National Register Listing

Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery

Within Fort Leavenworth military reservation, Fort Leavenworth, KS

The Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery is significant because of its association with the Civil War and for landscape design. The cemetery is also significant beyond the Civil War era, as it includes the remains of veterans associated with many wars and every branch of service who had served their country throughout its history.

A variety of ways was considered to end the period of significance. Since the only contributing resources were constructed many years ago, and a reasonable date could not be defined to end the period, the date of 1948 (50 years ago) was used.

Though associated in many respects with events of the Civil War period, the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery was not, strictly speaking, a battlefield cemetery as were many of the first national cemeteries established in Virginia, Maryland, and Kentucky. The history of the national cemetery at Fort Leavenworth is one that encompasses not only the Civil War period but also the more distant past in connection with the growth and development of Fort Leavenworth, one of the most important western military posts established by the United States.

The initial need for the establishment of a southwestern frontier post was dictated in part by the emergence of Mexico as an independent nation in 1821. That country's need for merchandise opened up the great overland trade routes of the Southwest. These routes crossed the ancestral homes of the Plains Indians, which is the collective name for the many tribes who had freely roamed the endless prairies of the West for centuries. As more and more white pioneers poured into their lands, the Indians' resentment and hatred grew, resulting in the inevitable bloody conflicts. Soon these skirmishes between the Indians and the white men became so frequent that it was apparent the traders and settlers needed the help and protection of the United States government. Officials in Washington, D.C. soon responded to their plight by authorizing a series of forts to be built west of the Missouri River.

In 1827, Colonel Henry Leavenworth was directed by the War Department to select a position on the banks of the Missouri River which, in his judgment, would be best suited for a site of a permanent cantonment (quarters for the troops). Colonel Leavenworth explored the banks of the river and determined that the western shore on the Kansas side offered the most advantageous site. The area chosen on May 8, 1827, was located on the right bank of the Missouri River, some twenty-three miles above the mouth of the Kansas River. It was designated Cantonment Leavenworth and, on February 8, 1832, the name was changed to Fort Leavenworth. The post was evacuated in May 1829 and was occupied by Kickapoo Indians until it was regarrisoned in the fall of 1829. Beginning as early as 1834, the First Dragoons, organized in 1833 as the first cavalry regiment in the Army, were ordered to the Fort and acquitted themselves well in quelling Indian uprisings. When the troubles with Mexico came to a head in war during 1846 and 1847, the Fort served as an outfitting post for the troops as it did later for the California gold seekers. In 1854, when the Territory of Kansas was organized, Fort Leavenworth was named the temporary Territorial Capital and Andrew H. Reeder, the first Territorial Governor, maintained his executive headquarters there for a short period of time. Until well in the 1870s, the post served as a chief unit in the system of frontier defense, and in the 1850s and 1860s, it was the general depot from which supplies were sent to all military posts of the Rocky Mountain area. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Fort Leavenworth achieved additional importance because of its strategic location on the border of two states with opposing sympathies. In 1861, Camp Lincoln was established on the post, and thousands of volunteers were equipped and trained for the Union Army, establishing a precedent for the role the fort was to play in America's later wars.

After the organization of the Territory of Kansas in 1854, Fort Leavenworth was chosen as the site of the temporary Territorial Capital and the executive headquarters of the first governor, Andrew H. Reeder. Kansas joined the Union as a "free state” in 1861, and thousands of volunteers from the state trained at Fort Leavenworth and proudly served under their country's flag in the Union Army.
Because of its strategic value, General Sterling Price, at the head of a Confederate army, set out to capture Kansas City and the Arsenal at Fort Leavenworth in 1864. Price, however, was decisively defeated by Union troops from Fort Leavenworth, under the command of General Samuel Curtis, at the Battle of Westport, the "Gettysburg of the West."

From 1854 until the outbreak of the Civil War, Fort Leavenworth was visited by scores of men who later became famous during that conflict. Included among these were Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, Albert Sidney Johnston, J. E. B. Stuart, Horace Greeley, and Abraham Lincoln.

Life in an active frontier military post, such as Fort Leavenworth, was not easy, beset by the dangers of armed conflict with hostile Indians, and by the always-present peril of disease. The ravages of malaria, among the original garrison, necessitated the establishment of a burying ground at Fort Leavenworth as early as 1827, the year of its founding. There were, in fact, two burial sites in which interments were made until 1858. A soldiers' burying ground was located near the present site of the Commanding General's quarters, and an officers' burying ground was located near the present location of the library of the Command and General Staff College Library. In 1858, a new site described as 2 acres and 4 perches in extent, was set aside for cemetery purposes, and the remains from the two older post cemeteries were reinterred therein. The outbreak of the Civil War caused the cemetery to be utilized for the interment of Union dead and, in 1862, this area became the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery. The national cemetery was established pursuant to the Act of July 17, 1862, which stated "That the President of the United States shall have power, whenever in his opinion it shall be expedient, to purchase cemetery grounds and cause them to be properly enclosed, to be used as a national cemetery for the soldiers who shall die in the service of the country." Post cemeteries at Fort Leavenworth, as well as at Fort Scott, also in Kansas, were incorporated into the system as national cemeteries in the latter half of 1862.

