DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the site of Fort Clark's original post cemetery. Now, the ground you're standing near — or passing by — has held more than its share of silence. This patch of earth in Kinney County served as Fort Clark's Military Cemetery from 1856 all the way to the 1880s.
That's a long stretch of frontier time, and this ground received every kind of soul a frontier post could lose. One of the first burials was a young officer — 2nd Lieutenant Brayton C. Ives, 1st Infantry, a West Point graduate.
He died right here at the post on June 27, 1857. Whatever hopes came with him out of West Point ended on that date, in that place. After him came dozens more.
Military personnel. Dependents. Civilians.
The kinds of people whose names don't always make the history books but whose lives and deaths shaped what this post was. Then there's Private Peter Corrigan, 4th U.S. Cavalry.
His story carries a particular weight. He was the only casualty of Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie's raid into Remolino, Mexico — one man lost out of that entire operation — and he was laid to rest here in May of 1873.
One man. Sometimes that's how history counts the cost. By 1880, Fort Clark opened a second cemetery south of the main post, and this original ground went quiet.
Inactive, the records say. But quiet isn't the same as forgotten. In 1946, all the burials here were reinterred at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.
Every last one, moved to a place where they could be properly kept. What remained behind was the space itself — enclosed still by a historic limestone wall, just as it was. Some of the original headstones have been preserved.
So the names are gone to San Antonio, but the limestone wall still stands. That wall has been here longer than most of Texas's living memory, quietly marking where the first soldiers of Fort Clark were laid down into the earth. Some stories don't need a body to hold their ground.
What the marker says
This ground was Fort Clark's Military Cemetery from 1856 to the 1880s. One of the first burials was 2nd Lt. Brayton C. Ives, 1st inf., a West Point graduate who died here on June 27, 1857. Succeeding burials included dozens of military personnel, dependents, and civilians. Pvt. Peter Corrigan, 4th U. S. Cav., the only casualty of Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie's raid to Remolino, Mexico, was laid to rest here in may 1873. In 1880, a second cemetery opened south of the main post and this site became inactive. All burials here were reinterred at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in 1946. A historic limestone wall encloses the space. Some original headstones have been preserved.