The Droke Family Burial Ground (3BE655): The Civil War, Civilian Dead, and Wartime Exigencies

The Droke Family Burial Ground in Bentonville, Arkansas, was explored archaeologically in 2000, resulting in the discovery of just three graves. Although a slight data set, the graves’ material culture, location, and time range combine to offer enormous insight into key historical events and cultural trends of the mid-nineteenth century. Although two major nineteenth-century phenomena, the Beautification of Death Movement and the Upland South Cemetery tradition, were potential influences in its creation, the expedient founding of the burial ground and its abrupt abandonment was likely due to a third force – the upheaval of the Civil War.