Marietta National Cemetery, Georgia

Originally known as the Marietta and Atlanta National Cemetery, the Marietta National Cemetery was established in 1866. The cemetery was once considered a potential site for the Confederate States of America's Capitol Building. When the Confederate States offered $50,000 to the landowner, Henry Green Cole—a businessman from Marietta and a loyal Union supporter—he declined the offer, stating that he “expected to put it to a better purpose.” Instead, Cole proposed to donate the land as a burial ground for both Union and Confederate soldiers, hoping it would symbolize reconciliation. However, no agreement could be reached between the two sides, and the cemetery ultimately became a Union burial site exclusively (there is a separate Marietta Confederate Cemetery). Of the 17,000 individuals interred there, 10,172 are Union Civil War soldiers, of whom approximately 3,000 remain unknown. It is also the final resting place for nearly 300 U.S. Colored Troops who served during Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign. Three Revolutionary War veterans are buried here.