The Glendale National Cemetery in present-day Richmond, Virginia was instituted on this day even though the land's purchase from owner Lucy C. Nelson, was not finalized till five weeks later. Its 2.1 acres was intended to hold the graves of Union soldiers who fell in engagements around Richmond, especially the "Seven Day's Battles." Within five years it numbered almost eighteen hundred graves, nearly a thousand of them "unknown." (By John Osborne)