Arlington National Cemetery is on the grounds of the Custis family's Arlington House estate in Arlington county, Virginia. The home had been the property of George Washington Parke Custis, a grandson of Martha Washington. He granted his daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, a life estate, with the property to pass to her son upon her death. Mary Anna Custis was married to Robert E. Lee and George Washington Custis Lee was their eldest son.
The home was vacated by the Lees soon after the onset of the Civil War and was put in use as Army headquarters. Eventually suitable burial grounds in the D.C. area were filled with the remains of federal troops and Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs selected the proper spot for a new cemetery. The Custis estate was 1,100 acres on high ground with a view of the nation's capital.
The home was vacated by the Lees soon after the onset of the Civil War and was put in use as Army headquarters. Eventually suitable burial grounds in the D.C. area were filled with the remains of federal troops and Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs selected the proper spot for a new cemetery. The Custis estate was 1,100 acres on high ground with a view of the nation's capital.
On May 13, 1864, 21-year-old Private William Christman of Pennsylvania, who had died of peritonitis, became the first military man buried at Arlington. To ensure the house would forever be uninhabitable for the Lees, Meigs directed graves to be placed as close to the mansion as possible, and in 1866 he ordered the remains of 2,111 unknown Civil War soldiers killed on battlefields near Washington, D.C., to be placed inside a vault in the Lees’ rose garden. -- from History.comI first visited Arlington in 2006 with four members of my family. My father, who served with U.S. Army field artillery units in the Pacific and Europe during World War II, is pictured in the collage below. We were on a bus taking a tour of the cemetery. It is a fascinating, sobering and beautiful experience.
