
     4th. The original place of interment;
     5th.  (When transferred to a National Cemetery,) the section and number of the grave in which the remains are deposited.
     The records herewith presented contain:
     First: - A list of the Union dead interred in the United States National Cemetery at CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee, to which they have been gathered from the battle-fields in lower East Tennessee, from Northern Georgia and Alabama, and from all stations and posts within a circle of from 80 to 100 miles radius.
     This cemetery contains the bodies of 7,268 United States soldiers known, and of 2,360 United States soldiers unknown; of which 8,850 are white, and 778 colored.
     This cemetery has been laid out and constructed under the superintendence of Reverend Thomas B. Van Horne, Chaplain, United States army.
     Second. - The records of STONE'S RIVER National Cemetery, near Murfreesboro', Tenn., which contains the dead collected from that battle-field and the surrounding country.  This cemetery has been completed under the superintendence of the Reverend Wm. Earnshaw, Chaplain, United States army.  It contains the remains of 3,272 United States soldiers known, and of 1,374 unknown; of which 4,561 are white and 85 colored.
     Third. - Records of the dead interred in the United States National Cemetery at KNOXVILLE, Tennessee.  This cemetery was originally laid out under the direction of General Burnside, by Lieutenant (afterwards Captain) H. S. Chamberlain, A. Q. M., and was for a long time under his charge.  It is believed to be the only burial-ground of Union soldiers in this Department originally laid out and conducted to the present time in a manner and on a system that render it suitable to be converted into a National Cemetery without material alteration or change, or the removal of a single body.
     That this cemetery was laid out and commenced in a country subject to all the vicissitudes of actual warfare, and at a most gloomy and distracted period of military affairs in East Tennessee, and that it was continued with system under such adverse circumstances, reflects great credit upon the officers in charge.
     This cemetery contains 1,894 bodies, comprising those who fell at the siege of Knoxville and all that died during the sad and fatal winter that succeeded, and subsequently during the military occupation of that city.  Under the direction of Brevet Major W. A. Wainwright, A. Q. M., most of the Union dead scattered through upper East Tennessee have also been collected into these grounds.
     Fourth. - The small cemetery or burial ground of HAZEN's BRIGADE, located on the battle-field of Stone's River, about one-fourth of a mile east of the National Cemetery.  It occupies a space of 40x100 feet, and is enclosed by a substantial stone wall, laid in cement.  the graves are grouped around a monument of hewn limestone, bearing appropriate inscriptions. - (See Appendix.)
     The whole work was constructed at the expense of the surviving members of the brigade, and dedicated to the memory of its soldiers who fell upon the spot.  It has been thought proper to transfer to this enclosure all others of this brigade found in the surrounding country, instead of interring them in a larger cemetery.  It contains the graves of 31 soldiers originally interred there, and of 24 removed from other places.
     In the case of all these cemeteries, additions will, from time to time, be made as the locality of other graves is discovered which at present have escaped notice.
     It is not claimed that the records herewith published are strictly accurate in every particular, or even as nearly so as it is hoped may be the case in future as the work becomes better understood and reduced to a ore uniform system.

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     The records, as kept by the superintendents of these cemeteries, have been referred to this office for comparison with other records and final arrangement.
     The aggregate lists of names of persons unknown have been furnished from records on file; and the whole is now offered with the confidence that it is as nearly correct as could be expected under the circumstances.
     Similar catalogues of other cemeteries will be furnished as the cemeteries are completed; and, in the end, a complete and consolidated general record in proper form for deposit in the national archives at Washington.
               I am, General, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Brevet Major General J. L. DONALDSON,
     Chief Quartermaster, Dep't of the Tennessee

CHATTANOOGA NATIONAL CEMETERY
Chattanooga, Tennessee.

EXTRACTS FROM A REPORT
of
CHAPLAIN THOS. V. VAN HORNE, U. S. A.,
in charge of the
NATIONAL CEMETERY AT CHATTANOOGA, TENN.

     SIR:  In compliance with instructions from General Geo. H. Thomas, commanding the Military Division, given on the 5th instant, I have the honor to submit the following report concerning the National Cemetery at this place:

DESCRIPTION OF THE GROUNDS.

