Oak Ridge Cemetery

Oak Ridge Cemetery
National Register of Historic Places
Historic District
	Korean War Memorial
location	Springfield , Sangamon County , Illinois
Coordinates	39 ° 49 '26.7 " N , 89 ° 39' 30.9" W Coordinates: 39 ° 49 '26.7 " N , 89 ° 39' 30.9" W.
NRHP number	95000986
The NRHP added	4th August 1995

The cemetery Oak Ridge ( English Oak Ridge Cemetery ) is located in the city of Springfield (Illinois) in the United States .

The most famous grave site in Oak Ridge Cemetery is the grave of former US President Abraham Lincoln . His wife, Mary Ann Todd Lincoln, and three of his four children are also buried there. In addition, a number of other prominent politicians and people from Illinois are buried in the cemetery.

Abraham Lincoln's grave attracts numerous visitors to Oak Ridge Cemetery each year, making the cemetery the second most visited cemetery in the United States after Arlington National Cemetery .

The cemetery also has memorials for the Korean War , Vietnam War, and World War II . Oak Ridge Cemetery has been listed as a Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places since August 1995 .

Abraham Lincoln's grave

On April 15, 1865, the anniversary of President Lincoln's death, some Springfield citizens formed the National Lincoln Monument Association , a group dedicated to building a grave or memorial for the late president. On May 3, Lincoln's body reached Springfield, where it was initially housed for one night in the Illinois State Capitol , the seat of the state parliament. The body was temporarily placed in a vault the following day . In December of the same year, Lincoln's coffin was moved to another vault, which is still preserved today and is located directly behind the present monument. After three years of construction, Lincoln's body and that of his three sons were buried in the as yet unfinished crypt in 1871 . After the monument was completed, Lincoln's remains were buried in a marble sarcophagus in 1874 . This is located in the middle of the burial room. After two Chicago criminals failed to steal Lincoln's bones in 1876 and extort a ransom for it, the Lincoln Monument Association hid the remains of Lincoln in another location in the memorial. After his wife's death in 1882, her remains were interred with Lincoln's. In 1887, both bodies were buried in a stone vault below the burial room. The memorial itself has a 36 meter high obelisk and the inside is lined with marble from Minnesota, Missouri, Massachusetts, Arkansas, Utah, Italy, Spain, France and Belgium. Nine flags are placed in a semicircle around the memorial. Seven of them represent the states Lincoln and his ancestors lived in ( Illinois , Kentucky , New Jersey , Pennsylvania , Virginia , Indiana, and Massachusetts ). The eighth and ninth flags are the national flag of the United States and the presidential flag . The inscription "Now he belongs to the ages," allegedly said by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton after Lincoln's death, is above the US flag.

The burial site has been a National Historic Landmark since December 19, 1960 and was inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places six years later.