Bates found a site adjacent to the town of Grafton's Maple Avenue Cemetery, where many soldiers had already been buried.

[4] The cemetery contains the burial site of Thornsbury Bailey Brown,[5] believed to have been the first Union casualty of the Civil War.

Smaller walkways are laid out perpendicular to the central path, dividing the cemetery into six sections on three leveled terraces.

A large flag pole sites in the middle of the central terrace, while next to it is a plaque containing wording from an 1875 act of Congress regarding the preservation of the cemetery.

[4] On the lower terrace are two more plaques that contain the wording of Theodore O'Hara' poem, Bivouac of the Dead.

Along the edges of the cemetery are five additional memorial sites dedicated to cenotaphs for service men whose bodies were not recovered, either from sea or elsewhere.

West Virginia veterans groups began lobbying for a new national cemetery after a 1975 study determined the limited remaining space at Grafton was too steep or costly to use.

[1] In addition to the two cemeteries, Grafton holds the longest ongoing annual Memorial Day celebration in the country, first decorating the graves of soldiers in 1867.