Alexandria National Cemetery is a quiet Civil War-era burial ground near Old Town, established for Union soldiers before Arlington became the dominant military cemetery in the region. Its rows of headstones and restrained landscape make it a sober contrast to Alexandria's shops, restaurants, and handsome brick streets.
The cemetery is small enough to visit respectfully in a short stop, especially if you are following Alexandria's Civil War and African American history sites. It is not a spectacle, and that is part of its value: a reminder that the war's logistics, hospitals, and dead were woven directly into the city.