     The grounds of the cemetery proper comprise an entire hill of beautiful and varied contour, and include an area of seventy-five (75) acres.  I am informed that, during the battle which ended in the triumphant assault of our forces upon Missionary Ridge, the suitableness of this hill for a National Cemetery was the subject of remark by General Thomas and yourself, as its beautiful undulating surface was made the more apparent by a line of troops which extended over its summit.
     Soon after the battle, by your direction, I made a thorough examination of its contour and soil, and reported that it was the most suitable ground for the purpose contemplated that I had ever seen; and though two and a half years have passed, and I have become more thoroughly conversant with every feature, I am only the more fully convinced that its susceptibilities are unsurpassed.  These grounds are quite distant from Cameron Hill, which rises abruptly from the Tennessee river, west of the city of Chattanooga, and from Missionary Ridge to the east; and are also equidistant from General Hooker's point of attack on Lookout Mountain, and from General Sherman's point of attack on Missionary Ridge, northeast of the city.
     The summit of the hill is eighty-three (83) feet above the level of its base, and commands a view of unsurpassed loveliness.  This view is less extended but better defined than the one stretching to and almost immeasurable distance from the bold front of Lookout, and, to the artistic eye, is its complement.

CAPACITY OF THE GROUNDS.

     Of this only an approximate estimate can now be made, as the number of acres suitable for graves has not been determined by actual survey.  Probably nearly one-third of the ground, on account of the out-cropping of edges of rocks, cannot be used for burial purposes.  I feel safe, however, in saying that the remains of at least twenty-five thousand (25,000) soldiers can be interred in these grounds.

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PLAN OF THE CEMETERY

     The plan of laying out the grounds was suggested by marked natural features.  Where nature demanded avenues they have been made, and their curves define the sections.  This rule has determined the form and size of the sections.  It has given marked individuality to each, and has allowed a well-sustained unity of expression to the whole, as nature had now here been opposed.
     Each section has a central plot for a monument, around which are arranged plots for officers; and around these in turn, in concentric tiers, are disposed the remaining graves of the section.  The graves of each section (those of officers excepted) are designated by consecutive numbers; and they are so accurately located by measurement, that the identification of the remains is not dependent upon head-boards or grave-marks of any kind; and even should the external marks of the graves be removed, the plots and records could point unerringly to every grave, by its number, and tell its occupant.

RECORDS.

     It is proposed to secure a short military history of every officer and soldier interred in the cemetery whose remains have been identified; and our records may include sketches of those known to be here, though undistinguished.  The ordinary form of record has been extended to obtain this result.  The data for such records must come, in part, from the archives at Washington, from those of the States represented, and largely from the immediate friends of the dead.
     It seems eminently fitting that this should be done.  It records with our intense individualism as a people, and with the value we attach to individual life; and it is demanded by the eminent worth of those for whom historic notice would thus be secured.

WORK ACCOMPLISHED.

     When our army took position at Chattanooga after the bloody conflict of Chickamauga, the cemetery grounds were covered with a dense forest of large oaks.  These were cut down to prevent a lodgment of the enemy in close proximity to our defences, and were afterwards used for fuel.  The stumps of these trees and the loose stones were first removed from the grounds, which are now in fine condition, adorned with groups of small trees and with flowers of spontaneous growth.  There are also a great number of flowering shrubs and evergreens, of various families, which I have planted on the sections and throughout the grounds.  Three of the sections have been sodded; the walks have been gravelled in one and graded in two others.
     The grounds are susceptible, with little cost, of the highest type of landscape gardening.  There can be here a perfect system of surprises, for which nature has provided, which, if equaled on other grounds, would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
     The stone wall enclosing the grounds has been substantially made without mortar.  Its length is about one and a quarter (1¼) mile.  A trench was dug one (1) foot deep and three (3) wide, and filled with broken stone to prevent injury from frost.  When the turret finish is put upon it, there will be a perch of stone to every foot in length.
     There is also a cave upon the grounds which answers admirably for a receiving vault.  With moderate labor this could be made an element of great interest.  Part of the stone for the wall has been quarried in it; and, by opening and widening passages in this way, it extent could be greatly enlarged.

NUMBER OF INTERMENTS.

     I have thus far superintended the interment of eight thousand five hundred and 12 (8,512) officers and soldiers.  More than one-half of these have been removed from other localities, some proximate and some remote.  The dead buried in this vicinity previous to the establishment of the cemetery, those interred on the battle-field of Chickamauga, and those buried at Lenoir's, Athens, Charleston, Cleveland, and Kingston, Tenn., Bridgeport, Alabama, and at other points, have been reinterred here.
     During the march of our armies to Atlanta, there were buried, of those killed in battle or who died from wounds, from twenty (20) to forty (40) per day; and as those who were buried in the wide track of that march were the companions in arms of many already inferred here, it seems eminently fitting that their companionship should be extended to their repose in death.
     of the whole number interred, seven thousand seven hundred and forty (7,740) are white, and seven hundred and seventy-two (772)  are colored troops.