Cypress Hills National Cemetery was designated a military burial ground for Union soldiers in 1862, during the Civil War. It sits within what was and remains a rural cemetery, bestride the Queens-Brooklyn border. In 1884 a new 15-acre tract just a mile away was added to expand the cemetery.
This, for me, is the quintessential view: when I visited Arlington National Cemetery, whenever I see a filmed story about it, what is eternally striking is the symmetry of the headstones. No matter which way you look, what angle you take, the headstones are perfectly aligned. That is precisely the case in Cypress Hills, as well.
In this first photo I'm standing with my back to Jamaica Avenue, looking north; in the background, the ground rises gently toward the Jackie Robinson Parkway; the grave of Harry Houdini is on the other side of that road.
I started my afternoon visit to Cypress Hills by driving from Flushing on the Grand Central Parkway, connecting to the Jackie Robinson Parkway, and exiting at Cypress Hills Street. With the aid of my maps app, I managed to drive in the right direction (after an initial wrong turn; it's uncanny, as soon as I reach Brooklyn I feel lost: must be my Queens-centrism). Reaching Jamaica Avenue, I took a right turn; just to my left ran the M elevated subway line. As I waited for a traffic light to change, I heard the familiar clacking of subway cars on steel tracks.
The National Cemetery is an impressive sight, an endless array of perfectly symmetrical rows upon rows of small white marble headstones — but here and there I saw exceptions, differences. In this photo I am standing on the rise adjacent to the Jackie Robinson, looking south.
I remember when I visited Cypress Hills several years back, for the first time, I spoke to a man who worked for the National Cemetery Administration. He told me that at some point those exceptions stopped being allowed. In the picture above, it's easy to spot the exceptions; clearly, they break the continuity of the array.
I left the National Cemetery, turned left onto Jamaica Avenue, and drove less than half a mile to Cypress Hills Cemetery.
As are Maple Grove (Queens), Green-Wood (Brooklyn), and Woodlawn (Bronx), Cypress Hills is a rural cemetery within the boundaries of New York City. I parked, and walked into the office; I asked for a map, and was graciously given a map and a brochure detailing the sections and highlights of notable people buried inside the cemetery.
First, Jackie Robinson. There isn't much I can add to the long biography of this great American. Simply, he was the first black player in professional baseball (long, esoteric discussions can be had to qualify that statement, but I will not do so). What he had to endure is unimaginable, even to someone, me, who remembers seeing news reports of police in American cities using water cannon and attack dogs to try to intimidate American citizens who were simply asking for equal rights (including the right to vote). Yet, he did it. He played baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers, and in doing so he revolutionized America.
What I find ironic, and particularly enjoy, is that Jackie is actually buried in Queens. As a Flushing guy, I get a chuckle from that. And I see a connection: after the Dodgers and Giants abandoned New York City for the climes of California, New York was awarded a new team, and that team became the New York Mets, who play ball in Flushing, about a mile from where I live. In a final twist, Jackie, who hailed from California, did not accept being traded by the Dodgers to the Giants, forever remaining a Brooklyn ballplayer.
As I drove along the winding roads inside Cypress Hills I came to a spot which well illustrates the cemetery's name:
Continuing on, to the original national burial ground, I found this interpretive sign:
I have studied the US Civil War closely (in fact, at times I feel I devoted too much time to that task, and came to feel burnt out with detail). I readily confess a bias for the Union; in fact, one of the reasons I stopped attending Civil War Round Tables after a number of years of enjoying doing so was my feeling that the Southern rebellion was regarded too readily as admirable. I was never a fan of the idea of the Lost Cause: to me, a dozen states instigated and carried out a rebellion against their own country in defense of slavery, and lost. Yet, I listened to the words and example of President Abraham Lincoln, who counseled the nation toward reconciliation.
A week ago, when I visited Maple Grove Cemetery and saw a Confederate gravestone, I admit I was annoyed — yes, all these years later, I still resented that. So I decided to go back to Cypress Hills and find Union graves. When I parked my car and walked over to the original Union burial ground, I saw Confederate headstones, then read this interpretive sign. Toward Reconciliation
The reason why Confederate soldiers are buried in a New York cemetery is obvious: prisoners who died in custody.
Just as in the National Cemetery, in this original national burial ground headstones are arrayed symmetrically:Unlike many other national cemeteries where Confederates are buried in separate sections, here they are intermingled among the Union dead. Union or Confederate, soldiers were interred in the order the cemetery caretaker received them. Many Confederates were buried here at the time of their death.
These are graves of U.S. Army soldiers who died during the Civil War; among them are Confederates who died in custody (notice the differing shapes of the headstones):
I remember seeing Confederate soldier burial plots inside cemeteries I visited in the South; I specifically recall seeing one in Riverside Cemetery, in Asheville, North Carolina (where we had gone to visit the grave of Thomas Wolfe). I have not seen Union graves therein; I wonder if there are any?
Vicksburg National Cemetery History I find this interesting reading (not entirely in a positive way).
I searched for other graves in Cypress Hills. I thought I was close, but could not find the grave of Nella Larsen, a Harlem Renaissance writer whose biography I found some few years back when I was working as a librarian.
Many other notable citizens are buried in Cypress Hills, a cemetery which remains open to interments in the present day.