Arlington National Cemetery

Welcome back, scholars and fellow travelers, to a second, distinct exploration of Arlington National Cemetery. While our previous journey focused on the broader eastern sectors and the diversity of national service, this tour…

Before we analyze the military confiscation of this land, we must first establish its aristocratic origins. In the year seventeen seventy-eight, John Parke Custis, the son of the original First Lady Martha Washington and her…

We now stand before the threshold of the home where Robert E. Lee lived with his wife, Mary Custis Lee, for thirty years. …

As we continue our tour around the perimeter of the mansion, we must engage with the fascinating, and somewhat dubious, legal maneuvers employed by the federal government to permanently strip the Lee family of this property.…

Let us now shift our gaze from the mansion itself to the grounds immediately surrounding it, specifically focusing on the oldest graves that dot the landscape. By the spring of eighteen sixty-four, the bloody realities of the…

Venturing slightly away from the house, we find ourselves on the edge of the Arlington Woods. As scholars of environmental history, we must recognize that this pristine, forested area is not merely decorative, but a carefully…

Our final specific stop on this elevated tour brings us to a grave site that holds a unique, almost paradoxical status within the context of a military cemetery. We stand before the final resting place of Pierre Charles L'Enfant. …

As we conclude our in-depth analysis of the historic heights of Arlington National Cemetery, we must synthesize the complex narratives we have unpacked. We began by examining an aristocratic plantation built on the labor of…