Golden Thread United States National Cemeteries

Fort Gibson National Cemetery, Oklahoma
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Until very recently, the National Cemetery at Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, was the only one in the state, but the pressing need for the WWII Greatest Generation and subsequent veterans of Vietnam to the present Gulf Wars have resulted in others. The original dates to the period Oklahoma was Indian Territory and Fort Gibson was the principal military post there. Until it was expanded to accommodate more recent veterans, it remained a rather small cemetery although containing the graves of Indian Wars and Civil War soldiers who had been relocated from scattered locations all over the territory. At the center of the oldest part Officers' Circle surrounds a flagpole; the oldest graves are of two infantry lieutenants who died in accidents in the pre-Civil War period, one who drowned while attempting to ford a creek during a flood. The two graves pictured here are of two of the more notable persons buried in Officers Circle:

Major Joel H. Elliott was second-in-command of Lt. Col. George A. Custer's 7th Cavalry on the morning of Nov. 27, 1867, when it attacked the sleeping village of Cheyenne "peace chief" Black Kettle in the Battle of the Washita in what is now far western Oklahoma. During the fight Elliott led approximately twenty men away from the village chasing a band of fleeing Indians when he was hit by a counterattack that overwhelmed his small party, killing all. Custer's failure to find Elliott led to recriminations that echoed all the way to the Little Big Horn nine years later. Two weeks after the battle the badly mutilated bodies were discovered in a "last stand" circle; Elliott's was finally moved to the National Cemetery.

The grave below is even older and is that of the Indian wife of later general and president of the Republic of Texas and governor and senator of the State of Texas, Sam Houston. In the early 1830's, however, all that lay in the future for the former brief governor of Tennessee who was living with the Cherokee Indians in the vicinity of Fort Gibson; known by them alternately as The Raven or less flatteringly as Big Drunk, Sam took Talihina as his common-law-wife. She was the daughter of a local Cherokee chief and little is known about her other than that she died before Houston's coming to Texas in 1835 at the behest of his mentor, President Andrew Jackson.

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There is a cemetery overlooking Fort Meade (just outside of Sturgis, SD) that has a number of 7th Cavalry troopers buried in it with at least one of them being a MOH recipient. This is also the post where Commanche (the sole survivor of Custer's Last Stand) lived out his years and had the free run of the post.
 
Gettysburg National Cemetery, Pennsylvania
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Here is a better representation of Gettysburg, though the photographs were taken on a cloudy late afternoon/evening. The graves from the actual battle are arranged in a semicircle around the National Monument seen here. During the delivery of the Gettysburg Address and dedication on November 19, 1863, the speakers' platform sat on the same spot as the monument which was erected in 1869.

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Below is another view taken from the back side of the monument.

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Since Cemetery Hill was a prominent feature of the battlefield, cannon and markers describing the action here are included within the boundaries of the cemetery proper. In the background across the fence can be seen the town's Evergreen Cemetery.

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Below, another view of the Masonic Memorial.

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The grave below is even older and is that of the Indian wife of later general and president of the Republic of Texas and governor and senator of the State of Texas, Sam Houston. In the early 1830's, however, all that lay in the future for the former brief governor of Tennessee who was living with the Cherokee Indians in the vicinity of Fort Gibson; known by them alternately as The Raven or less flatteringly as Big Drunk, Sam took Talihina as his common-law-wife. She was the daughter of a local Cherokee chief and little is known about her other than that she died before Houston's coming to Texas in 1835 at the behest of his mentor, President Andrew Jackson.

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Excellent, James!
 
Port Hudson National Cemetery
It was sprinkling on and off,mostly on,the entire time I was there so it was hard to get many or good pictures. The cemetery is in an industrial area and kinda off the beaten path. Don't imagine that it gets a lotta visitors. I had it all to myself from 4-5pm,1/13/2017 and the weather made it all the more solemn. Lotta USCT troops buried there.

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Camp Butler National Cemetery

Address:
5063 Camp Butler Road
Springfield, IL 62707-9722


Phone: 217-492-4070

Cemetery Map

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HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Camp Butler National Cemetery is located in Sangamon County near Riverton, Ill., and occupies a portion of what was the second-largest military training camp in Illinois during the Civil War.

Soon after the firing on Fort Sumter in 1861, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for troops to defend the Union. Each state struggled to fulfill the president’s request but found the available men woefully unprepared for the rigors of war. The obvious solution, to federal officials, was to establish facilities for the receipt and training of war recruits. In 1861, the War Department dispatched General William Tecumseh Sherman to Springfield, Ill., to select a site for a military training camp. Illinois Governor Richard Yates tasked the state treasurer, William Butler, with assisting the general. The men found an ideal location six miles outside of Springfield with a high ground for camping purposes and a lower, more-level area for drills and training, as well as space for a cemetery. General Sherman was pleased with the site and named it Camp Butler to honor his companion.

