Biloxi National Cemetery

Private Edgar A. Ross of the Tennessee Infantry was the first burial here on March 24, 1934. The cemetery occupied 25 acres then, on the grounds of the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and for the first 39 years it served one purpose: final resting place for veterans who died in the adjoining hospital. The National Cemetery Act of 1973 opened the gates to all honorably discharged veterans, active duty personnel, and their dependents regardless of where they died. The grounds expanded twice after that — 17 acres transferred from the VA in 1982, another 12 in 1996 — to hold what became more than 27,000 interments by 2021. Keesler Air Force Base brought development to the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the twentieth century, and this cemetery sits adjacent to it. Colonel Ira C. Welborn, who earned the Medal of Honor in the Spanish-American War, is buried here. So is a memory the National Association of Atomic Veterans insisted on: they donated a granite marker in 1990, placed in front of the administration building, for veterans who participated in the U.S. nuclear weapons testing program. The rows of white headstones face the Gulf breeze. Open daily dawn to dusk on Pass Road in Biloxi.