The Cavalry Post Cemetery at Fort Meade is one of a kind. It is American's only original cavalry post cemetery that hasn't been relocated. For over 100 years, this cemetery has occupied the same pine-covered ridge south of the Fort. Its tombstones tell many stories.

    One of the graves is of William Fool Soldier, Company L, 3rd Cavalry. He gained his unusual name in a legendary act of heroism known to few. Here is that story-

    Fool Solider and ten other Teton Sioux became heroes in 1862 near present-day Mobridge. There they overtook a renegade band of Santee Sioux who had earlier captured two white women and seven children. The Tetons, all teenage volunteers for this rescue mission, demanded freedom for the captives. They eventually had to trade many personal possessions to gain release of the hostages. The young Tetons were never repaid for their losses. Because of this, they were known ever after as the "Fool Soldiers."

    Albert Knaak, a sergeant and Swiss immigrant, was buried there in 1897. It was not until years later Fort historians rediscovered that Knaak was a recipient of the country's highest military honor. Knaak then received a new tombstone, which listed his Congressional Medal of Honor.

    Further on in the cemetery is a nine-foot-tall monument erected by the hard-drinking enlistees of Troop D, 8th Cavalry. It honors two of their group who, legend has it, died after drinking too much wood alcohol while on patrol.

    Another grave, marked simply "Laundress," is believed to belong to "Ma' Nash. She had been connected with the laundry business of one fort or another for years, and had been married more than once. "Ma" Nash seemed ordinary enough except she wore a veil and had insisted that when her time came, she be buried without a fuss. Death came in 1879. People may have wondered what to put on the gravestone, for it turned out that "Ma" Nash was really a man!

10/01/03