© 2020 A&E Television Networks, LLC. At first, most of the burials were made some distance from the mansion. While the family was later compensated for the estate, the Lees would never again reside on the property. Cemetery Visitation Hours: Sunrise through Sunset, Approximately 7AM - 7PM Seven Days a Week via the Schuyler Avenue Entrance.The Belleville Turnpike (Route 7) Entrance is closed.

Over three million people visit Arlington each year. The three enemy combatants died in captivity in the Washington, D.C., area, and the Geneva Conventions required proper burials. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

As Meigs recorded later, many of the officers quartered in the mansion were uncomfortable with the idea of living in the middle of a graveyard, "It was my intention to have begun the interments nearer the mansion, but opposition on the part of officers stationed at Arlington, some of whom used the mansion and who did not like to have the dead buried near them, caused the interments to be begun in the northeast corner of the grounds near Arlington road. Among the 5,000 unknowns entombed at Arlington are the unidentified remains of World War I, World War II and Korean War servicemen buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Antietam, MD-Arlington, VA, Box 6, NM-81, Entry 576. Three World War II enemy combatants are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Scattered among America’s honored dead are two Italian prisoners of war and one German prisoner of war captured during World War II. The grounds about the Mansion are admirably adapted for such a use. Copy in Arlington House archives. Copy in Arlington House archives. [28] But, as evidenced by a December 1865 letter from one of Meigs’ assistants, the location of new graves remained a very important issue to the cemetery’s creator for some time to come as he sought to further solidify the cemetery’s roots at Arlington. Begin your journey through the authentic side of the city with our collection of videos. Arlington House, the former residence of Robert E. Lee, sits on a hill overlooking the cemetery. If followed, the ruling could have required the exhumation of all of Arlington’s dead, but instead Lee’s son officially sold the property to Congress for $150,000 in 1883. In hopes of preventing such from occurring, Meigs wanted to place graves as close to the mansion as possible. The hours of office operation are: Monday - Friday, 8:00 AM - 2:00 PM This is the schedule for most days - check our calendar for early closings & holidays.
However, the Quartermaster General was not convinced that the cemetery was necessarily permanent, fearing that the end of the War might allow the Lees to resume control over Arlington and potentially remove the graves on the property. Washington, DC 20001-3719 The easiest way to get to Arlington National Cemetery is by Metro via the direct Arlington Cemetery stop on the Blue Line. Their headstones are inscribed with “citizen” or “civilian.”. Two of Kennedy’s children and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis are also buried alongside the president. as to more firmly secure the grounds known as the National Cemetery, to the Government by rendering it undesirable as a future residence or homestead. [30] They joined some 15,000 other Civil War casualties who had already been laid to rest at Arlington. As it turned out, the Lees would never return to live at Arlington again. Advancements in DNA testing may mean that all future remains will be able to be positively identified and no future interments at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier will occur. The Arlington National Cemetery is the country’s largest military cemetery and serves as the final resting place for more than 400,000 military veterans and their immediate family from the fronts of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as World Wars I and II, the Korean conflict, Vietnam, the Cold War and America’s Civil War. 3. National Archives, RG 92: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Records relating to functions: Cemeterial, 1829-1929. The cemetery is built into a hill and requires extensive walking if you choose to skip the shuttle. Wander the... Spring makes for a great time to visit Washington, DC, as the city comes alive with cherry blossom fever. 5. [29] Letter, Col. J.M. Days after resigning from the U.S. Army … Doing so, he felt, would make the house uninhabitable. After Mary Lee, confined to a wheelchair, sent a representative instead of appearing personally to pay a $92.07 tax bill, the government seized the property in 1864. Meigs did not have to look very far. Although the first military burial at Arlington National Cemetery didn’t occur until 1864, the burial ground holds the remains of those who fought in every war since the American Revolution. In August 1864, 26 bodies were buried along the perimeter of Mrs. Lee’s rose garden within a few yards of the mansion. With Arlington being the closest national cemetery, the men were buried there. Here you can also sign up for a bus tour that stops at various sites throughout the cemetery. Arlington is the only national cemetery to hold servicemembers from every war in U.S. history. (Bethesda, MD: Woodbine House, 2000), 23. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. This and the contraband establishment there are righteous uses of the estate of the rebel General Lee, and will never dishonor the spot made venerable by the occupation of Washington.[25]. Edwin M. Stanton, June 15, 1864. In addition to the Kennedy family, President William Howard Taft, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, world champion boxer Joe Louis, the seven Space Shuttle Challenger astronauts and the Tuskegee Airmen are also buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The same day, Stanton approved Meigs’ recommendation and instructed that part of the Arlington Estate, “not exceeding two hundred acres” be surveyed and laid out for the national cemetery.[24]. [26], Though Meigs’ initial proposal to Stanton and subsequent orders to officers at Arlington clearly spelled out the Quartermaster General’s intentions, the cemetery did not develop quite as he envisioned. A Supreme Court ruling in 1882 could have resulted in the exhumation of 17,000 graves. Edwin M. Stanton to Quartermaster Gen. Montgomery Meigs, June 15, 1864.

