This cemetery is now the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial, open to the public. After hundreds of freed people perished in the area, a parcel of undeveloped land was seized from a pro-Confederate owner for use as a cemetery. Although many of the freedmen found work and some served in the Union army, others arrived destitute, malnourished, and in poor health. During the Civil War, African American refugees flooded into Union-controlled areas, including Alexandria and Washington. Many early Alexandria African-Americans were skilled artisans.

African-American life flourished with the establishment of churches, social and fraternal organizations, and businesses. By the end of the Civil War, Alexandria's economy was in shambles but the city itself had been spared the destruction witnessed by many other places in Virginia such as Richmond and Fredericksburg.Īlthough Alexandria was a major slave-trading center prior to the Civil War, it also had a history of several free black communities. From 1863 to 1865, the City was the capital of the Restored Government of Virginia, which represented the seven Virginia counties remaining under federal control during the Civil War. Fort Ward Museum and Historic Site contains one of these restored forts. It was during this era that several forts were constructed in Alexandria as a part of the defenses of the City of Washington. Many of the largest buildings in town, including The Lyceum, were confiscated for use as hospitals and for other official purposes and many new warehouses were constructed along the waterfront. Wounded soldiers, brought back on the trains, crowded the available hospitals and temporary medical facilities in and around the town. Troops and supplies were transported to Alexandria via the port and the railroad and then dispersed where needed at the front. Union military forces arrived on May 24, 1861, and Alexandria became a logistical supply center for the federal army. Within days of Virginia's secession from the Union in the spring of 1861, Federal troops arrived in Alexandria to take possession of the city. The Marshall House Incident, Harper's Weekly, June 15, 1861.

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