An inspector's report for 1870 stated that the national cemetery contained 5.5 acres. No records showing subsequent land acquisitions are available, but a metes and bounds description dated October 1940 indicated that the cemetery contained 14.4 acres. In 1942, a 16.6-acre parcel was withdrawn from the Fort Leavenworth military reservation to provide an addition to the national cemetery. This brought the total acreage to 31.0 acres, which was confirmed by the metes and bounds description dated 1942. Public Law 682, 81* Congress, approved August 10, 1950, authorized the Secretary of the Army to expand the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery by utilizing not to exceed eight acres of federally-owned land under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Army adjoining the national cemetery. As a result of this legislation, a 4.9-acre parcel was acquired to expand the cemetery. This brought the total acreage to 35.9 acres, confirmed by a metes and bounds description dated March 1953. In the early 1960s, a land exchange took place between the Fort Leavenworth military reservation and the national cemetery. A 3.33-acre parcel was returned to the military reservation in exchange for a 3.48-acre parcel, resulting in a gain of .15 acre, bringing the total acreage of the national cemetery to 36.1 acres.

Hugh M. Fogg, a discharged private of the First Regiment, Marine Volunteers, was the first superintendent of the national cemetery. His appointment was dated November 26, 1867.

The oldest known grave in the cemetery is that of Clarinda Dale, who died on September 21, 1844. She was originally interred in the Fort Leavenworth Arsenal Cemetery and later moved to the national cemetery. She is listed as a civilian. The oldest known military grave in what is now known as the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery is that of Captain James Allen, 1 st United States Dragoons, who died on August 23, 1846.

After the Civil War, the remains of Union soldiers were transferred to the national cemetery from cemeteries in Saint Joseph, Kansas City, and Independence, Missouri, and from the cemetery on the arsenal grounds at Fort Leavenworth. Following the close of the Indian Wars, the Army had many small military posts that it no longer needed. During the period from 1885 to 1907, the Federal

The government moved nearly 2,000 remains from 24 post cemeteries to Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery. They came from Forts Dodge, Downer, Harker, Hays, Larned, and Wallace in Kansas; Forts Defiance, Goodwin, and Thomas in Arizona; Forts Bascom, Craig, Cummings, Seldon, and Union in New Mexico; Forts Garland and Lyons in Colorado; Forts Randall and Sully in South Dakota; Fort Niobrara in Nebraska; Fort Gibson in Indian Territory; Fort Washakie in Wyoming; and the cemetery at Little Big Horn River in Wyoming.

Four officers of the Seventh Cavalry Regiment who perished with General George Custer in the Battle of Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876, are buried in Section A of the national cemetery. Two of these four casualties are related to General Custer. Captain James Calhoun, interred in Grave 1489, is his brother-in-law, and Captain Thomas W. Custer, in Grave 1488, is his brother.

Buried in the officers' portion of Section A in Grave 290 is Lieutenant John L. Grattan who, in 1854, felt that Indians were cowards and that he could easily clear the Plains of them. It was this attitude that caused him to volunteer, against the better judgment of his commanding officer, to locate and bring to justice an Indian who had killed an immigrant's cow. He and twenty-eight men arrived at the Indian village and angrily demanded that the chiefs turn over the man to him for punishment. It will never be known whether what happened next was the fault of a nervous raw recruit or an angry, indignant warrior, but shots were exchanged and soon Grattan and all his men lay dead. News of this massacre spread quickly across the nation, and demands were made for retribution. Troops under the command of Colonel William L. Harney, known for his hatred of Indians, were ordered to seek out the responsible Indians. In pursuit of the guilty parties, Harney encountered a group of Sioux warriors, women and children. He had scarcely commanded them to give up the Indians he was after when he ordered a charge into the group. Over 86 Indians were killed in this attack; unfortunately, there was no evidence that the wanted Indians were among the dead. Grattan and his men were initially interred at the post cemetery in Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and later reinterred in the Fort McPherson National Cemetery in Nebraska, where a monument was erected in memory of the "Grattan Massacre." Subsequently, Lieutenant Grattan's remains were transferred to the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery.

Near the front of the cemetery is a marker honoring ten U. S. Army soldiers and an unknown citizen guide." Their remains had been removed from Fort Wallace during the 1880s. They were members of a party led by Lieutenant Lyman S. Kidder and were on a mission to locate Lt. Colonel George Custer and warn him to "beware of hostiles" in the area. They were killed at Beaver Creek, Kansas, on July 1, 1867, in what historians now refer to as the Kidder Massacre. In 1987, a Wichita newspaper photographer proved that the unknown citizen guide was in fact Red Bead, an Indian scout.

On July 1, 1987, a ceremony was held to dedicate a plaque giving appropriate recognition to the Indian scout. Chief Glittering Rainbow, great-grandson of Geronimo, accepted the burial flag on behalf of the Mid-America Indian Center in Wichita.

Other notable burials include Hiram Rich and four members of his family officers portion of Section A, Grave 293). Rich was the first post sutler at Fort Leavenworth in 1841. Private John Urquhart, one of the soldiers who fought in the first Civil War battle at Fort Sumter, is buried here (Section F, Grave 63). Also interred here (Section D, Grave 738) is an Indian guide of the convoys to Laramie during the 1850s, Shango Hango. Virginia Hastings, the first Girl Scout leader on the post, is buried in Section F, Grave 403.

Seven Confederate soldiers who died at Fort Leavenworth while prisoners of war are buried in Section D of the cemetery. All are known and the graves are marked.

There are nine Medal of Honor recipients buried in the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery, and one recipient is memorialized in the Memorial Section. Their graves are marked with a special headstone inscribed with an enlarged gold-leafed replica of the medal of the awarding service and the words "MEDAL OF HONOR."

Local significance of the site:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1999.