These special services are often attended by the President or Vice President of the United States. There have been almost 400,000 people’s remains buried at Arlington since the cemetery was founded during the Civil War. 202-789-7000 / Fax 202-789-7037, 11 Great Spring Hotel Packages in Washington, DC, Discover DC's Breweries, Distilleries & Wineries, 20+ Hot Restaurants to Try Now in Washington, DC, Free Things to Do: History & Heritage in Washington, DC, Visiting the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial in Washington, DC, Guide to Visiting Arlington National Cemetery. Below, you will find... A visit to the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial is a solemn and powerful reminder of the very human cost of war... 901 7th Street NW, 4th Floor Originally built to be a living memorial to George Washington, in 1864 the grounds were taken over by the federal government to serve as a burial site for Civil War soldiers. Each flag is planted precisely one foot in front of a grave marker and perfectly centered. Over the years, the house was also used as a plantation estate and home to 63 slaves, a military headquarters, a community for emancipated slaves and a national cemetery.

Getting to and touring Arlington National Cemetery.

Meigs likely appreciated the prediction that Americans would one day “heartily thank the initiators of this movement.” He viewed the creation of the cemetery as a means for restoring honor to the property, which he felt Lee had dishonored by resigning from the U.S. Army and leading the Confederate forces. He would never return. He was compensated $150,000 in exchange for the property, thereby ending any legal claim the Lees had on Arlington. c/o Turkey Run Park [28] James Edward Peters, Arlington National Cemetery: Shrine to America’s Heroes, 2nd ed.

There being more than a thousand interments yet to be made, the views of the Quartermaster General can now be carried out.”, To underscore the urgency and importance of burying the dead close to the house, the Assistant Quartermaster closed his letter by relaying the following story: “A brother of Genl. Arlington National Cemetery is the home of several well-known historic sites, including the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which is a tribute to unidentified fallen soldiers who fought in World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. This letter, directed to Major General D.H. Rucker, the Chief Quartermaster of Washington read, in part: “The Quartermaster General….some time ago, expressed his regret, that the interments have not been made in close proximity to the Arlington House…. General correspondence and reports relating to national and post cemeteries (“Cemetery file”), 1865-c. 1914. General correspondence and reports relating to national and post cemeteries (“Cemetery file”), 1865-c. 1914. Original at National Archives, Records of the War Department, Office of the Quartermaster General, National Cemeterial Files. Describing the hospitals, Washington journalist Noah Brooks wrote: “Maimed and wounded….
[21] Herbert Mitgang, ed. 8. According to Peters, the Lees’ decision not to pursue the title of the property was probably more influenced by Lee’s belief that to do so would heighten sectional hostilities and hamper the Reconstruction process, rather than concerns about the graves on the property. After Virginia seceded from the Union on May 23, 1861, Union troops crossed the Potomac River from the national capital and occupied the 200-acre property and house that been built by George Washington Parke Custis, Mary’s father and the step-grandson of George Washington. In 1892, soldiers killed in the Revolutionary War were reinterred from a Georgetown cemetery, and casualties from the War of 1812 have been reburied at Arlington as well. After seizing Lee’s estate, the federal government set aside acreage to be a model community for emancipated, freed and fugitive slaves. Washington, DC is full of free things to do, and many involve American history, heritage and culture. Both practically and symbolically, the possibility of Robert E. Lee and his family returning to the mansion on the hilltop at Arlington which literally looked down upon the capital city of the United States did not sit well with those in charge of creating the cemetery. 1. With Washington, D.C., teeming with dead soldiers and out of burial space, Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs formally proposed Arlington as the location of a new military cemetery. Important sites at Arlington National Cemetery. Arlington National Cemetery has been the focal point of national Memorial Day commemorations since 1868. To relieve the desperate situation, the Army started burying soldiers along the northern border of the Arlington estate, approximately one half mile from the mansion-headquarters, in May of 1864. 4. Smith Lee’s appraisal obviously alarmed the Assistant Quartermaster and undoubtedly also Meigs himself. As the Army had occupied Arlington since 1861 and the U.S. Government had legally purchased the property at public auction in January 1864, it emerged as a logical choice. 700 George Washington Memorial Parkway Whether influenced by Meigs’ efforts to make the mansion uninhabitable or not, Robert E. Lee and his wife decided not to pursue regaining the title to the mansion after the War.

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