This is a list of notable individuals who were buried at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., as well as those who are memorialized by cenotaphs. In particular, many U.S. senators and U.S. representatives are memorialized by cenotaphs at the cemetery.
Specialized terminology is used on this list. The term cenotaph includes not only monuments that are "empty tombs" or where the body is buried elsewhere, but also the graves of Congressmen who died in office which are marked by the particular style of cenotaph designed by Benjamin Latrobe for the Cemetery. "Congressman" refers to any U.S. senator or representative. A range/site listing, e.g. R31/S44, after a name gives the location of the grave or cenotaph according to the cemetery's location system.
Buried with a cenotaph
William Thornton (1759–1828), first Architect of the Capitol, is the only person who did not serve as a congressman to be honored with one of the cenotaphs designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe at the Congressional Cemetery. Goldsmith Bailey (1823–1862), Representative – Massachusetts. R59/S143. Thomas Henry Bayly (1810–1859), Representative – Virginia. R60/S122. William Lee Ball (1781–1824), Representative – Virginia, War of 1812 soldier. R29/S37-38.
James Blair (1786–1834), Representative – South Carolina. R30/S72. Theodorick Bland (1741–1790), Representative – Virginia; the first to die in office, reinterred 1828 with cenotaph. R31/S48. Pierre Bossier (1797–1844), Representative Louisiana. R54/S123. Elijah Brigham (1751–1816), Representative Massachusetts. R30/S14. James Burrill, Jr. (1772–1820), Senator Massachusetts. R29/S31-32. Silas M. Burroughs (1810–1860), Representative New York. R60/S66. William A. Burwell (1780–1821), Representative – Virginia; private secretary to Thomas Jefferson. R56/S102. Timothy J. Carter (1800–1838), Representative Maine. R30/S54-56. Levi Casey (1752–1807), Representative – South Carolina; Brigadier General of the South Carolina Militia and American Continental Army. R29/S63. Warren R. Davis (1793–1835), Representative – South Carolina. R30/S67. John Dawson (US politician) (1762–1814), Representative Virginia. R30/S11. John Bennett Dawson (1798–1845), Representative Louisiana. R30/S11-12. Philip Doddridge (1773–1832), Representative Virginia. R29/S65. George Coke Dromgoole (1797–1847), Representative Virginia. R55/S111. Josiah Evans (1786–1858), Senator South Carolina. R60/S96. Henry Frick (1795–1844), Representative Pennsylvania. R54/S117. John Gaillard (1765–1826), Senator – South Carolina. R29/S40. James Gillespie (1747–1805), Revolutionary War soldier, Representative – North Carolina, reinterred at Congressional Cemetery 1893 at R60/S58. Cenotaph at R31/S59. Francis Jacob Harper (1800–1837), Representative Pennsylvania, died before taking office. Reinterred at Congressional Cemetery 1848. R55/S101. Albert Galliton Harrison (1800–1839), Representative Missouri. R54/S132. Nathaniel Hazard (1776–1820), Representative Rhode Island. R29/S28. George Holcombe (1786–1828), Representative New Jersey. R31/S50. James Jackson (1757–1820), Representative, Senator, Governor Georgia. R29/S60. Charles Clement Johnston (1795–1832), Representative Virginia. R29/S48. James Jones (1769–1801), Representative Georgia. R29/S56. Joab Lawler (1796–1838), Representative Alabama. R31/S54. Joseph Lawrence (1786–1842), Representative Pennsylvania. R56/S137. Francis Malbone (1759–1809), Representative, Senator Rhode Island, died on the steps of the Capitol. R25/S2. Felix Grundy McConnell (1809–1846), Representative Alabama. R55/S114. Jeremiah McLene (1767–1837), Representative – Ohio, Major General of militia in the American Revolution, Ohio Secretary of State. R31/S63. James McLeod - Congressional Medal of Honor recipient George Edward Mitchell (1781–1832), Representative Maryland. R29/S54. George Mumford (d. 1818), Representative North Carolina. R29/S19. James Noble (1785–1831), Senator – Indiana. R29/S46. William Pinkney (1764–1822), Representative, Senator Maryland, Attorney General. R29/S36. Thomas D. Singleton (d. 1833), Representative South Carolina. R30/S51. Jesse Slocumb (1780–1820), Representative North Carolina. R29/S29. John Smilie (1741–1812), Representative – Pennsylvania. R30/S10. Alexander Smyth (1765–1830), lawyer, soldier, Representative – Virginia. R29/S44. Samuel L. Southard (1787–1842), Senator, Governor New Jersey. R55/S140. Richard Stanford (1767–1816), Representative North Carolina. R29/S15.
