FACTS ABOUT ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

1. Montgomery Meigs went to West Point with Robert E. Lee. When the South seceded, Lee joined the Confederate army and Meigs never forgave him.  When Meigs became Quartermaster General for the Union Army, he was in charge of military burials.  In 1863, Lee’s wife Mary was not able to pay the $92.70 in property taxes so the property was confiscated and sold to the government for $26,800.  Meigs decided to make sure the Lee’s would never life their again by planting dead soldiers all over the property.  By the end of 1864, over 7,000 soldiers had been buried, including in Mary’s rose garden near the house.  Meigs was eventually buried in his creation, after his son who was killed in the war.
2. The plantation originally belonged to George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted grandson of Washington. He named it Arlington.  It eventually was inherited by Mary Anna Randolph Custis, who married Robert E. Lee.
3. In 1870, Lee’s son Custis sued for return of his property. It took 12 years, but a court found that the property had been seized illegally without due process.  He sold it back to the government a year later for $150,000.  The threat of disinterring all those bodies probably played a role in that decision.
4. For years, starting during the war, Freedman’s Village was located on the grounds. It was a community for freed slaves.  Almost 4,000 are buried there.
5. James Park was a slave on the plantation. When the Lee family fled, he stayed on. He dug the first graves and stayed on as caretaker for the next 60 years.  When he died, he was buried with full military honors.
6. The first soldier buried was Private William Henry Christman on May 13, 1864. He died of the measles.
7. Two Presidents are buried there (and their wives) – William Howard Taft and John Kennedy.  Other famous graves include those of Dashiell Hammett, Medgar Evers, Glenn Miller, Joe Louis, and Abner Doubleday.
8. There are over 400,000 graves. Currently, there are more than 25 interments per day.

https://www.stayarlington.com/blog/9-fascinating-facts-about-arlington-national-cemetery/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/8-things-didnt-know-arlington-national-cemetery

https://www.rd.com/list/arlington-national-cemetery-facts/

–  The Greatest War Stories Never Told  pp. 110-111