Greenwood Cemetery

The Firemen's Charitable & Benevolent Association established Greenwood Cemetery in 1852, and architect Charles Lewis Hillger designed its entrance gate in the Egyptian Revival style — cast-iron columns supporting a broken pediment that announces the ground's purpose without apology. The cemetery follows the footprint of the old New Basin Canal, which once connected the American sector to Lake Pontchartrain, making the burial ground a memorial built on top of infrastructure. This is the largest Confederate burial ground in Louisiana. General John Bell Hood rests here. A 25-foot monument honors New Orleans firefighters killed in the line of duty — the same association that founded the place still marks its own. The cemetery opens daily from 8am to 4pm at 5200 Canal Boulevard. Admission is free. You're walking the route that cargo once traveled, over graves that map one version of the city's nineteenth-century allegiances and the men who fought its fires.