Extra Credit Questions

[L Verge]

Time to reveal the answer to the $64,000 question (oldsters will know to what I refer!): The smallest federal cemetery in the U.S. is located in St. Mary's County, Maryland. One monument covers a mass grave of U.S. Navy personnel who were killed shortly after departing St. Inigoes Creek for the Washington Navy Yard. It is known as the USS Tulip Monument.

The Tulip was built in 1862 in New York, but for the Chinese, not the U.S. It was supposed to be used as a lighthouse tender. As our government tried to build up its naval fleet, the ship was purchased by the Department of the Navy and used as a tow and as part of the Potomac Flotilla, which was supposed to patrol the waters in defense of the nation's capital as well as prevent smuggling and other petty little tricks that Southern Marylanders were pulling on their Union occupiers.

The wooden hull ship used steam boilers for power, and in 1863, began to have problems. It was ordered back to the DC Navy Yard for repairs. En route, the boilers blew. 47 men (out of a crew of 57) were killed instantly, and two others later died from their injuries. Many of the bodies floated back downriver and were buried at St. Inigoes - hence the one monument federal cemetery.

The Navy based at Patuxent River nearby still tend the monument and place U.S. flags there. The national newscaster, Ted Koppel, used to own a mid-1700s manor house (Cross Manor) nearby. It was up for sale a few years ago for about $4 million, but I don't know if it ever sold.

I have yet to conclusively find the second smallest federal cemetery, but it might be the Alexandria National Cemetery where the victims of The Black Diamond disaster in the Potomac were interred. I did find a statement that a cemetery on the Ball's Bluff battlefield - where Lincoln's friend Edward Baker was killed in battle - claims to be the third smallest.