Arlington National Cemetery and the Civil War- Series

After Virginia seceded from the United States, Colonel Robert E. Lee declined an offer from the Lincoln administration to command all Union armies and resigned his commission on April 20, 1861, and took command of the forces of the Commonwealth of Virginia. On May 7th, Virginia militia occupied Arlington and Arlington House (Lee’s home). With Confederate forces on Arlington’s high ground, Washington D.C. was left in an untenable military position. The pictures below were taken in front of the Arlington House. You can see how cannons located on this hill would easily be able to strike any point in the city.

**Picture taken from in front of the Arlington House facing the city.**

General Winfield Scott ordered Brigadier General Irvin McDowell to take control of the cities of Arlington and Alexandria. On May 14th Mary Lee buried many of her family treasures on the property and left for her sister’s estate at Ravensworth in Fairfax County never to return. McDowell occupied Arlington on May 24th.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, most military personnel that died in battle near Washington, D.C., were buried at the United States Soldiers’ Cemetery in the city or in the Alexandria Cemetery across the Potomac, but by late 1863 both were near capacity. On July 16, 1862, Congress passed legislation authorizing the federal government to purchase land for national cemeteries for military dead and placed U.S. Army Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs in charge of the program. In May 1864, Union forces suffered large numbers of dead in the Battle of the Wilderness and Meigs ordered an examination of eligible sites in order to establish a large new national military cemetery.

His staff reported that Arlington Estate was the most suitable property; that it was also the home of Robert E. Lee made it even more desirable politically for the Lincoln administration. The first soldier buried at Arlington was William Henry Christman of Pennsylvania on May 13, 1864, in Section 27. More than 3,800 formerly enslaved people, called “Contrabands” during the Civil War, are also buried in Section 27. Their headstones are designated with the word “Civilian” or “Citizen”.

The government acquired Arlington Estate at a tax sale in 1864 for $26,800. Mrs. Lee had not appeared in person but rather had sent an agent, attempting to pay the $92.07 in property taxes assessed on the estate in a timely manner. The government turned away her agent, refusing to accept the tendered payment. Custis Lee, heir under his grandfather’s will, after his mother died sued the United States in 1874 claiming ownership of Arlington Estate. On December 9, 1882, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5–4 in Lee’s favor deciding that the property had been confiscated without due process. After that decision, Congress returned the estate to him, and he then sold it back to the government for $150,000.

In 1901, Confederate soldiers buried at the Soldiers’ Home and various locations within Arlington were reinterred in a Confederate section that was authorized by Congress in 1900. On June 4, 1914, the United Daughters of the Confederacy dedicated a memorial designed by Moses Ezekiel. Upon his death in 1917, Ezekiel was buried at the base of the monument, as he was a veteran of the Confederate army. All Confederate headstones in this section are peaked rather than rounded. The Naming Commission, appointed by Congress, has recommended removing the Confederate memorial down to its foundation.

Arlington National Cemetery is one of two cemeteries in the United States National Cemetery System that are maintained by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres. The Cemetery is divided into 70 sections. There are 396 Medal of Honor recipients buried at Arlington. Sections 1, 2, 3, 16- the Confederate section, 21- the Nurses Memorial, 27- the US Colored Troops and Freedmans section, 31- Robert Lincoln’s grave, 46- a memorial to the USS Monitor (we’ll also cover the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier since it is right next to section 46), the Arlington House, the Lee museum, McClellan’s Gate and the Visitor Center are relevant to the Civil War. A map of the cemetery is shown below.