Green-Wood Cemetery

Green-Wood Cemetery is a 478-acre cemetery in Brooklyn, founded in 1838 and now a National Historic Landmark. Its main entrance is at Fifth Avenue and 25th Street. Among its hills lie thousands of veterans, and on Battle Hill, its high ground, the Battle of Brooklyn was fought in 1776.

For Troop 23 this is where Scouts place flags on veterans' graves in May, a week before Memorial Day, a tradition since 2021. In August 2026 the troop came here for the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn. Green-Wood is about two and a half miles from our home at Our Lady of Angels, and the R train runs between the two.

The map above marks the Gothic arch of the main entrance. The troop gathers just past it, to the left.

Flags Before Memorial Day

The tradition began on Memorial Day weekend in 2021, when Troop 23 joined a Greater New York Councils service project at Green-Wood. From the next year the troop came on its own, on the Sunday a week before Memorial Day, ahead of the holiday crowds. Scouts, leaders and families walk the grounds with small American flags and set one at every veteran's grave they pass, until the flags run out.

The walk goes first to New York City's Civil War Soldiers' Monument on Battle Hill, a memorial to the Union soldiers the city sent to the war. From there it goes to the Drummer Boy, the statue of Clarence MacKenzie, a twelve-year-old drummer from Brooklyn who was killed in a drilling accident in Annapolis, Maryland, in June 1861, the first Brooklyn casualty of the war. Scouts salute there and place flags on the soldiers' headstones around him, then work their way back toward the entrance. Green-Wood's volunteers have identified more than 5,000 Civil War veterans buried in the cemetery, far more than one morning's flags can reach.

The walk takes a morning. One year it rained the whole time, another it was hot, so Scouts come ready for both. Families are welcome, and in 2025 Cub Scouts came along too. In 2026 the walk was called off so that the troop could turn out in full for the Memorial Day Parade the next morning.

Each year has its own page: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026.

Battle of Brooklyn 250

The Battle of Brooklyn was fought on August 27, 1776, across ground that is now Green-Wood, and the fiercest fighting here was on Battle Hill. For the 250th anniversary, on Sunday, August 23, 2026, the troop came expecting to volunteer at a council program. That program did not go ahead, so the troop spent the morning as visitors: walking the tents where interpreters talked about 1776, sitting in on a talk, and then carrying flags in the parade up to Battle Hill for the anniversary ceremony.

The day, and the history behind it, is on the Battle of Brooklyn 250 at Green-Wood page.

Getting There

Green-Wood's main entrance is at Fifth Avenue and 25th Street, 500 25th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11232, under the Gothic arch. Admission is free. By subway, take the R train to 25th Street and walk one block east, uphill, to the gate. Visitors may park for free inside the cemetery, on the right-hand side of the road and never on the grass. From Our Lady of Angels it is about two and a half miles.

When the troop meets here, it gathers just inside, past the arch and to the left.

Green-Wood's own visitor information, with hours and a map: green-wood.com. Troop 23 is a Scouts BSA troop in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and every family starts the same way: come to a Monday meeting.