Confederate Cemetery
Also known as Military Burial Grounds for Alt , North Alton Confederate Cemetery , Small Pox Island
Alton, Madison County, Illinois, USA
About
-
Get directions 635 Rozier Street
Alton, Illinois 62003 United StatesCoordinates: 38.91750, -90.19530 - www.cem.va.gov/cems/lots/north_alton.asp
- 314-845-8320
- Cemetery ID:
Members have Contributed
Advertisement
Photos
Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, the federal government re-opened the facility as a Confederate prison. The maximum capacity of Alton prison was estimated at 800; in the last year of the war it held close to 1,900 Confederate prisoners.
As in many Confederate prisons, the inmate population was ravaged by disease, and over the course of the war smallpox claimed the lives of hundreds of prisoners. In an attempt to minimize the number of smallpox deaths, prison officials quarantined those stricken with the disease in a hospital on Tow Head Island, in the Mississippi River. Prisoners who died of smallpox were buried on the island itself. In the years after the Civil War, frequent flooding of the river eroded all of the grave markers. Today, the location of the smallpox hospital and the burials is unknown.
Confederates who died from causes other than smallpox were interred two miles north of Alton, in an area known as "Buck Inn." This became the official prison burial ground, and today is the location of the North Alton Confederate Cemetery.
Monuments and Memorials
A Confederate monument erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1909 marks the collective graves of the soldiers. The names of 1,354 Confederate soldiers who died in the prison or on Tow Head Island are inscribed on six bronze plaques attached to the 58' high granite obelisk.
Office Hours: Monday thru Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.
Visitation Hours: Open daily from sunrise to sunset.
Phone: 314-845-8320
FAX: 314-845-8355
Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, the federal government re-opened the facility as a Confederate prison. The maximum capacity of Alton prison was estimated at 800; in the last year of the war it held close to 1,900 Confederate prisoners.
As in many Confederate prisons, the inmate population was ravaged by disease, and over the course of the war smallpox claimed the lives of hundreds of prisoners. In an attempt to minimize the number of smallpox deaths, prison officials quarantined those stricken with the disease in a hospital on Tow Head Island, in the Mississippi River. Prisoners who died of smallpox were buried on the island itself. In the years after the Civil War, frequent flooding of the river eroded all of the grave markers. Today, the location of the smallpox hospital and the burials is unknown.
Confederates who died from causes other than smallpox were interred two miles north of Alton, in an area known as "Buck Inn." This became the official prison burial ground, and today is the location of the North Alton Confederate Cemetery.
Monuments and Memorials
A Confederate monument erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1909 marks the collective graves of the soldiers. The names of 1,354 Confederate soldiers who died in the prison or on Tow Head Island are inscribed on six bronze plaques attached to the 58' high granite obelisk.
Office Hours: Monday thru Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.
Visitation Hours: Open daily from sunrise to sunset.
Phone: 314-845-8320
FAX: 314-845-8355
Nearby cemeteries
Alton, Madison County, Illinois, USA
- Total memorials11
- Percent photographed36%
- Percent with GPS0%
Godfrey, Madison County, Illinois, USA
- Total memorials5k+
- Percent photographed75%
- Percent with GPS6%
Alton, Madison County, Illinois, USA
- Total memorials2
- Percent photographed0%
- Percent with GPS0%
Alton, Madison County, Illinois, USA
- Total memorials4k+
- Percent photographed85%
- Percent with GPS2%
- Added: 1 Jan 2000
- Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 105212
Success
Uploading...
Waiting...
Failed
This photo was not uploaded because this cemetery already has 20 photos
This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this cemetery
This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this cemetery
Invalid File Type
Birth and death years unknown.
1 photo picked...
2 photos picked...
Uploading 1 Photo
Uploading 2 Photos
1 Photo Uploaded
2 Photos Uploaded
Size exceeded
Too many photos have been uploaded
"Unsupported file type"
• ##count## of 0 memorials with GPS displayed. Double click on map to view more.No cemeteries found