Visitors to Memphis National Cemetery will note several areas, especially in sections A, B, C, D, E, H, J, and K, wherein are government headstones and markers bearing no name. These are the graves of Civil War unknowns, some 8,866 in number, the second largest number of unknowns in any of the national cemeteries presently under the jurisdiction of the Department of Veterans Affaires. The existence of so large a number of interments of unknowns in a single cemetery may be attributed in large part to the fact that Memphis National Cemetery was not established until 1867, two years after the close of the Civil War. During the interval from the initial burial of these decedents to the time of reinterment, many of the crude wooden burial markers placed at the graves had been removed, or destroyed through exposure to the elements. Further, as there was no mandatory use during the Civil War of any form of personal identification, such as the present day identification tags required to be worn at all times by military personnel, means of identification of disinterred remains were extremely limited.