When they fell before the musket and cannon fire at sleepy places named Bull Run and Shiloh, the young Civil War soldiers were buried in fields and churchyards. At Antietam in the Maryland countryside, just a few miles north of Washington D.C., 5,000 were slaughtered in one day of fighting. Some were left where they fell in cornfields.

Abraham Lincoln thought the war dead deserved a better resting place. On a summer day, he signed a bill authorizing the creation of national cemeteries "for the soldiers who shall die in the service of the country."

Eventually, 300,000 dead Union soldiers were buried, although the identities of nearly half are unknown.

Today, a chain of national cemeteries stretches from Maine to Hawaii for the men and women who perished not only at Vicksburg or Chancellorsville, but also at faraway places like the Marne, Guadalcanal, Pork Chop Hill and Khe Sanh. The veterans, who survived the nation's wars, and their spouses are interred in the national cemeteries run by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The 900-acre Calverton National Cemetery on Long Island is the largest of the cemeteries. The smallest at Hampton, Va., has 21 headstones on less than a tenth of an acre; it holds the remains of the victims of an 1898 yellow fever epidemic.

Thousands of veterans may find that the cemetery gates will be closed to them — or at least the nearest cemetery. The VA's national cemeteries, in which millions of Americans are buried, are now full.

But the VA is developing new cemeteries. In the last three years, veterans have been interred in cemeteries in Atlanta, Detroit/Great Lakes, Miami/South Florida, Pittsburgh and Sacramento, Calif. Many states have veterans' cemeteries, which are partially financed by the federal government. For example, Maryland has five.

Still run by the military, the well-known Arlington cemetery is open basically to career military people. Two presidents, John F. Kennedy and William Howard Taft, are also buried there in the rolling hills overlooking the Potomac.

Arlington opened on the grounds of the Arlington mansion, the home of Martha Washington's grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, and his son-in-law, Gen. Robert E. Lee, who led the Confederate forces. In 1861, the federal government seized the land for a fortification in the defense of Washington against Lee's troops.

On May 13, 1864, the remains of Pvt. William Christman, Company G, 67th Pennsylvania Infantry, were interred in Arlington's first military burial.

Veteran's officials say that only 10 percent of eligible veterans choose to be buried in a national cemetery, probably because the cemeteries are too far away.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE

For VA cemeteries (Arlington, run by the military, has different standards):

— Any U.S. armed forces veteran of active duty who was not dishonorably discharged, members of the armed forces who die on active duty and spouses, un-remarried widows, minor children and, in some cases, unmarried adult children.

— Members of the reserves who die while on active duty or while training, or who were eligible for retired pay may also be eligible.

— The family of the deceased should provide the veteran's: discharge document, report of casualty and the veteran's full name, military rank, branch of service, dates of entry and discharge and serial, Social Security or VA claim numbers, date and place of birth and date of death.

For more information, contact the Department of Veterans Affairs at 1-800-827-1000.

E-mail Joe Volz at volzjoe2003@yahoo.com or write to 2528 Five Shillings Rd, Frederick, MD 21701. To find out more about Joe Volz and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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