The federal government is spending nearly $10 million to create more than 5,000 new grave sites for Lowcountry veterans at the Beaufort National Cemetery in one final expansion for the revered 163-year-old graveyard on Boundary Street that is quickly running out of room.
President Abraham Lincoln created the final resting place for a rising numbers of war dead during the Civil War more than 150 years ago. Getting a treasured plot is at a premium at the Beaufort landmark and filling up fast.
The additional burial sites are being carefully squeezed into 2.2 acres, with every available inch needed for three different categories of grave sites totaling 5,300 plots.
“It’s about maximizing the use of space,” Michael Brophy, assistant director of the Beaufort National Cemetery, said of the massive project last week.
Of those 5,300 new graves, 1,400 will be “casketed,” meaning they will have the capacity to hold two full caskets stacked on top of each other. When the time comes, those stacked caskets will be placed inside 2-ton “pre-placed” concrete crypts located at each site. Those crypts, which await placement in the ground, are on the site now. Besides preserving space, the concrete vaults also will prevent caskets from sinking.
An additional 1,400 spaces are being created for “cremains,” which have smaller footprints.
In addition, a second columbarium, a wall with “niches” that hold urns, will be constructed with a capacity of 2,500.
The new columbarium will preserve the most land, Brophy says. Its “niches,” which are 10.5 inches wide by 15 inches tall and 20 inches deep, will be placed in walls with each box large enough for multiple sets of cremains.
Cemetery dates to Civil War
Beaufort National Cemetery is the 13th oldest national cemetery in the nation, even older than Virginia’s Arlington, the largest. The first national cemeteries were created during the Civil War to bury Union dead and there are 155 today. The National Cemetery Administration, part of the Veterans Administration, managers them.
Lincoln ordered construction of Beaufort National Cemetery on Feb. 10, 1863. Some 9,000 Civil War soldiers are interred there, including 3,607 unknown Union soldiers and 101 known Confederate soldiers. Many of these troops were relocated to Beaufort National Cemetery shortly after the war from other burial sites, cemeteries and battlefields in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina.
Row upon row of plain white and gray headstones look like dominoes underneath the live oak, magnolia and palmetto trees. Even in a city where historic markers are seemingly around every corner, the cemetery, surrounded by a brick fence, stands out.
The 2.2 acres being developed now “is the last of our currently undeveloped space,” Brophy says.
“We’ve gotten quite a lot of value out of this cemetery,” Brophy says.
Burials are free but come with cost
Its Civil War legacy and its active status as a cemetery make the Beaufort graveyard special, Brophy says. The last expansion came in 2006 when property owned by the National Guard, located in back of the cemetery, was absorbed increasing its size to 44 acres. The 29,533 people buried at 24,603 grave sites include not only veterans but also eligible dependents such as spouses.
In addition to the expansion, various facility improvements are part of the $9.95 million project including renovating the “superintendent’s lodge,” the house near the front entrance that’s visible from Boundary Street.
The lodge, built in 1934, houses the offices for the cemetery staff, who continue to work with veterans and their families today to secure burial sites that come with simple ceremonies and military honors.
Repairing portions of the cemetery’s oyster shell (tabby) roads are part of the work as well. The cemetery is laid out in the shape of a half-wheel and the tabby roads form the spokes.
Burials are offered at no cost to veterans. But Brophy is quick to point out that the burials are not free. “It’s paid for by their service,” he says.
The job is more of a “calling”
Work on the expansion began in October. It’s projected to be down by the end of 2025.
Even with the solemn cemetery abuzz with earth-moving equipment and construction workers, funerals continue daily and life goes on for the cemetery’s 11 employees, eight of whom are veterans. They take the job of serving the nation’s servicemen and women seriously. Providing the burials, says Brophy, is one final benefit for the nation’s veterans, the majority of whom lived rich full lives after they completed their service.
“Everybody looks at it as a privilege,” Brophy says. “It’s more of a calling than a job.”
A looming decision is facing the U.S Veterans Administration on how to meet the needs of Lowcountry veterans in the future. With the expansion, the cemetery has been given more time. But in-ground space is still expected to run out in 10 years, in 2035. And the columbariums will be full in 25 years, by 2050.
___
© 2025 The Island Packet
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
