Woke up to another beautiful day and took Metro to Arlington National Cemetery. Found where one of our old nursing home friends is buried and went to visit that site. The tour bus was supposed to leave at 9 but due to 2 funerals on the bus tour, we were on hold for 35 minutes. The tour bus lady said that Arlington has 25-35 funerals a day. On our way in got a photo of Dave by the 4th Infantry emblem which he and my grandfather were members of.
We visited the grave site of JFK and his wife with the Eternal Flame, Robert Kennedy and Edward “Ted” Kennedy.
“The land encompassing Arlington National Cemetery was once home to tribes of Native-Americans who fished the neighboring rivers and hunted in the forests, leaving behind quarries and stone tools in the Arlington House woodlands. During the colonial period it became home and farmland for European settlers.”
“George Washington Parke Custis, the grandson off Martha Washington and step-son of George Washington inherited this land in 1802. Raised as the nation's first presidential son, Custis dedicated his life to the commemoration of the first president. Between 1802 and 1818, he built Arlington House as the centerpiece of his 1,100 acre plantation. It was our nation's first memorial to George Washington and a home for Custis' growing family. In 1831 Custis' only surviving child, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, married Lt. Robert E. Lee of the United States Army in the front parlor of Arlington House. For over 30 years Arlington House became home to one of America's most famous soldiers and his family.”
“The Civil War brought about dramatic changes for the people and the land. Lee resigned his commission from the United States Army at Arlington House on April 20, 1861. By the end of May 1861, the Lees had vacated the property and federal occupied the estate, using Arlington House as a headquarters.”
“In 1863 Freedman's Village was established on the estate to assist refugee slaves in their transition from slavery to freedom. Some of the first burials at Arlington were residents of Freedman's Village.”
“In 1864, Washington D.C. Was flooded with wounded and dead soldiers from the North and the South. On May 13, the first military burial took place in what is now Section 27. By the end of the Civil War there were nearly 16,000 dead buried on the old plantation.”
“Ultimately, the Lees were compensated for the loss of their property by the federal Supreme Court. Arlington House and the new cemetery remained with the War Department and served as an early cemetery headquarters. The US Army began restoring the house and slave quarters in the early 1930s. However, in 1933, the War Department separated Arlington House and transferred it to the National Park Service”
“Early burials at Arlington were of necessity. Most off the dead were either unknowns, or loved ones that families simply couldn't afford to send home to interment. Yet the esteemed tradition of Arlington began to grow as ceremonies such as early Memorial Day services were held here. The Old Amphitheater, site of these Memorial Day observations, stand to the southwest of Arlington House. Nearby is the Tomb of the Civil War Unknowns, a mass grave housing the reinterred remains of 2,111 unknown Civil War dead killed in battle and often quickly buried in shallow graves.”
“The Tomb of the Unknowns was established in 1921. A sentinel of the Third US Infantry maintains vigil around the clock. The sentinel paces 21 steps alongside the tomb, pauses 21 seconds, then returns. The changing of the guard takes place every hour (or half hour March-September).” The tomb is inscribed with “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God”.
There are many other memorials and monuments on the 624 acres of cemetery.
The changing of the guard ceremony was amazing to watch. One sentinel would be pacing and then the clock would chime on the hour and another sentinel would come out and a sergeant of the guard came out and inspected the sentinel's rifle. Very precise, perfect – “every motion was done with an exaggerated military focus” says Dave. If you get a chance to see Arlington Cemetery it is an amazing and powerful sight to see all the headstones perfectly lined and to know that all those buried here served their country.
We are in Leesburg, VA to stay with Dave's brother, Peter and then drive to Baltimore, MD on Tuesday to see Dave's kids.
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