9. The creation of Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia
Of all the monuments, memorials, and national symbols which appear in Washington DC and its surrounding environs in Maryland and Virginia none are more somber than the National Cemetery at Arlington. The cemetery contains the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, the graves of John, Robert and Ted Kennedy, several other memorials such as the USS Maine memorial; Cross of Sacrifice; the Challenger Memorial, and others. Arlington National Cemetery stands on ground which before the American Civil War was part of Arlington Plantation, the home of Robert E. Lee. The Lee-Custis House still stands on the bluff overlooking the graves of the Kennedy’s, across the cemetery to the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Capitol, and the Jefferson Memorial on the Tidal Basin.
The cemetery came about because the casualties of the American Civil War quickly overwhelmed the capacity of the cemeteries used by the military, at Soldier’s Home and at Alexandria, Virginia. Burials at Arlington began in 1864, and the government acquired the property via a tax sale, after first refusing an attempt by Mrs. Lee to pay through an agent the taxes owed on the property. Essentially the government confiscated the property from the Lees, but did so under a thin veneer of legality. Robert E. Lee never returned to the property, and made no attempt to recover the financial losses he suffered. Because the Lee-Custis House had once been the property of the Custis family – Martha Custis had been married to George Washington – the entire history of the United States can be traced within the cemetery grounds.