The "burying ground" was first used by
emigrants traveling on the Butterfield Stage road who camped at a
spring, which was later called "Harkins' Spring," just north
of the Middle Boggy River (today known as the Muddy Boggy).
During the Civil War, Confederate forces kept an
outpost camp at the spring to guard the route to Boggy Depot, which lay
some 15 miles to the southwest. In the winter of 1862, Colonel C.L.
Dawson's 19th Arkansas Infantry was assigned to help in the building of
an earthen works at Fort McCulloch.
Enroute from Ft. Smith, AR, to Fort McCulloch measles
swept through the regiment & some of the men were forced to stop at
the Confederate camp at Middle Boggy. It was here that many of those men
died. They were buried in the small cemetery on the north side of the
Middle Boggy River. Crude sandstone markers inscribed with the soldier's
name, date of death, & the letters "C.S.A.," were placed
on the graves.
Local legend says that in 1872, when the MK&T
railroad laid new tracks through the area, they crossed a portion of the
old cemetery, destroying several of the Confederate graves.
In 1988, through research at the National Archives,
members of the Atoka County Historical Society identified several of the
soldiers buried there & new headstones were placed along side the
old. Research continues in the effort to identify all of the soldiers
who are buried here. It is the only designated Confederate Cemetery in
the state of Oklahoma. |