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The first cemetery at Fort Smith may have been established about 1819.  About 1838 this original post cemetery was rehabilitated and enlarged.  In 1867 the old post burial ground became a national cemetery and consisted of five acres enclosed by a white-washed fence.  Many military dead were removed from private cemeteries and battlefields and buried there.  When Fort Smith closed in 1871, President Grant ordered the cemetery to be reactivated by the War Department and remain open for future military burials.  The once small cemetery has been expanded and today totals 22.3 acres.  On May 29, 1999, the cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Martin & Zelda Capehart Genealogy Website
Cemetery & Grave Marker Photos
Burton/Wigant
Fort Smith National Cemetery
Fort Smith, AR
Fort Smith, Arkansas is the county seat of Sebastian County and is located near the Oklahoma border.  It was named for General Thomas Smith.  The town grew up around the area's first frontier fort established in 1817 to promote peace and head off conflict between the Osage and the Cherokee Indian tribes, who were forced here from their homeland in the East.  Remains of the first fort can be seen on a bluff overlooking the Arkansas River, which lies within the Fort Smith National Historic Site.
The Intersection & Cemetery Entrance
NOTE:  We visited the cemetery on Dec. 27, 2006, the day after President Gerald R. Ford passed away and took the photos shown here.  It was a moving experience to stand in that cemetery with the flag at half mast and view row upon row of white gravemarkers, marking the burial place of men and women who served their country in a way many of us will never be able to know or fully comprehend.  He would have understood, for he was a wartime Navy Reserve veteran.
Entrance
Row upon row of grave markers with flag at half mast in the background
Edward Wigant
Pvt. 164 Depot Brigade, WWI
b. 10 May 1897 -- d. 13 Feb. 1947
Internment 21 Feb. 1947
Son of Thomas F. & Clarissa (Burton) Wigant
I'm standing by Edward's grave marker
Edward was my 2nd cousin, nephew of my Grandmother Sara Elizabeth (Burton) Capehart
X
The red X is above Edward's gravemarker
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