FORT GIBSON NATIONAL CEMETERY

** I'm not sure why some pics didn't post, but if you click on one pic, it will enlarge the pic and give you a strip of all of the pictures.

Designated a national cemetery in 1868, the old burial ground contains graves dating back to the establishment of Fort Gibson in1824. Disease was a major problem in frontier life and claimed many lives over the years.   Other burials date from the Civil War and Indian wars. 1,967 of the graves contain the remains of unknown individuals, most of them American soldiers. The cemetery remains active and contains the graves of more than 19,000 people, most of them men and women who served in the U.S. Military. 

  

There is something so peaceful, such beauty, in the long rows of white markers.  How sad our freedoms cost us so dearly -- how grateful there are those that will step up to the call.  God Bless 'em All!

From the Bivouac of the Dead – Theodore O’Hara

The muffled drum’s sad roll has beat

The soldier’s last tattoo;

No more on life’s parade shall meet

That brave and fallen few.

On Fame’s eternal camping-ground

Their silent tents are spread,

And Glory guards, with solemn round,

The bivouac of the dead.