William Henry Christman
Union Army soldier; first soldier burial at Arlington National Cemetery (1844–1864)

William Henry Christman (October 1, 1844 – May 11, 1864) was a private in the United States Army who was the first soldier buried at Arlington National Cemetery during the U.S. Civil War. Christman was a laborer from Pocono Lake, Pennsylvania. He joined Company G of the 67th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment on March 25, 1864. On May 1, he was hospitalized with the measles at Lincoln General Hospital. Private Christman died on May 11, 1864 of peritonitis and was buried two days later on May 13, 1864. He was the first Union soldier to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on May 13, 1864. His remains rest in Arlington National Cemetery's Section 27, grave 19.
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This entry incorporates text from “William Henry Christman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.