Episode 2: The First Burials at Arlington National Cemetery - An Act of Necessity and Vengeance

I have not been able to find a photograph of any of the following soldiers comprising the historic firsts highlighted in this episode, but each has been immortalized in chiseled granite; four in Section 27 and one in Section 26. As a side note, if you have never visited Arlington National Cemetery, some sections are very large and some are quite small, and it is not uncommon for sections in the older parts of the cemetery to not follow one another numerically. For example, Section 26 and Section 27 are some distance from one another. 

While I tend to use photographs that I have personally taken on this site, I am going to borrow a photo posted to the Arlington National Cemetery official Facebook page on May 14, 2020. It is a great four-in-one image used to eulogize these four firsts: 

"Private William Henry Christman mustered into the US Army on March 25, 1864. His older brother had dies in service in 1862. Still, the 20-year-old farmer enlisted and joined the 67th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Christman did not serve long: like so many others, he soon fell sick and was admitted to Lincoln Hospital in Washington, DC. He succumbed to his illness, rubella, on May 11, 1864. Christman became the first soldier buried at Arlington National Cemetery on May 13, 1864.

PVT Christman's Enlistment Papers

Private William H. McKinney joined the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry on March 16, 1864. The young trooper soon fell ill and was sent to a hospital in Washington, DC where he died on May 12, 1864. The next day, the Army interred him at Arlington National Cemetery. McKinney was the [first soldier interred at the cemetery with his family present].

Private William Blatt [joined] the 49th Pennsylvania [Volunteer] Infantry [Regiment]... in 1861. During General Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign, he was seriously wounded on May 10, 1864 and dies three days later in a Washington, DC hospital. On May 14, 1864 the Army buried him at Arlington. Blatt became the third soldier and first combat casualty interred in these hallowed grounds.

Private William Reeves was inducted into the 76th New York [Volunteer] Infantry [Regiment] on August 25, 1863. Only 19 years old, the young man from Canandaigua, NY soon found himself in the thick of action during the Overland Campaign. On May 5, 1864, he received a serious gunshot wound. Despite treatment at Stanton Hospital in Washington, DC, he succumbed to his wounds just over a week later. Reeves became the fourth soldier interred at Arlington, and the first draftee."

Today, these four firsts are all located in Section 27:

PVT Christman: Site 19

PVT McKinney: Site 98

PVT Reeves: Site 99

PVT Blatt: Site 18 

According to an Arlington Historical Society's History of the Rose Garden, Captain Albert H. Packard left his wife and two children on at age 30 on August 25, 1862 to enlist in as a private in the 19th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment. By October 31st he had been promoted to corporal and was color bearer of Company G. In 1863, Packard fought in the battle of Gettysburg, where his regiment sustained 45 percent casualties. in 1864, Packard returned to Maine to recruit solders for a new regiment and was made Captain of Company I in the new 31st Maine Infantry. On May 6, 1864, during the second day of the Battle of the Wilderness, CPT Packard received a gunshot wound to the head. He managed to survive his wound for 10 days and died on May 16, 1864.

There are obviously some discrepancies between this March 1990 Arlington Historical Society publication and what we see on CAPT Packard's headstone. He was apparently commanding Company I at the time of his death and had been in Company G when he was in the 19th Maine. His headstone says he died on May 15th and our written account says May 16th. These two question marks aside, the final words CPT Packard from the Arlington Historical Society seem to ring true: "Packard was a man who carried the flag in battle, a man who recruited others to join the Union cause for their final push to victory, a man who commanded until receiving a mortal wound on a Virginia battlefield. Captain Albert H. Packard is worthy of being the first officer buried at Arlington National Cemetery."