Fort Smith National Cemetery is unique in that it is one of few such burial grounds at which Union and Confederate soldiers are buried side by side.
Established well before the Civil War, the cemetery contains the graves of soldiers and family members who served at Fort Smith during the antebellum era as well as during the Civil War. Among the soldiers buried here are those killed in the 1864 Battle of Massard Prairie and attack on Fort Smith.
A walk through the Civil War section of the cemetery reveals numerous graves with both the rounded tops designating Union soldiers and the angled tops for Confederate veterans. The cemetery also contains the grave of Confederate General Richard C. Gatlin.
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