William Taylor (1788–1846), Representative Virginia. R54/S120. Benjamin Thompson (1798–1852), Representative Massachusetts. R54/S154. Uriah Tracy (1755–1807), Representative and Senator – Connecticut, first Congressman buried in Congressional Cemetery. R24/S1. William A. Trimble (1786–1821), Senator Ohio. R29/S34. William Upham (1792–1853), Senator – Vermont, member of the Vermont House of Representatives, attorney. Burial with granite stone in a form similar to a cenotaph at R55/S163. David Walker (1763–1820), Representative Kentucky. R29/S21.
Members of Congress buried without a cenotaph Joseph Anderson (1757–1837), Senator – Tennessee, Comptroller of the U.S. Treasury. R31/S44. Philip P. Barbour (1783–1841), Representative – Virginia, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Thomas Blount (1759–1812), Representative – North Carolina, Revolutionary War prisoner of war. R25/S8. John Edward Bouligny (1824–1864), Representative – Louisiana; the only member of the Louisiana congressional delegation to retain his seat after the state seceded during the Civil War. Unmarked grave at R37/S104. Lemuel Jackson Bowden (1815–1864), Senator – Virginia; represented Virginia during the Civil War. R60/S60.
John Brademas (1927–2016), U.S. Congressman (Indiana), NYU, President and Chair, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Jacob Broom, Representative – Pennsylvania. R 95/S95 Daniel Azro Ashley Buck. Representative – Vermont. R41/S78 Charles Case (1817–1883), Representative Indiana. R67/S287. Thomas Hartley Crawford (1786–1863), Representative Pennsylvania, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Judge, no cenotaph. R39/S75. John Dawson (1762–1814), Representative – Virginia William Pope Duval (1784–1854), Representative Kentucky, R46/S4. John Forsyth (1780–1841), Representative and Senator – Georgia, Governor of Georgia, U.S. Secretary of State Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814), U.S. Vice President, congressman, and the only signer of the Declaration of Independence buried in Washington, D.C. R29/S10. William Helmick (1817–1888), Representative Ohio. R82/S348.
Daniel Hiester (1747–1804), Representative – Pennsylvania. R30/S69. Charles West Kendall (1828–1914), Representative – Nevada, California State Assemblyman, attorney Tom Lantos (1928–2008), Representative – California; Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the only Holocaust survivor elected to Congress Pat Schroeder (1940-2023), Representative - Colorado; The first woman elected to represent Colorado in Congress. Stephen Solarz (1940-2010), Representative - New York. Charles H. Upton (1812–1877), Representative – Virginia, consul to Switzerland
Senior Union Civil War officers Army Henry Washington Benham William H. Emory Andrew A. Humphreys (1810–1883) Robert B. Mitchell Alfred Pleasonton Augustus Pleasonton Albin Francisco Schoepf Joseph G. Totten
Navy John J. Almy Louis M. Goldsborough Thomas H. Patterson Richard Wainwright
Mayors and other Chief Executives of Washington, DC William Thornton (1759–1828), physician, painter, designer and first Architect of the Capitol and superintendent of the U.S. Patent Office, 5th Commissioner of the Federal City (1794-1802) William Cranch (1769-1855) - 7th Commissioner of the Federal City (1801), Chief Judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia (1806-1855). Daniel Rapine - 2nd Mayor of the City of Washington Benjamin G. Orr - 4th Mayor of the City of Washington Samuel Nicholas Smallwood (1772-1884) - 5th and 7th Mayor of the City of Washington; one of 8 men who helped establish the cemetery, signed the article incorporating it and helped finance and erect a wall around it. Roger C. Weightman (1787-1876) - 8th Mayor of the City of Washington Joseph Gales (1786-1860) - 9th Mayor of the City of Washington William Winston Seaton - 13th Mayor of the City of Washington John Walker Maury - 14th Mayor of the City of Washington John T. Towers - 15th Mayor of the City of Washington James G. Berret (1815–1901), 18th Mayor of the City of Washington. Was forced to resign at the outbreak of the Civil War Sayles Jenks Bowen (1813-1896) 20th Mayor of the City of Washington. Marion Barry (1936–2014), served four terms as mayor of Washington, DC.
