Fort McPherson National Cemetery, Military cemetery in Lincoln County, Nebraska
Fort McPherson National Cemetery is a federal military burial ground in Lincoln County, Nebraska, located near the town of Maxwell. The grounds are laid out in rows of white headstones on open land, with a small number of monuments and an administration building near the entrance.
The cemetery was established in 1863 to bury soldiers who died along the Oregon and California Trails. Over the following decades, remains from more than 20 deactivated frontier forts across the region were moved here.
The cemetery holds graves of Buffalo Soldiers from the 9th and 10th Cavalry, African American men who served on the western frontier after the Civil War. Their white headstones stand in the same rows as all the others, with no visible distinction from the rest.
The cemetery is open daily from sunrise to sunset, and signs throughout the grounds help with orientation. Visiting on a weekday outside summer tends to be quieter and allows more time to walk the rows at your own pace.
A marble monument on the grounds marks the graves of soldiers who died in the Grattan Fight of 1854, a clash between a small US Army detachment and Lakota warriors. It is one of the earliest armed confrontations of its kind in the region and remains largely unknown outside specialist circles.
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