Fort Bayard National Cemetery

Fort Bayard National Cemetery

Fort Bayard National Cemetery
Details
Established	1866
Location	Fort Bayard, New Mexico
Country	United States
Type	United States National Cemetery
Size	18.8 acres (7.6 ha)
No. of graves	6,000 (as 2014)

Fort Bayard National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery in the Fort Bayard Historic District, near Silver City, New Mexico. It encompasses 18.8 acres (7.6 ha), and as of the end of 2005, had 3,732 interments. It is one of two national cemeteries in New Mexico (the other being Santa Fe), and is administered by Santa Fe National Cemetery.

Fort Bayard was established as a United States Army installation in 1866 to protect miners and other settlers in the area along the Apache Trail. The first interment in the cemetery was made the same year the post was founded. The fort was named after Brigadier General George Dashiell Bayard, who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862. Fifteen square miles of land were set aside as the Fort Bayard Military Reservation by presidential order in 1869. In 1886, then-Second Lieutenant John Pershing arrived at Fort Bayard and oversaw the installation of a heliograph, linking the fort to an Army communications network from Arizona to Texas.

Fort Bayard was one of many installations throughout the Southwest that was garrisoned by the so-called Buffalo Soldiers. Company B of the 25th United States Colored Infantry Regiment established the post, and they were joined by other black units, including troops from the 9th Cavalry Regiment. Corporal Clinton Greaves, stationed at Fort Bayard with C Company, 9th Cavalry Regiment, received the Medal of Honor for his actions against Apache raiders on January 24, 1877. A monument to the Buffalo Soldiers was erected on the old parade field of Fort Bayard in 1992.