Things to do nearBeaufort National Cemetery

Beaufort National Cemetery was established by order of the War Department in 1863, during the Union occupation of Beaufort, South Carolina, making it among the earliest national cemeteries formally designated during the Civil War era. The cemetery sits on a modest but deeply significant tract of land in the heart of Beaufort, a coastal city with its own layered history tied to the antebellum South, the Civil War, and the Reconstruction period that followed.

Among those interred here are Union soldiers who fell during campaigns across the South Carolina Lowcountry, as well as members of the United States Colored Troops, African American men who fought for the Union and whose service is commemorated with the same white marble headstones that mark every grave across the grounds. That visual uniformity, a deliberate choice of the national cemetery system, gives the landscape its striking and meditative quality. Rows of headstones extend in precise lines beneath live oaks whose broad canopies have grown over more than a century and a half, creating a cathedral-like atmosphere that is quiet even on busy days.

Veterans from conflicts spanning the Civil War through more recent military service are buried here, giving the cemetery a continuity that speaks to an unbroken tradition of remembrance. The surrounding city of Beaufort offers antebellum architecture, waterfront dining, and access to the broader Lowcountry landscape, making the cemetery a natural and meaningful stop within a larger visit to the region. For anyone drawn to American history, the Civil War, or the story of African American military service, Beaufort National Cemetery offers a place of reflection that is both historically irreplaceable and genuinely moving.