Existing comment:
Arlington Cemetery; Arlington House
The Arlington House was Robert E Lee's house before the Civil War. Lee courted and married Mary Anna Randolph Custis and lived here 1831-61. The property itself had been inherited by Mrs Lee from her father, George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Martha Washington.
When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, Lee resigned his commission with the US Army and signed up to head the Virginia army of the south. Union troops occupied the lands because it strategically dominated Washington DC. The estate was confiscated by the north in 1864 for nonpayment of taxes. The Arlington Cemetery was established there and Union soldiers were buried on the land.
After the war, Lee's oldest son sued for the return of the property. In 1882, the US Supreme Court ruled in his favor but there were already thousands of graves on the estate. Lee sold everything to the US government for $150,000.
The cemetery contains the remains of William Howard Taft, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, Gen John Pershing, Rear Adm Richard Perry, William Jennings Bryan, Rear Adm Richard Byrd, John Foster Dulles, Gen George C Marshall, Justice Earl Warren, John F Kennedy, Robert F Kennedy, Omar Bradley, and Joe Louis. |