TQOTD: American History...

[pat]

Before being occupied by Union troops and being turned into a cemetery, the property which is now known as Arlington Natinal Cemetery belonged to the wife of (and was the residence of) what historical figure?



The property which is now Arlington National Cemetery was the residence of Robert E. Lee and his wife, Mary Custis Lee. (The property was hers, inherited from her father, Washington Parke Custis, George Washington's stepson.) The Union Quartermaster General, Montgomery Meigs, with the blessing of the Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, ordered part of the property to be used as a military cemetery. Meigs clearly wanted to make the property uninhabitable: when he found that bodies were being buried far from the house, he personally ordered bodies to be buried in Mrs. Lee's rose garden, a few yards from the residence. Source: University of Virginia American Studies website.

Comments

[bdot.livejournal.com]

interesting...i never knew that! is the house still on the property? i've never been there...much is my lament!

[curiousangel.livejournal.com]

Arlington House is indeed still on the property. You can find more details about the house and the cemetery at the Arlington Cemetery homepage (http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/), including the details of how Lee's son sued the government for return of the house.

I believe there are tours of the house, but I'm not sure.

[bdot.livejournal.com]

very interesting. thakns for the link. my daughter and i took a vertual tour of the cemetary and the history of the site was amazing!