Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: What is the oldest grave at Arlington National Cemetery?
At the outbreak of the Civil War, most military personnel who died in battle near Washington, D.C., were buried at the United States Soldiers' Cemetery in Washington, D.C., or Alexandria Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia, but by late 1863 both were nearly full.[12] On July 16, 1862, Congress passed legislation authorizing the U.S. federal government to purchase land for national cemeteries for military dead, and put the U.S. Army Quartermaster General in charge of this program.[12] In May 1864, Union forces suffered large numbers of dead in the Battle of the Wilderness. Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs ordered that an examination of eligible sites be made for the establishment for a large new national military cemetery. Within weeks, his staff reported that Arlington Estate was the most suitable property in the area.[12] The property was high and free from floods (which might unearth graves), it had a view of the District of Columbia, and it was aesthetically pleasing. It was also the home of the leader of the armed forces of the Confederate States of America, and denying Robert E. Lee use of his home after the war was a valuable political consideration.[13] The first military burial at Arlington, for William Henry Christman, was made on May 13, 1864,[14] close to what is now the northeast gate in Section 27.[15] However, Meigs did not formally authorize establishment of burials until June 15, 1864.[16] Arlington did not desegregate its burial practices until President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948.[17]
In September 2012, the US Army's Inspector General issued a report on Arlington cemetery and the United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery which found that the Army's new management of the institutions had transformed both, "into premier institutions of excellence capable of setting the standards for federal cemeteries across the nation." The report stated that 96% of the 400,000 grave markers at Arlington had been verified for accuracy as of 17 September 2012. The report lauded a program at Arlington, implemented by new director Patrick Hallinan, which used geospatial technology to track cemetery operations. In response to the report, Senator Mark Warner stated, "Condon and her team deserve a lot of credit for implementing reforms to fix the problems at Arlington and begin restoring our trust."
The federal government's policy toward Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery changed radically at the end of the 19th century.
The McKinley speech encouraged Dr. Samuel E. Lewis to seek additional improvements to the care and treatment of Confederate graves. Lewis, a former Confederate States Army (CSA) surgeon who then practiced medicine in Washington, D.C., was the leader ("commander") of the Charles Broadway Rouss Camp No. 1191 of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV), a veterans organization for those who fought for the Confederacy. Lewis had inventoried all Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery in early fall 1898 as part of the local group's historic documentation efforts. He discovered 136 identifiable Confederate graves, far more than the six or seven cemetery officials assumed existed. The graves were scattered all over the existing burial grounds, and the headstones were similar to those of civilian employees and African American "contrabands" (runaway slaves). The similarity to the headstones of black people especially angered Lewis. In early 1899, his group discovered another 189 graves in the Soldiers' Home National Cemetery in the District of Columbia.
The federal government did not permit the decoration of Confederate graves at the cemetery, however. As Quartermaster General, Meigs had charge of the Arlington cemetery (he did not retire until February 6, 1882), and he refused to give families of Confederates buried there permission to lay flowers on their loved ones' graves. In 1868, when families asked to lay flowers on Confederate graves on Decoration Day (now known as Memorial Day), Meigs ordered that the families be barred from the cemetery. Union veterans' organizations such as the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR; whose membership was open only to Union soldiers) also felt that rebel graves should not be decorated. In 1869, GAR members stood watch over Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery to ensure they were not visibly honored on Decoration Day. Cemetery officials also refused to allow the erection of any monument to Confederate dead and declined to permit new Confederate burials (either by reburial or through the death of veterans).
The Confederate dead were reburied on of ground on the west side of Arlington National Cemetery. The graves were laid out in a pattern of concentric circles, rather than straight rows as elsewhere at Arlington, to emphasize the South's attempt to find its place in the new united country. Landscaping of the area was completed in the spring of 1903.
McKee Grave is a public artwork by an unknown artist, located at the Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, United States. It serves as the final resting place of First Lieutenant Thomas Hudson McKee and his wife.
Old White Church Cemetery, also known as Emanuel Church Cemetery, is a historic cemetery and national historic district located at Lincolnton, Lincoln County, North Carolina. It was established in 1788, and contains the marked graves of some 265 citizens of Lincolnton, with an even larger number of unmarked graves. The oldest marked grave dates to 1801. The gravestones include notable examples of 19th and early-20th century funerary art. It is the oldest burying ground in the town of Lincolnton.
Zollicoffer Park, a Confederate cemetery containing a mass grave of the Confederate fallen, lies just outside Nancy. (There is also a Union cemetery located in Nancy, Mill Springs National Cemetery, the oldest of all National Cemeteries still receiving burials other than Arlington National Cemetery.) This public park receives at least two memorial events each year, one on January 19, ("that somber sabbath morn") and the other on Memorial Day. There have also been re-enactments of the Battle of Mill Springs.
