Zachary Taylor National Cemetery is a

United States National Cemetery The United States National Cemetery System is a system of 164 cemeteries in the United States and its territories. The authority to create military burial places came during the American Civil War, in an act passed by the U.S. Congress o ...

located at 4701 Brownsboro Road ( US-42), in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. It is named for

Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...

, the 12th president of the United States, who is buried there with his wife, Margaret Mackall Smith Taylor. Zachary Taylor National Cemetery was listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on November 3, 1983. As of 2014, the cemetery has over 14,000 interments and is one of seven national cemeteries in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and one of 112 in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. Those buried at the national cemetery served in six wars:

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (clock ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, and the

Persian Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

. The cemetery began as the Taylor family cemetery and holds the graves of the president's parents, Richard Taylor, a colonel in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, and Sarah Strother Taylor, and other family members.

History

The land which became Zachary Taylor National Cemetery was part of Richard Taylor's estate, known as Springfield, given to him in gratitude for his service in the American Revolutionary War. The house in which the family lived for most of their time in Louisville is still nearby, and is called the

Zachary Taylor House The Zachary Taylor House, also known as Springfield, was the boyhood home of the twelfth President of the United States, Zachary Taylor. Located in what is now a residential area of Louisville, Kentucky, Taylor lived there from 1795 to 1808, held ...

. On November 1, 1850, Zachary Taylor was buried in his family's burial ground. His remains were moved there from the

Congressional Cemetery The Congressional Cemetery, officially Washington Parish Burial Ground, is a historic and active cemetery located at 1801 E Street, SE, in Washington, D.C., on the west bank of the Anacostia River. It is the only American "cemetery of national m ...

in Washington, D.C. where he was interred temporarily from July 13 to October 25, 1850. In 1883, the commonwealth of Kentucky placed a fifty-foot monument, topped by a life-sized statue of Zachary Taylor, near his grave. In 1930, a

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a f ...

was added. The Taylor family in the 1920s initiated the effort to turn the Taylor burial grounds into a national cemetery. The commonwealth of Kentucky donated two adjacent parcels of land for the project, turning the half-acre Taylor family cemetery into . However, the Army judge advocate general ruled against acquiring the Taylor cemetery. When the national cemetery was created, the federal government constructed a new

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be cons ...

for Zachary Taylor, made of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

with a

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...

base and a marble interior. The mausoleum and adjacent Taylor family graves lie within the boundaries of the national cemetery, but are not owned by the United States government. However, the National Cemetery Administration maintains the Taylor graves as it does the rest of the national cemetery. There have been several attempts to increase the size of the cemetery, but each time local residents stopped the growth. The National Cemetery made the national news on June 17, 1991, when Zachary Taylor's remains were exhumed to determine if the real cause of death was arsenic poisoning and not an intestinal ailment as previously thought. "A team of Kentucky medical examiners concluded yesterday that Taylor was not poisoned with arsenic or other compounds ... laying to rest speculation that he was the first president assassinated." The article title is actually misleading, as the body was too decomposed to determine what he *did* die of, but there was no sign of poisoning.

Today

The cemetery is currently closed to new interments. However, space may be available in the same grave site for eligible family members. It is administered by the National Cemetery Administration, a division of the

Department of Veterans Affairs The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers an ...

. The cemetery is the burial site of two

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of val ...

recipients,

Sergeant Sergeant ( abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other ...

Willie Sandlin Willie Sandlin (January 1, 1890 – May 29, 1949) was a soldier in the United States Army who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during World War I. Early life Willie Sandlin was born in Breathitt County. Born of humble parents, he lo ...

(

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

, and Sergeant John C. Squires (

), United States Army. Also, United States Air Force Lieutenant General Roscoe Charles Wilson is buried there. The Taylor family section is at the rear of the national cemetery. The vault in which Zachary Taylor was first buried still stands near the 1926 mausoleum. Soldiers from

Fort Knox Fort Knox is a United States Army installation in Kentucky, south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. It is adjacent to the United States Bullion Depository, which is used to house a large portion of the United States' official gold re ...

engage in a wreath-laying ceremony every November 24, the anniversary of Zachary Taylor's birth. The cemetery also contains the

war graves War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

of three

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

soldiers who died on the same day (18 March 1944) in the

References

External links

"Life Portrait of Zachary Taylor"
from

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

's '' American Presidents: Life Portraits'', broadcast from the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery, May 31, 1999
Zachary Taylor National Cemetery
at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs *
"Illness, Death, Eulogy, Funeral and Procession of Zachary Taylor"
at the Association for the Preservation of the

* * {{Registered Historic Places Buildings and structures in Louisville, Kentucky Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky Historic American Landscapes Survey in Kentucky National Register of Historic Places in Louisville, Kentucky Protected areas of Jefferson County, Kentucky Tombs of presidents of the United States Tourist attractions in Louisville, Kentucky United States national cemeteries

National Cemetery The following is a partial list of prominent National Cemeteries: Africa Algeria * El Alia Cemetery, Algiers Burundi * Mausolée des Martyrs de la Démocratie, Bujumbura Ghana * Asomdwee Park, Accra * Burma Camp Military Cemetery, Accra L ...

1926 establishments in Kentucky Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in the United States

History

Today

See also

References

External links