It doesn’t get better than this.

In North St. Louis, near by Interstate 70, two adjacent cemeteries hold the “mother load” of Civil War burials. Bellefontaine and Calvary Cemeteries (4947 and 5239 West Florissant Avenue, respectively) together comprise about a square mile. There is no place, on earth, where more Union and Confederate generals lie at rest in such close proximity. More generals who commanded armies in the Civil War lie here than are buried at Arlington or West Point. Sherman, Price, A.P. Stewart, Pope, Buell. The short list of other Civil War figures whose graves are here: At Bellefontaine: John McNeil, USA (the Butcher of Palmyra) Almira Hancock (You saw the movie) Francis Brownell, USA(Ellsworth’s avenger) Given Campbell, CSA (Davis’ bodyguard) James B. Eads (invented the ironclad) Francis Lee, CSA (invented the spar torpedo for the CSS Hunley) Henry O’Brien, USA (M of H, flag bearer, 1st Minn., Gettysburg) Frank Blair, Jr., USA A. S. Smith, USA Albert Gallatin Edwards, USA At Calvary: Dred Scott Seth Cobb, CSA Henry Guibor, CSA John Wesley Turner, USA Willie Sherman, drummer boy Want to see more? Travel to the south of St. Louis, to Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. Site of the largest army hospital in the West, thousands of graves of union casualties of the war to control the Mississippi are a sober reminder of the cost of victory.