With the National Cemetery Act of 1863 Abraham Lincoln established this cemetery for soldiers who died in the Civil War. Of the 7,500 Civil War soldiers buried here, 117 are Confederate. In the 1870s the Union Soldiers monument was erected to honor the 174 unknown Union soldiers buried at the cemetery. A large granite monument dedicated to “the Defenders of American Liberty Against the Great Rebellion” was erected during the 1880s. More recently, in 1989 a ceremony was held for the reinterment of the remains of 19 Union soldiers from the 55th Regiment and the 1st North Carolina Regiment located on Folly Beach missing in action since 1863. In 1997, a memorial in honor of Confederate soldiers interred at the cemetery was installed. Today soldiers of all wars are buried here.