Pick Your Path

Christ Church Cemetery

George Gilpin

Surveyor, pallbearer for George Washington, and Revolutionary War veteran. Lies in an unmarked grave despite his significant contributions to early Alexandria.

Presbyterian Cemetery

Colonel Dennis Ramsay

Mayor and confidant of George Washington. First person to address Washington as ‘Mr. President’ and served as his honored pallbearer.

Old Presbyterian Meeting House

Dr. James Craik

Surgeon General in the Continental Army and George Washington’s lifelong friend and physician. Attended Washington during his final illness and was one of his pallbearers.

Christ Church Cemetery

Major Samuel Cooper

Boston Tea Party participant and Revolutionary War hero. Buried next to him is his son, the highest-ranking Confederate general.

Old Presbyterian Meeting House

Lewis Nicola

Author of the infamous Newburgh Letter suggesting Washington become king. Founded the Invalid Corps during the Revolutionary War.

Old Presbyterian Meeting House

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution

Monument to an unknown Continental soldier, representing all who gave their lives for American independence.

St. Paul’s Cemetery

Wilmer McLean

Witness to the commencement and conclusion of the American Civil War. The war began in his front yard at Bull Run and ended in his parlor at Appomattox Court House.

Christ Church Cemetery

General Samuel Cooper

The highest-ranking general in the Confederate army, senior even to Lee. He died in poverty, living in the former slave quarters of his own estate.

Presbyterian Cemetery

Samuel Richard Johnston

On July 2, 1863, he scouted the Union left for Lee and reported Little Round Top undefended. Lee built the day’s attack on that report. Historians still debate where he really was.

Alexandria National Cemetery

The USCT burial petition

In 1865, after more than 400 United States Colored Troops soldiers petitioned, 118 were reburied in the Soldiers’ Cemetery, until then a burial ground for white soldiers only.

Alexandria National Cemetery

The Black Diamond tragedy

Four civilian volunteers drowned on the Potomac in April 1865 during the search for John Wilkes Booth. A granite memorial stands beside their graves.

Christ Church Cemetery

Sydney Smith Lee

Celebrated naval officer and brother of Robert E. Lee. He resigned his US Navy commission and served in the Confederate Navy during the Civil War.

Presbyterian Cemetery

Robert Allison Jr. and the Battle of the White House

On September 5, 1814, Robert Allison Jr., aged 27, was killed fighting British warships on the Potomac. He was the grandson of William Ramsay, one of Alexandria’s founders.

Presbyterian Cemetery

Five featured veterans

William Gregory, last survivor of the battle. John Thomas Newton of the USS Hornet. Captain Charles McKnight of the Alexandria Independent Blues. Robert Young, who commanded the cavalry at Washington’s funeral. Hugh Smith, whose farm became Ivy Hill Cemetery.

Alexandria National Cemetery

The USCT burial petition

In 1865, after more than 400 United States Colored Troops soldiers petitioned, 118 were reburied in the Soldiers’ Cemetery, until then a burial ground for white soldiers only.

Methodist Protestant Cemetery

The slave jail behind Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Joseph Bruin ran one of Alexandria’s largest slave pens at 1707 Duke Street and bought the Edmonson sisters, Mary and Emily. Harriet Beecher Stowe told their story. Bruin rests here.

Penny Hill Cemetery

Joseph McCoy and Benjamin Thomas

Joseph McCoy was lynched on April 23, 1897, and Benjamin Thomas on August 8, 1899. Both were buried at Penny Hill, Alexandria’s potter’s field.

Douglass Memorial Cemetery

Douglass Memorial Cemetery and Fields Cook

The story of the cemetery named for Frederick Douglass, and of Fields Cook’s legacy in Alexandria’s African American community.

Bethel Cemetery

Julius Campbell

Star player of the 1971 T.C. Williams Titans football team, portrayed in ‘Remember the Titans.’

Presbyterian Cemetery

William Weisband, codename ‘Zhora’

He warned the Soviets that their codes had been broken, and they changed them. He rests under a headstone provided by the government he betrayed.

St. Paul’s Cemetery

The Everleigh sisters

Minna and Aida Simms ran the Everleigh Club, Chicago’s most notorious brothel, until the mayor shut it down in 1911. They rest under their given names.

St. Paul’s Cemetery

The Female Stranger

A young woman who died at Gadsby’s Tavern in 1816, her identity unknown. Her grave is the most visited in Alexandria.

Christ Church Cemetery

James Murray Mason and the Trent Affair

George Mason’s grandson wrote the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. As a Confederate envoy he was seized from a British ship, an incident that nearly brought Britain into the Civil War.

Trinity Cemetery

John Wesley Hollensbury

The man behind Alexandria’s ‘Spite House,’ the narrow house built out of spite to block an alley.

Start here

A–Z Alexandria Genealogy Index

Every person named on this site, in one alphabetical list.

72 trees

Alexandria family trees

Who was related to whom across Alexandria’s burial grounds, and where each person rests.

More than 400 biographies

Burials by cemetery

Sourced biographies, grouped by the burial ground where each person rests.

Find the grave

Interactive biography map

See where notable graves are on the ground.

Go further

Research hub

Registries, timelines, guides, and links to Alexandria’s other history collections.