West Point Cemetery

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West Point Cemetery is an historic cemetery on the grounds of the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. It overlooks the Hudson River, and served as a burial ground for American Revolutionary War soldiers and early West Point inhabitants long before 1817 when it was officially designated as a military cemetery. Until that time several small burial plots scattered in mid-post served as places of interment. The graves from these plots and the remains subsequently found during building excavations were removed to the new site. An improved road to the cemetery was constructed in 1840, and the caretaker's cottage was erected in 1872.

[edit] Notable interments

Brigadier General Robert Anderson, defender of Fort Sumter
Major General Daniel Butterfield, composer of Taps
General Lucius D. Clay, "Father of the Berlin Airlift"
Margaret Corbin, Revolutionary War heroine
Major General George Armstrong Custer, commander at the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Major General George Washington Goethals, "Builder of the Panama Canal"
Major General Frederick Dent Grant, son of President Ulysses S. Grant
Major General Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Mexican War veteran, special advisor to the President during the Civil War
Brigadier General Ranald S. Mackenzie, Civil War veteran, commander of Buffalo Soldiers during the Indian Wars
Major General Wesley Merritt, Civil War veteran, Military Governor of the Philippines
Colonel David "Mickey" Marcus, Israel's first brigadier general
General Alexander Patch, commander of U.S. Seventh Army
Major General Thomas H. Ruger, Civil War veteran, United States Military Academy Superintendent
Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, longest serving American general
Colonel Sylvanus Thayer, United States Military Academy superintendent
Ensign Dominick Trant, oldest grave in the cemetery
General William Westmoreland, Army Chief of Staff
Colonel Edward Higgins White, first American to make a spacewalk