[1] Burials in the cemetery grounds took place as early as 1830, but the site was predominantly used during the Civil War to bury soldiers who died in Baton Rouge and the surrounding battlefields, including Plaquemine and Camden.

[3][4] In 1878 two men, Michael and Bernard Jodd, were hired to build a brick wall around the cemetery, which was previously enclosed by a picket fence, but before it was completed, both men contracted yellow fever and died in September 1878.

The entrance on North 19th Street is protected by a double iron gate built in 1933.

[3][4] The cemetery contains a commemorative monument, erected in 1909 by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and built by J. N. White and Sons.

The monument celebrates the memory of officers of 31st and 41st Infantry and of the men from Massachusetts who lost their lives in the Department of the Gulf during the Civil War.