What does 'post cemetery' mean?
I cannot figure out what 'post cemetery' means in the following site:
Fort Mackinac Post Cemetery is located approximately a half mile north of Fort Mackinac, near Skull Cave, a burial site for American Indians. The earliest interments in the post cemetery likely date to the mid-1820's.
https://www.cem.va.gov/cems/lots/fort_mackinac.asp
Solution 1:
I would guess it is called a "post cemetery" because it is a cemetery associated with a military post (Fort Mackinac).
Definition 3 of post2 in the Collins English Dictionary:
a permanent military establishment
From the Fort Mackinac website:
Today, visitors to Fort Mackinac experience a wonderfully complete example of a late 19th century American military post.
("Where’s The Rest of Fort Mackinac?", posted December 15, 2017)
Exhibits
[...]
Military Medicine at Mackinac: 1780-1895 in the Post Hospital explores medical care at the fort and changing nineteenth-century medical practices.
(Fort Mackinac | Mackinac State Historic Parks)
Solution 2:
People die at Army Posts, and there's got to be a place to bury them...
Just as the cemetery attached to a church is named after the church it's attached to, the cemetery attached to an Army Post is named after the Army Post it's attached to. In this case, the Post is named Fort Mackinac. Thus... the Fort Mackinac Post Cemetery.