The cemetery was established in 1863, by an order from Major General George Henry Thomas after the Civil War Battles of Chattanooga, as a place to inter Union soldiers who fell in combat. of land was initially appropriated from two local land owners, but later purchased. It became Chattanooga National Cemetery in 1867. By 1870 more than 12,000 interments had been made, most of whom were unknown. Many nearby battlefield burials were also reinterred in Chattanooga, including nearly 1,500 burials from the Battle of Chickamauga.