ALEXANDRIA FREEDMEN’S CEMETERY
Cemetery — Alexandria, Virginia
Status: Operating · Access: Open to public
Dossier: https://haunthunt.com/place/alexandria-freedmens-cemetery-virginia/

The freedmen’s cemetery—where the contraband dead were buried and forgotten.

Alexandria Freedmen’s Cemetery is a cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia, an NPS Network to Freedom. The freedmen’s cemetery—where the contraband dead were buried and forgotten. It sits in the archive under Underground Railroad history, the Underground Railroad and African American history. The dossier holds 3 documented facts — the record is history-forward, no paranormal claims on file. The grounds are open to visitors.

Union-occupied Alexandria drew thousands of freedom-seekers during the Civil War — 'contrabands,' in the Army's terminology, who came faster than the city could house them and died in the camps of disease and exposure. In March 1864 the military government opened a burial ground for them on the edge of town. Over roughly five years it took in more than 1,700 dead — the government's own count is 1,711 — and more than half of them were children under sixteen.

THE SOLDIERS' PETITION
The cemetery also took Black soldiers who died in the city's hospitals, which is where the record turns sharp. In December 1864, after Superintendent of Contrabands Albert Gladwin diverted a funeral procession bound for the Soldiers' Cemetery and posted guards at the gate, soldiers convalescing at L'Ouverture Hospital drew up a petition: men who had shared 'equally the dangers and hardships' should share the same burial ground. Four hundred forty-three signed it, arranged by hospital ward on a roll nearly ten feet long. The Army ruled the request 'just and right,' and in 1865 the troops buried at the freedmen's ground were moved to what is now Alexandria National Cemetery.

The war ended, the markers vanished, and the city forgot deliberately — in the 1950s a gas station was allowed to pave the ground. Historians and archaeologists brought it back during the Woodrow Wilson Bridge reconstruction, and in 2014 Alexandria dedicated the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial on the site, the dead's names carried into bronze from the burial book the clerks kept — the record that outlasted the forgetting.

HISTORY — 3 documented facts
· NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The burial ground's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. The record appears in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. Documented ground is what separates this file from pure legend — this is part of it.
· Alexandria Freedmen’s Cemetery is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. The burial ground's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' documents the entry. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.
· The cemetery’s history is documented. The burial ground's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. The record appears in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. The record keeps it — history, not lore. The claim holds its place in the ledger.

SOURCES — 3 cited
· Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01 — National Park Service
  https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/undergroundrailroad/F0E29766-00A1-12E5-C3D062151C3F7E26/nri-NTFListings6426NOPIItable.csv?t=1784017173223
· NPS Network to Freedom listing — National Park Service
  https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm
· Underground Railroad — Wikipedia
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad

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