Office Hours: Monday thru Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Closed federal holidays except Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

Visitation Hours: Open daily from dawn to dusk.

Land for the original six-acre cemetery was purchased from Edward B. Hill of Culpeper for $1,400. In 1872, a Second Empire Victorian-style caretaker's lodge designed by Quartermaster Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, was constructed on the property. A tool house, brick perimeter walls, and a flagstaff were most likely constructed during the 1870s as well. H.W. McCray of Washington, D.C., constructed a decorative brick rostrum with iron posts and a tin roof in December 1905.
During the 1930s, the cemetery was improved through several Depression-era federal make-work programs. In 1934, the original tool house was demolished and replaced by a new brick garage-tool-comfort station erected by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) at a cost of $8,000. Another CWA project in May 1934 included repairs to the lodge, raising and realigning 912 headstones, and constructing a concrete driveway and walk. In 1936, a Works Project Administration project accomplished the realignment and re-setting of 402 headstones. The old flagstaff was removed and replaced with a new one in 1938 and in December 1939 a brick and slate-roof oil house was constructed.

The cemetery operated without major improvements until Nov. 17, 1972, when it closed to new interments. On Sept. 1, 1973, in execution of the National Cemetery Act of 1973, the cemetery was transferred from the U.S. Army to the Veterans Administration's new National Cemetery System. In 1975, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Burton-Hammond Post 2524, donated an additional 10.5 acres for cemetery use. Another small tract was purchased in 1978 and a brick administration building was constructed on the property. The cemetery re-opened Jan. 16, 1978.

Culpeper National Cemetery was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
NOTABLE PERSONS
Peer de Silva
Peer de Silva was born in San Francisco on July 26, 1917. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1941 and followed with intelligence training. He was a security officer for the Manhattan Project, responsible for the transfer of atomic weapons abroad. After World War II, he was assigned to the Army's Strategic Services Unit, precursor to the CIA, and began a long career in Cold War intelligence. He was honorably discharged as a lieutenant colonel in 1953. He served as a station chief at numerous locations throughout his career, including Saigon in 1963. Injuries sustained from a 1965 car bomb forced a reassignment to Washington, DC. He retired from the CIA in 1972 and authored a book about his career, posthumously published in 1978. He died August 13, 1978. (Section F, Site 751).
John Louis Marocchi

Rear Admiral John Marocchi was born in Bologna, Italy, on June 6, 1920. He was two when his family immigrated to the United States and settled in Clarksville, TN. He graduated from Austin Pea State prior to appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy class of 1942 (which graduated in December 1941). He was severely wounded on USS Birmingham (CL-62) during the Battle of Leyte Gulf during World War II. Marocchi served in the Korean and Vietnam wars as an intelligence officer and played a role in the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis and Pueblo Incident. He completed Army Airborne training at age 42 and was one of the few Navy officers to earn parachute wings. He retired in 1975 as deputy director, National Security Agency. Marocchi died July 12, 2014. (Section M, Site34)