Beaufort National Cemetery opens out in front of you. Managed by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, this place covers 44.1 acres and, as of 2024, holds more than 28,725 interments. The very first burials here were men who died in nearby Union hospitals during the occupation early in the Civil War, mainly in 1861 after the Battle of Port Royal, and battlefield casualties from around the area were reinterred here, including over 100 Confederate soldiers. The ground became a National Cemetery under the National Cemetery Act by Abraham Lincoln in 1863.
Walk slowly among the history recorded in numbers: roughly 9,000 Union soldiers are buried here — 3,607 of them unknown — alongside 1,700 African‑American Union soldiers and about 2,800 prisoners of war from the camp at Millen. There are 102 Confederate soldiers recorded here, and the remains of 27 Union prisoners of war were reinterred from Blackshear Prison after the war. Beaufort National Cemetery continues to receive veterans from every major American conflict since the Civil War, including the Spanish–American War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War. Rows of interments, more than 28,725 as of 2024, run in straight lines across these 44.1 acres.