Some of the first burials were Civil War soldiers, both Union and Confederate, who died at the government hospital located at the nearby building which became the Crozer Theological Seminary.

Two monuments in the cemetery have been documented by the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System: the statue "Sorrow" by Samuel Murray atop the Alfred O. Deshong memorial, and the Civil War Memorial, by Martin Milmore.

[3] Veterans from the Civil War and other conflicts are buried in this area of the cemetery.

Congressman John Weiss Forney and many dignitaries attended, including Major General Galusha Pennypacker.

[4] On the front of the Civil War Memorial is the following inscription: The people of Delaware County erected this monument to commemorate the patriotism of their citizens, soldiers and sailors who fell in defense of the Union in the War of the Rebellion 1861–1865[5] Chester Rural Cemetery was a part of the United States National Cemetery System during the Civil War with a leased lot within the cemetery for soldiers that died in the nearby hospital.