36 Nebraskaland • April 2023
ere it not for happenstance, we might know little
about Lt. Gabriel Field. When John "Jack" Rathjen
uncovered a portion of his headstone while plowing
a crop fi eld in 1954, it led to the exhumation of six
graves, including Field's, north of where Fort Atkinson, the
fi rst U.S. military fort in what was to become Nebraska, had
once stood.
In the years that followed, historians, both professionals
and amateurs, searched through military and genealogical
records trying to answer the obvious question: Who was
Gabriel Field? They uncovered many details about the life
and military career of Field, the soldier who helped build Fort
Atkinson and met his untimely death there in 1823 that, were
it not for a farmer's plow, might remain footnotes in history.
On April 16, the 200th anniversary of his death, Field will
return to Fort Atkinson, where his remains will be reburied in
the Monument to the Deceased, an event that will fulfi ll the
wishes of the man who found his headstone.
The Soldier
Gabriel Field was born near Louisville, Kentucky, in 1794 or
1795, according to research by Gayle Carlson, an archeologist
By Eric Fowler
W
A Soldier Returns to
Lt. Gabriel Field died at Fort Atkinson in 1823. Nebraska
History archeologists identifi ed his remains and
commissioned a facial reconstruction based on cranial
structure. HISTORY NEBRASKA
