Episode 3: Arlington Returns to the Lees

The first monument to unknown war dead at Arlington was designed by Major General Montgomery Meigs himself and dedicated in September 1866. It contains the mixed remains of 2,111 soldiers gathered from the fields of Bull Run (Manassas, VA) and the route to the Rappahannock River. Nearly 1,800 of the remains came from Manassas alone, where to major engagements were fought during the Civil War. Though intended to be a monument to Union soldiers, given the nature of battlefield interments during the Civil War, it is likely the mass grave contains remains of Confederate soldiers as well. The monument is in Section 26, near the Lee Mansion and Mrs. Lee's famous rose garden.

The side of the memorial features this inscription:

BENEATH THIS STONE

REPOSE THE BONES OF TWO THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN UNKNOWN

SOLDIERS

GATHERED AFTER THE WAR

FORM THE FIELDS OF BULL RUN, AND THE ROUTE TO THE RAPPAHANNOCK

THEIR REMAINS COULD NOT BE IDENTIFIED. BUT THEIR NAMES AND DEATHS ARE

RECORDED IN THE ARCHIVES OF THEIR COUNTRY, AND ITS GRATEFUL CITIZENS

HONOR THEM AS OF THEIR NOBLE ARMY OF MARTYRS. MAY THEY REST IN PEACE.

SEPTEMBER. A. D. 1866

Aside from the large monuments for unknown casualties, smaller headstones can be found throughout the cemetery over remains whose identities are "known only to God," including this single Civil War burials in Section 27.

 These five remains, also from the Civil War, are in Section 13 Grave 5.

This contemporary marker in Section 1 Grave 14 marks unknowns who fell in battle during the War of 1812, which predates Arlington as a national cemetery by some 50 years.

Many of the Freedmen interred on the property are also located in section 27, the first part of the property designated for burials. They hold know military rank, but their headstones are engraved with a title that had long been withheld from them and other former slaves: citizen.

Danella Warris, Citizen. Section 27 Grave 1665

Betsy Hunter, Citizen. Section 27 Grave 1957

Juley Fitzure, Citizen. Section 27 Grave 2279

Stephen Young, Citizen. Section 17 Grave 1949

Frank Docket, Citizen. Section 22 Grave 2216

Ben Johnson, Citizen. Section 27 Grave 3361

Even the Citizens of Section 27 have their share of unknowns

If you would like to read more about the African-American burials in Section 27, I recently came across a lecture from  2011 as part of the 38th Annual DC Historical Studies Conference. Presented by Timothy Dennee, the lecture was titled "A District of Columbia Freedman's Cemetery in Virginia? Arlington's Section 27". A portion of the lecture can be read here.