1701 J Street & 18th and Carroll Streets
Keokuk, Iowa
319-524-1304

Because of its location at the confluence of the Des Moines and Mississippi rivers Keokuk became a transportation hub for assembling Union forces during the Civil War. Thousands of these soldiers would return from Southern battlefields to Keokuk as casualties, either having been wounded or contracting an illness, to be cared for at one of the five military hospitals that were eventually located in Keokuk. The decision to located these hospitals in Keokuk was due to the presence of the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the ability of the Union Army to transport the casualties up the Mississippi River. The Keokuk National Cemetery was one of fourteen national cemeteries to be authorized by the U.S. Congress in an act of July 17, 1862 whereby President Lincoln was authorized "to purchase cemetery grounds... to be used as a National Cemetery for soldiers who shall have died in the service of their country." Most of these cemeteries, like Keokuk, were not battlefield sites but as a general rule located within properties owned by cemetery associations at sites where troops were mobilized and where hospitals were located. The Keokuk National Cemetery is located on 22.7 acres of land that was part of Oakland Cemetery and donated by the City of Keokuk in 1862. By the end of the war there were 635 interments in the Keokuk National Cemetery: 600 known Union soldiers, 27 unknown soldiers, and the remains of 8 Confederate soldiers who died in Keokuk as prisoners of war. The cemetery is currently the final resting place for the remains of over 4,000 American soldiers from all of the conflicts that have occurred since the Civil War.

In 1908, the remains buried at the frontier post of Fort Yates, N.D. were reinterred at Keokuk as were the remains of 156 from the post cemetery at Des Moines, IA in 1948. There are several monuments to veterans at the cemetery. The Unknown Soldiers monument was erected in 1912 by the Women’s Corps of Keokuk in honor of 48 unknown soldiers buried at the cemetery. This monument is a large granite obelisk topped with the figure of a Confederate soldier standing at parade rest. At an unknown date the American War Dads and Auxiliaries of Iowa erected a bronze wreath dedicated to Unknown Soldiers. The Keokuk Veterans’ Memorial (photo above) was dedicated in 2005. This granite and marble structure with five arches flanked by two wings and an obelisk topped with an eagle stands gracefully on a grassy triangle between the entrance to the historic portion of the Keokuk National Cemetery and Oakland Cemetery. Engravings of battle scenes, the stirring words of Honor, Duty, Courage and Freedom, and the names of nearly 1,400 Tri-State Area veterans are inscribed on the memorial.

Visiting the Keokuk National Cemetery & Veterans' Memorial
Visiting Hours
The the Keokuk National Cemetery and Veterans' Memorial can be visited daily from dawn to dusk.
There is no charge to visit the Keokuk National Cemetery & Veterans' Memorial.