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Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery was
started during the Civil War to intern the dead Union soldiers and
has been doing so ever since then. It is located in Arlington
County, Virginia, and the grounds were the former estate of Mary
Anna Curtis Lee, granddaughter of Martha Washington, and Robert E.
Lee. Lieing across the Potomac River from Washington D. C., it is
close by the Pentagon, and over 300,000 of our nation's heroes lie
on 624 acres of beautiful grassy lands with interspersed trees. The
brave souls that have passed on since the Irag and Afghanistan
conflicts are there and will continue to be buried there, as long as
needed. This cemetery and the United States Soldiers' and Airmen's
Home National Cemetery are taken care of by the Department of the
Army, and the other National Cemeteries are handled by the
Department of Veteran's Affairs or the National Park Service. The
Arlington House property, formerly belonging to Robert and Mary
Anna, is now taken care of by the National Park Service in honor of
Robert E. Lee. It was the stepson of George Washington, George
Washington Parke Curtis, that bought the land in 1802, and started
building the beautiful mansion. It became Lee's by marriage after
her father was gone, since Lee was a graduate of West Point and in
the U.S. Army. When Fort Sumter surrendered, Lincoln offered the
Federal army's command, but he declined waiting to see how the state
would decide. When it seceded, he resigned his commission and was
given the command of the Confederate Army. Since he did this, Lee
was considered unloyal and his estate was confiscated and made into
a graveyard for the Union dead. These cemeteries grew out of the
concern of the army's commanders for their dead and as the bodies
began to overflow the hospitals and cemeteries in and near the
capitol, Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs asked if 200
acres of the Lee land could be used for burials in 1864. The
government bought the land for $26,000 and started burying their
dead heroes in that year. However, in 1877, Custis Lee, heir to the
estate, sued the government saying the land belonged to his family
and the Supreme Court agreed. He was given the land but then sold it
back to the government for $150,000. Before burial at the Arlington,
military interns were sent to the US Soldier's National Cemetery in
the capitol, although the grounds were filling quickly. The land
surrounding the mansion of Arlington House was soon put to good use,
although they had been burying the deceased before Meigs mentioned
anything about burying the dead there. On the south part of the
property, the land was used for an encampment of freed slaves, and
over 1100 freedmen were given land at the Freedman's Village. They
farmed the land during and after the Civil War, but were moved in
1890 when the estate was again bought by the government and devoted
to becoming a national military installation. In 1968, President
Lyndon B. Johnson oversaw the first national Memorial Day ceremony
in Arlington. The cemetery is divided into 70 different sections,
and the southeast area is reserved presently for future use. Section
60, in that area is now the area where the heroes killed in Irag and
Afghanistan. The Arlington received 12 more acres in 2005, from the
National Park Service, as well as 17 acres from the Department of
Defense, that had been part of Fort Myer, and another 44 acres that
held the annex of the Navy. The nurses section, 21, is where most of
the nurses that gave their lives to the defense of our country, and
the Nurses Memorial is here. There is a Confederate section that
holds the Confederate Memorial and the graves of the Confederate
dead. Section 27, holds the graves of over 3800 slaves, that were
called "contrabands" during the Civil War and their headstones have
either civilian or citizen written on them. On the top of a hill
looking out over Washington D.C., the Tomb of the Unknowns rests,
which is also called the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Undoubtedly
one of the most popular sites in the cemetery, the tomb is
constructed of Yule marble that was quarried in Colorado, and is
made up of seven pieces, weighing 79 short tons, finished and opened
on April 9, 1932. It was first named the "Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier", however, later there were more military heroes interned
there, and it started being known as the "Tomb of the Unknowns". It
was never officially changed, but it does hold the remains of an
unknown soldier from World War I, that was interned in 1921, by
President Warren G. Harding; one from World War II, in 1958 and
President Dwight D Eisenhower presided; another from the Korean War,
on the same day; and the unknown from the Viet Nam War interred in
1984, with President Ronald Reagan presiding, but it was later
raised and identified as the remains of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael J.
Blassie, whose family brought him home to St. Louis, Missouri. The
empty crypt at the Tomb would remain that way. This Tomb is always
guaded by a member of the army's 3rd Infantry Regiment, called "the
Old Guard", and has been since 1948.
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Arlington House - The Robert E. Lee Memorial
Near the town of Ludlow,
Virginia, the Buttermilk
Falls The Arlington House is also the
Robert E. Lee Memorial, and has been called the Curtis-Lee Mansion;
and is a beautiful Greek Revival mansion that was built in 1804, on
the banks of the Potomac River just across from the National Mall in
Washington D. C. It was here during the Civil War, that the decision
was made to create a national cemetery, wanting to make sure that
Lee would never be able to return, but years later, made a national
monument to that great military leader. Robert E. Lee was an
extraordinary military leader, because he had been asked to lead the
Union Army and then later became the leader of the Confederate Army,
winning many great battles for his state. The mansion was built on
1100 acres by George Washington Curtis, the step-grandson of George
Washington and one of the wealthiest men in the county. His father,
John Parke Curtis bought the property in 1778, and George Curtis
decided to build his house on the land in 1802, after his
grandmother, Martha Washington died. He had intended on naming the
property "Mount Washington", but his family talked him into naming
it after their family homestead in eastern Virginia. The English
architect, George Hadfield, that had designed the US Capitol, also
worked on the design of the Arlington House. The two wings on the
north and south were completed in the years 1802-1804, and the main
section, with portico which were 140 long, were completed in 1817.
There are two kitchens, one for summer and the other for winter, and
columns that measured 5 feet in circumference. The home was the
center of activity during that era since Curtis was the most
prominent person in Alexandria County and many famous personages
visited there including marquis de La Fayette and Gilbert du Motier.
His only child making it to adulthood was Mary Anna Randolph Curtis,
and at one time she was dating Sam Houston, but Robert E. Lee, a
distant cousin, was often in Arlington visiting, and after he
graduated from West Point, he married Ms. Curtis in 1831. They lived
in the mansion for over 30 years, having seven children there and
raising them. Although Robert did travel to many military posts,
they were at the home in between and whenever possible. When
the Civil War broke out, Lee had been in the U.S. Army for 35 years,
and though he did disapprove of the state's secession, he knew that
he couldn't disregard his fellow Virginians in the ensuing war. He
was offered the command of the army, but resigned instead and went
to Richmond to enlist and became the Virginia Provisional Army. It
wasn't long before he was inducted into the Confederate States Army
and promoted to general. He talked his wife into leaving the home,
taking with her some valuables and neither was to ever go back to
their beloved homestead. The Federal Army soon took over the
property making it a headquarters for officers that were involved in
the construction of forts that would defend the capitol, and many of
the Lee's possessions were moved to the Patent Office for
preservation. A few of these magnificent items were stolen and taken
elsewhere, as were some of the heirlooms of Mount Vernon.
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