Christmas Wreaths for Heroes stored for another year
For the second year, members of the Air National Guard donated their time to help the United States Daughters of 1812 from Hot Springs Village, Little Rock and Pine Bluff in placing, removing, transporting and storing over 3,100 artificial wreaths used to honor the graves of soldiers whose names are unknown and are buried at the Little Rock National Cemetery.
At the beginning of the Civil War, the area that is now LRNC was located just outside the city limits and was used as a Union bivouac. Union troops still occupied the city in 1866, and a portion of the new city cemetery was purchased by the government to be reserved for military interments, a news release said.
The property was designated a national cemetery on April 9, 1868, with the stated purpose of centralizing the remains of Union dead who had been interred throughout Arkansas. At the time, there were 5,425 total Union interments, of which 2,333 were unknown, the release said.
In 1884, the 11-acre Confederate Cemetery was established next to LRNC. The remains of 640 Confederate soldiers were moved from Mount Holly Cemetery to the Confederate Cemetery. This cemetery became part of the LRNC in 1913 when the secretary of war accepted the deed from the city of Little Rock. Today, over 25,000 are interred at LRNC.
In addition to the Union and Confederate unknown soldiers, unknown soldiers of the Spanish-American War are also buried at LRNC. There is one World War II airman also interred.
The use of military dog tags, used to identify slain soldiers, was not officially used until World War I.
LRNC is closed to new interments. The only interments that are being accepted are subsequent interments for veterans or eligible family members in an existing grave site.