Founded in 1847, this cemetery contains the remains of numerous Civil War army and navy veterans, both Confederate and Union, with many buried in special veterans sections.

Among the Confederate veterans buried here is Captain Henry Mulrennan who commanded The Key West Avengers, a company formed from men who fled Union-held Key West. The unit first served in the Confederate Coast Guard at Tampa and later in the 7th Florida Infantry in the western theater.

After being captured and held in a Union prison camp in New York, Mulrennan returned to Key West and was elected mayor in the postwar period.

Frank E. Adams, a black man, was the first law-enforcement officer in the Keys to be killed in the line of duty. Adams carried a gun and a badge as a Deputy Sheriff when few blacks in the nation held such jobs. Adams died on October 7, 1901, and was buried the next day. The location of his grave remained a mystery until it was discovered that Adams was not buried in the traditional black section of the Cemetery because he was Catholic.

Information provided by the Florida Division of Historical Resources, a division of the Florida Department of State

Photo courtesy of findagrave.com