National Underground Railroad Network honorees Dr. William Boyd (1820-1884) - A conductor on the underground railroad John Dean - Attorney who tested the Fugitive Slave Act David Aiken Hall - lawyer to freedom seekers, including the crew and slaves of the Pearl Hannibal Hamlin - Founder and first president of the National Freedman's Relief Association of DC, (Cousin of the Vice president of the same name)
Others Alexander Dallas Bache (1806–1867), Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey, Charter member National Academy of Sciences. R32/S194. Lucy (died 1862) and Ann Bell (died 1873), mother and sister of Daniel Bell, who attempted to free his family in the Pearl incident of 1848. Henry Washington Benham (1813–1884), Union Army general Mathew Brady (1822–1896), Civil War photographer Jacob Jennings Brown (1775–1828), commanding general U.S. Army, hero of the War of 1812 Joseph Goldsborough Bruff (1804–1889), architect and topographer John Carrington (1871–1939), Fire Chief of Washington, D.C., hero of the Knickerbocker Theatre disaster Flora Adams Darling (1840–1910), Founder of the United States Daughters of 1812 and the General Society Daughters of the Revolution 1776 Art Devlin (1879–1948), Major League Baseball Player Owen Thomas Edgar (1831–1929), longest surviving Mexican–American War veteran William H. Emory (1811–1887), Army engineer, Western explorer, Civil War general Henry Stephen Fox (1791–1846), British diplomat Mary Fuller (1888–1973), silent film actress Barbara Gittings (1932–2007), LGBT rights activist Jim Graham (1945-2017), member of the DC City Council William Montrose Graham, Jr. (1834–1916), Major General in the U.S. Army during the Spanish–American War George Hadfield, architect; superintendent of construction for the U.S. Capitol Archibald Henderson (1783–1859), the longest serving Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps Charles Frederick Henningsen (1815–1877), author, adventurer, filibuster, general David Herold (1842–1865), conspirator of the Abraham Lincoln assassination J. Edgar Hoover (1895–1972), FBI Director Robertson Howard (1847–1899), attorney, editor for West Publishing, and founder of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity Andrew A. Humphreys (1810–1883), Army Engineer, Civil War general, prominent scientist Samuel Humphreys (1778–1846), naval architect known as Chief Constructor of the Navy Adelaide Johnson (1859–1955), sculptor, social reformer Frank Kameny (1925–2011), LGBT rights activist Horatio King (1811–1897), U.S. Postmaster General Alain LeRoy Locke (1885–1954), intellectual co-founder of the Harlem Renaissance, chair of the Department of Philosophy at Howard University, and the first African American Rhodes scholar Belva Ann Lockwood (1830–1917), first woman attorney permitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court Joseph Lovell (1788–1836), Surgeon General of the U.S. Army Alexander Macomb, Jr. (1782–1841), War of 1812 Hero, Commanding General of the Army and namesake of Macomb County and Macomb Township, Michigan; Macomb, Illinois and Macomb Mountain in New York