Hey everybody, last week we ventured to Cypress Hills and Cypress Hills National Cemeteries.  Here are a few photographs.

Cypress Hills Cemetery is a public burial ground on the Brooklyn-Queens border.  One takes the J train to nearly the end of the line.  The cemetery was established in 1848 and is the final resting place of musician Eubie Blake, artist Piet Mondian, and Mae West to name a few.

This is the War of 1812 memorial.  The bicentennial of our second war with England starts next year.

This is the Civil War section of the public cemetery.  As you can see, there are Union and Confederate dead interred here.

Down the street is Cypress Hills National Cemetery.  Not to be confused with the public facility, CHNC is one of the fourteen original national cemeteries created by President Lincoln in 1862.  With so many young men dying, there was no choice but to create such sites.

It is always moving to see the headstones lined up row after row.

(Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views, NYPL)

Like its counterparts at Gettysburg (stereoscope above) and Antietam, it has a rostrum.

Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Wilbur Colyer is buried here.  Colyer was born in Brooklyn and was a soldier in the Big Red One.  The Fighting First trained at Governors Island before shipping out to France during the Great War.  Sadly, Colyer died just one month before the Armistice.

Our good friend Sami accompanied us.  He too is a volunteer at Governors Island and knows a great deal about New York City history.

The cemetery is a simple one, but there is still detail to be seen if one looks closely.

One sees the changing dynamics of the neighborhood as well.

What a special day this was.