He died September 16, 1937 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. His grave can be found in section 6, grave 9752-SS, map grid V/W 19.5.
Caron, age 21, was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington County, Virginia. His Arlington Cemetery grave location number is 51-2600.
The book stand was given to Arlington National Cemetery in 1904. Although designed to stand on the earth in the cellar of Arlington House, cemetery officials placed it on one of the wooden floors above. The book stand was so heavy that the floor sagged and required reinforcement. At the time, the building was not a house museum but rather contained the living quarters of the Superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery and office space for him and his staff. In 1929, the Record Book was transferred from Arlington House to Arlington Memorial Amphitheater when the main floor of the amphitheater became a Memorial Exhibit Hall displaying honors received by the unknown soldiers lying beneath the Tomb of the Unknowns. (It is not clear if it was put on display, or housed in the second-floor offices.) The cemetery offices moved into what is now the Old Administration Building in 1932, and the book stand was misplaced. Its whereabouts are not known as of 2013.
He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. His grave can be found in section 30, grave 1123-RH, Map Grid V/U 36.5.
The Arlington National Cemetery mismanagement controversy is an ongoing investigation by the United States Department of Defense into mismanagement, poor record-keeping, and other issues involving the burial and identification of U.S. servicemembers' graves at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. Questions were raised in 2008, and the scandal peaked in the spring of 2010.
Selection of the burial site occurred almost immediately after Kennedy's death. Kennedy had often said he wished to be buried in the family plot in Massachusetts, but the Kennedy family decided to have him buried at Arlington National Cemetery next to John F. Kennedy instead. Late on June 6, Alfred B. Fitt, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, flew from Washington to New York City to confer with the Kennedy family about burial at Arlington National Cemetery. The family had already decided to bury Robert F. Kennedy near his brother's memorial, and Fitt carried with him photographs of several areas of the John F. Kennedy grave site which would be suitable as a burial site. At 10:30 PM on June 7, the Kennedy family announced that Robert F. Kennedy would be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in a grassy area just southeast of the John F. Kennedy grave site. 
The first graves in Arlington National Cemetery were dug by James Parks, a former Arlington Estate slave. Parks was freed in 1862 under the terms of the will of his former owner, George Washington Parke Custis. He still lived on Arlington Estate when Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton signed the orders designating Arlington as a military burial ground. Parks served in the U.S. Army from 1861 to 1929 by working as a grave digger and maintenance man for the cemetery.
Arlington National Cemetery is an American military cemetery established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's home, Arlington House (also known as the Custis-Lee Mansion). It is directly across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., north of the Pentagon. With nearly 300,000 graves, Arlington National Cemetery is the second-largest national cemetery in the United States.
He initially was buried in the United Nations Cemetery near Hamhung, North Korea. His body was later returned to the United States for burial in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. His grave can be found in section 6, Grave 9376-B, Map Grid X/18.
Allegations of mismanagement at Arlington Cemetery were first raised in 2008. The widow of a United States Army soldier complained that the wrong headstone was on her husband's grave. A Pentagon investigation found that two servicemen had been buried in the same grave. Cemetery workers had also buried the cremated remains of a servicemember in a grave which was already in use, but unmarked. The cremation error was discovered in May 2008 and the remains buried in an unused grave. However, Arlington National Cemetery officials may not have followed proper procedures in notifying the servicemember's next of kin about the reburial.
He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery Arlington, Virginia. His grave can be located in section 7A, grave 155, map Grid U-23.5.
He died January 12, 1940 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. His grave can be found in Section 4, Grave 5845.
As of November 2013, the Confederate Memorial remains one of three sites at Arlington National Cemetery mentioned by name in the "Code of Federal Regulations" where public memorial services may be conducted. (The others are the Memorial Amphitheater and the John F. Kennedy Grave.)
The grave of Emerson H. Liscum, also known as Emerson Hamilton Grave, is an outdoor public artwork located at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, United States. This sculpture was surveyed in 1995 as part of the Smithsonian Institution's "Save Outdoor Sculpture!" program. The gravestone serves as Liscum's final resting place.
List of national cemeteries McKee Grave Theodore Wint Grave United States Department of Veterans Affairs emblems for headstones and markers
Lieutenant Seach died October 24, 1978 at the age of 101, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery Arlington, Virginia. His grave can be found in section 11, lot 334-2. When he died he was the oldest and longest-living recipient of the Medal of Honor, and the last surviving US veteran of the Boxer Rebellion to receive the medal.