These pages "present a treatment on each historic locale of the National Cemetery System. The emphasis is on the general history of the area where the installation is located and the reasons it was established there. In some cases, the past and present contributions of the surrounding environs are more significant than the cemetery itself, and thus are given more treatment. At other sites, the people and monuments within the confines of the facility and how they came to rest there, are the most important aspects of that entry. ... This, then, is a tome dedicated to the men and women and who have served the cause of democracy, knowingly or unknowingly, volunteer or conscript. Here in all its triumph and tragedy, humor and pathos, is the U.S. National Cemetery System and the two centuries of American history it represents. ... And here too are two centuries of America's citizen soldiers - and their last, most honored posts." Illustrations, six appendices, and a full-name index add to the value of this work.