Quartermaster General's Office, General Order No. 19

Roll of Honor
No. 16  (XVI)

NAMES OF SOLDIERS
WHO DIED IN DEFENCE OF THE AMERICAN UNION,
INTERRED IN THE
NATIONAL CEMETERIES
AND OTHER BURIAL PLACES
AT
BROOKLINE, CAMBRIDGE, AND WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS;
BUFFALO, CHAUTAUQUA, CYPRESS HILLS, (ADDITIONAL,) FORT NIAGARA,
LOCKPORT, LODI, MADISON BARRACKS, PLATTSBURG
BARRACKS, AND ROCHESTER, NEW YORK;
GETTYSBURG, MERCERSBURG, READING, PHILADELPHIA, TAMAQUA,
AND UPTON, PENNSYLVANIA;
BRATTLEBORO AND MONTPELIER, VERMONT
CITY POINT, (ADDITIONAL) DANVILLE, (ADDITIONAL) GLENDALE,
RICHMOND, AND YORKTOWN, (ADDITIONAL,) VIRGINIA.
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WASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1868

Bv't. Maj. Gen'l. D. H. RUCKER,
     Acting Quartermaster General, U. S. A.
                         Washington, D. C.

GENERAL: 
     I have the honor to transmit herewith, for publication, alphabetical lists of names of United States soldiers interred at the following places, viz:
     Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, and Worcester, Massachusetts;

            I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Buffalo, Chautauqua, Cypress Hills, Fort Niagrara, Lockport, Lodi,
Madison Barracks, Plattsburg Barracks, Plattsburg Barracks, and Rochester, New York;
     Gettysburg, Mercersburg, Reading, Philadelphia, Tamaqua, and Upton, Pennsylvania;
     Brattleboro' and Montpelier, Vermont;
     And City Point, Danville, Glendale, Richmond, and Yorktown, Virginia.
     These lists, prepared in the cemeterial branch of this office, with a brief history of each Cemetery, contain 20,440 names, and will constitute the XVIth volume of the "Rolls of Honor." 
               Very Respectfully,
                    Your obedient servant,

ALEX J. PERRY,
Bv't Brig. Gen'l, Q. M. U. S. A.

Bv't. Maj. Gen'l. A. J. PERRY,
     Q. M. U. S. A., Washington, D. C.

SIR:: 
     I have the honor to forward herewith, for publication, the records of interments of United States soldiers at the National Cemeteries at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and at Richmond and Glendale, Virginia, together with those at many of the smaller Cemeteries in the States of Massachusetts,  New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, and a number of names (additional to those heretofore published) of those buried in the Cemeteries at Cypress Hill, near Brooklyn, N. Y., and at City Point, Danville, and Yorktown, Va., together with brief histories of the more important of Cemeteries - the whole constituting the XVIth volume of the "Rolls of Honor."
     II.  A portion of the names since added, but differs from either of those previously printed, in having the number and section of the grave attached to all the names.  The bodies previously reported were those buried at Belle Isle, Hollywood, and Oakwood Cemeteries, which bodies have since been removed and re-interred in the National Cemetery at Richmond, under the direction of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel J. M. Moore, Chief Quartermaster First Military District.
     III.  Of the 20,440 graves enumerated in this volume, the names of those buried in 8,625 (about 42 per cent.) are known, and of those in 11,815 (about 58 per cent.) unknown.  The proportion of known is thus less than one-half, or about 25 per cent, less than that which generally holds good throughout the country, which is thought to be about two-thirds known and one-third unknown.  The extraordinarily small proportion of known in this volume arises from the circumstance that the graves herein enumerated, particularly in Virginia, are mostly those of soldiers who fell in the early part of the war, (in Virginia of those who fell in the campaign of 1862, on the peninsula.)  Owing to the fact that these graves were only temporarily marked, and that the whole region where they were buried was not gain in the possession of our forces for a period of two years, it has been impossible, in most cases, to identify the remains.
     IV.  This volume (the XVIth of the " Rolls of Honor" ) increases the total number of graves now recorded in printed form to about 155,000.  Of the occupants of these graves, the names of about 100,000 appear as known, leaving about 55,000 as yet unknown.  Many of these unknown remains were doubtless marked by their friends or comrades at the time of their burial, and records of the names of many others were doubtless made at the time, (where buried in groups or from hospitals,) and may have been preserved (in connection with plans or schedules of the position of the graves) by the immediate friends of the dead, the officers in command of the burial squads, or the surgeons in charge of field hospitals.  It is desirable that all persons who may have such records in their possession should know that it is the wish of this department to recover and make use of all such means of identification; that the lists or plans may be forwarded to the Quartermaster General at Washington free of postage; and that when they are received immediate steps will be taken to establish the identity of the remains, to enclose and properly decorate the graves, and to have the name and place recorded in printed form.
     V.  It is supposed that there yet remains to be printed the records of about 150,000 graves of the deceased soldiers and prisoners of war belonging to the Union armies, making an aggregate of 305,000 graves; and that of this whole number of 305,000 graves, the names of 100,000 of the occupants will not at present, if ever, be recovered.
     VI.  The whole number of soldiers who have fallen in the ranks of the Union armies for the suppression of the rebellion is supposed to be about 355,000, exceeding the number of recognized graves by 50,000.  This number of men, whose graves are not recognized as in existence, either as known or unknown, is supposed to be made up approximately as follows, viz.:

     The number of those who died at their homes, after being mustered out, from wounds or disease contracted while in the service, is not embraced in any of the above enumerations.
     VII.  The lists to be printed in future will contain the names of most of the soldiers buried in the States of West Virginia, North and South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the various Territories, and of such portion of those buried in the States of Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, and Tennessee, as have not heretofore been printed.
     VIII.  When all of these shall have been printed in a detached form, similar to the present, it will be very desirable that the whole work be reprinted in a consolidated form, the names of the soldiers to be arranged according to the States to which they belonged, and alphabetically under each State, giving the name of the Cemetery where each is buried, with the number of section and grave.  This will enable the locality of the grave of any soldier to be found at once, without looking through the lists of some three hundred Cemeteries, contained in some thirty volumes, which would otherwise be necessary.  This reprinting will also admit of the correction of many errors in the spelling of the names, and in the "company," "regiment," and "date of death," which have found their way into the present lists.  These errors were unavoidable, owing to the fact that the lists, as now printed, were originally copied from the rude head-boards erected in the field, or from partially illegible records of the rebel prisons, and have been recopied by many different hands before printing.  Such errors can be corrected only by a careful and thorough comparison of the lists, as now printed, with the records and muster-rolls in the offices of the Adjutant General and Surgeon General of the United States, and of the Adjutant General of the several loyal States.  By this means, and by a zealous use of all the other manifold means of correction and identification which can be derived from the friends of the parties, and countless other sources, many blanks, now so painful to the friends of the deceased "unknown," may be filled up, and a record produced which will be worthy of the nation, and which will gratify many generations of the descendents of the brave men therein commemorated.
     IX.  I would therefore respectfully recommend, as soon as the pressure for the completion of the out-door work on the National Cemeteries is ever, that a zealous and conscientious officer be detailed, so long as needed, for this duty of perfecting the final revision and republication of these lists of the loyal dead.

               I am, very Respectfully,
                    Your obedient servant,

CHARLES W. FOLSOM,
Brevet Colonel, A. Q. M. Vols.