The first troops arrived at Camp Butler in August 1861 and by the end of the month, 5,000 men occupied the camp. As the war progressed, additional uses were found for the grounds, including a prisoner of war camp. In February 1862, approximately 2,000 Confederate soldiers captured when Fort Donelson was surrendered, arrived at Camp Butler. As the POWs arrived–from all 11 southern states except Florida—they were put to work constructing a stockade and hospital. The hastily constructed barracks were inadequate and poorly constructed. Sanitation facilities were primitive and the daily ration of food often consisted of little more than hard biscuits and a cup of thin coffee. Almost immediately, the POWs began to die at a rapid rate. The heat of the summer combined with the severe winter cold, as well as diseases such as smallpox, typhus and pneumonia, decimated the prisoner population. Roughly 700 POWs died in the smallpox epidemic of summer 1862.

Along with soldiers who fought for both the Union and Confederate sides during the Civil War, veterans who lost their lives in the Spanish-American War, the two World Wars, the Korea War and the Vietnam War are also buried at Camp Butler National Cemetery. Camp Butler was the final resting place of many remains returned from overseas following World War II. Camp Butler National Cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997


NOTABLE PERSONS:


Medal of Honor Recipients:
Seaman John H. Catherwood, (Philippine Insurrection), U.S. Navy. Basilan, Philippine Islands, Sept. 24, 1911 (Section F, Grave 1)


Others:
Colonel Otis B. Duncan. Colonel Duncan is a Springfield, Ill., native and was the highest ranking African-American officer during World War I. He is buried in Section 3, grave 835.
 

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Second question, my dad died this year and dad severed overseas in World War Two. Should I bother to have one those government bronze veteran plaques put on his grave?
Sorry to hear about your Dad :frown:....I would get the bronze plaque. My Dad passed in 2000 (Korea 1951-1952) and one of my first phone calls was to the VA to order it. They look pretty sharp.
 
Has anyone considered being buried in a National Cemetery? I am eligible but not sure I want to be buried there. We have one at Fort Custer Michigan and it is a nice place. Second question, my dad died this year and dad severed overseas in World War Two. Should I bother to have one those government bronze veteran plaques put on his grave?
I am also eligible and would have liked to have been interred at Custer National Cemetery here in Montana. As of January 1978 it is closed to new reservations. Pity...it is absolutely beautiful and very quiet there. The only sound being that of the wind.
 
The bottom one is especially nice, showing the hillside terracing.
 
Danville National Cemetery, Danville, Kentucky
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This small cemetery only contains about three hundred graves or fewer and is actually only a large section of the town cemetery at Danville, Kentucky. Adjacent to it is an even smaller plot containing about sixty Confederate graves.

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Since these, or at least the majority of them, all seem to be identified, it may be inferred that they and the adjoining Confederates likely died in the several hospitals established in the town following the nearby Battle of Perryville, October 8, 1862. Interestingly, unlike the larger National Cemeteries, this one is closed and has been since the war to all but Civil War dead.

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Marietta National Cemetery, Georgia
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The Marietta, Georgia, National Cemetery, like that at Winchester, was created to hold the graves of those killed on nearby battlefields, in this case those of Sherman's Atlanta Campaign of 1864. In downtown Marietta, it is not located on a field of battle, though it is near those of nearby Kennesaw Mountain and Peachtree Creek. Also like Winchester, it became the repository for various state monuments like that of Wisconsin below.

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Chattanooga National Cemetery, Tennessee
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The cemetery at Chattanooga, Tennessee was originally created to contain the graves who fell in the various battles in and around the town and nearby Chickamauga, Georgia, but has recently been greatly expanded in order to accommodate veterans of much more recent conflicts. Probably the most famous group of graves is that above of several members of the famous Andrews Railroad Raid or Great Locomotive Chase, before which stands a monument topped by a model of the locomotive General. Since part of this ground figured in the Battle of Orchard Knob, Nov. 23, 1863, it too contains unit markers like that of one of the brigades of Sheridan's Division below. Notice on the horizon the profile of Lookout Mountain, scene of the battle of that name which occurred the following day, Nov. 24, 1863.

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Shiloh National Cemetery, Tennessee
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Another relatively small cemetery that seems full and therefore hopefully beyond enlarging is that completely surrounded by Shiloh National Military Park, Tennessee. It is located exactly where Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River once was, so includes ground that formed part of Grant's Last Line of April 6, 1862; above, a marker indicates the small cabin that temporarily sheltered the general before he abandoned it for use as a field hospital.

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Gettysburg National Cemetery, Pennsylvania
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No survey of Civil War-era U. S. National Cemeteries can omit that at Gettysburg; unfortunately, this view of the gatehouse to the City Cemetery which featured in the battle there is as close as I can come! Therefore I appeal to someone who has visited more recently for photos, preferably of the U. S. Monument at its center or the Gettysburg Address Monument. Below, just outside the cemetery stands the Masonic Monument featuring the mortally wounded Brig. Gen. Lewis Armistead.

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This is a helluva thread. What a great idea. I really appreciate the photo of the Marietta cemetery. I visited it many times when we lived in Atlanta.
 
U. S. National Cemetery, Nancy, Kentucky
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The United States National Cemetery at Nancy, Kentucky, (formerly known as Logan's Crossroads) was created to contain Union dead from the battle variously known as Fishing Creek, Logan's Crossroads, or Mill Springs, fought between the forces of then-Brig. Gen. George H. Thomas and Brig. Gen. George Crittenden, a victory which secured the state for the Union in January, 1862. Like so many others, the cemetery has been available to the veterans of all subsequent wars so that only a portion of those who lie here are Civil War dead.

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