Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: When was Arlington National Cemetery first created?
The national cemetery was established during the Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, which had been the estate of Confederate general Robert E Lee's wife Mary Anna Custis Lee (a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington). The Cemetery, along with Arlington House, Memorial Drive, the Hemicycle, and the Arlington Memorial Bridge, form the Arlington National Cemetery Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in April 2014.[2][3]
On May 11, 2016, the Department of the Army published in the Federal Register a proposed rule that would, among other things, prohibit a visitor to an Army National Military Cemetery (Arlington National Cemetery and the United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery) from riding a bicycle without first acquiring a pass to visit a relative's gravesite or columbarium niche.[121] After receiving 13 comments from 13 individuals concerning the use of bicycles in the cemetery (including comments from representatives of the Arlington County Board and local bicycle advocacy groups that opposed the new restrictions), the Department of the Army published a final rule in the Federal Register on September 26, 2016, that implemented the proposed rule, effective October 26, 2016.[122]
By early 1931, Arlington Memorial Bridge was nearing completion, but citizens of Arlington County had no way of using the bridge as no approaches had been approved by the state or county in the preceding five years. Arlington County itself took no action on any bridge approaches until January 1931, when it began tentatively surveying potential routes. In February 1931, citizens of Clarendon, Ft. Myer Heights, and Lyon Village — unincorporated communities north and northwest of Arlington National Cemetery — met with the Arlington County Board of Supervisors and a Commonwealth's Attorney from the state of Virginia to identify a route north of the cemetery. A month later, after consulting with the NCPC, the County Board of Supervisors said it favored a plan to build a temporary road south of the cemetery to connect with the planned route for Lee Boulevard. But in April 1931, a committee of civic groups asked the County Board of Supervisors to push for a third proposed route: Extending Washington Boulevard south around Arlington National Cemetery to connect with the bridge. At the time, Washington Boulevard (also known as "Washington Street") was under construction from East Falls Church westward toward the northwest corner of Arlington National Cemetery. Once it reached the Clarendon neighborhood, it was to proceed southeast to connect to Lee Boulevard. The civic groups had learned that state highway planners were tentatively discussing a way to extend Washington Boulevard south around the cemetery to connect with U.S. Route 1. The civic groups wanted Washington Boulevard extended north to Columbia Island. This was similar to the proposed Lee Boulevard route which was threatened by the eastward expansion of the cemetery. The same month, the "Washington Post" reported (without identifying sources) that the approach to the bridge would come from Lee Boulevard.
The first Spanish–American War nurse to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery was Anna H. Campos, who died in Cuba on September 2, 1899. Her remains were repatriated about May 1900. By February 1901, the military had repatriated a few of the bodies of nurses who had died overseas. For families which wished it, or where remains went unclaimed or unidentified, the bodies were buried at Arlington. These nurses were buried in what is now Section 21. Over time, more military nurses were buried next to them, creating a "nurses' section". The U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps had control of Arlington National Cemetery at the time. In late 1906, Brigadier General Charles F. Humphrey, Sr., Quartermaster General, gave permission for any Army nurse who wished to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery with military honors.
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.
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 a United States military cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., in whose 624 acres (253ha) the dead of the nation's conflicts have been buried, beginning with the Civil War, as well as reinterred dead from earlier wars. The United States Department of the Army, a component of the United States Department of Defense (DoD), controls 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.
By early 1864, the military cemeteries of Washington, D.C., and Alexandria, Virginia, were rapidly filling with war dead. Quartermaster General of the United States Army Montgomery C. Meigs proposed using of the Arlington estate as a cemetery. United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton approved the establishment of a military cemetery on June 15, 1864, creating Arlington National Cemetery. Meigs believed that since Lee had committed treason in deciding to fight against the Union, denying Lee use of the mansion after the war was a rough form of justice. Meigs decided that a large number of burials should occur close to Arlington House to render it unlivable. Officers were to be buried next to the main flower garden south of the house, and the first burial occurred here on May 17. Meigs ordered that additional burials commence immediately on the grounds of Arlington House in mid-June. When Union officers bivouacked in the mansion complained and had the burials temporarily stopped, Meigs countermanded their orders and had another 44 dead officers buried along the southern and eastern sides of the main flower garden within a month.
The need to enclose Arlington National Cemetery with a boundary wall naturally led to the decision to create gates to the cemetery. With Fort Whipple to the west and Freedmen's Village to the south, the gates were created on the long eastern boundary which fronted Arlington Ridge Road and on the narrow north boundary.
The United States National Cemetery System is a system of 147 nationally important cemeteries in the United States. The authority to create military burial places came during the American Civil War, in an act passed by the U.S. Congress on July 17, 1862. By the end of 1862, 14 national cemeteries had been established (see text of photo). A national cemetery is generally a military cemetery containing the graves of U.S. military personnel, veterans and their spouses, but not exclusively so. The best known national cemetery is Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C.. Some national cemeteries, especially Arlington, contain the graves of important civilian leaders and other important national figures. Some national cemeteries also contain sections for Confederate soldiers. In addition to national cemeteries, there are also state veteran cemeteries.
When Parks died on August 21, 1929, the Secretary of War Dwight Filley Davis granted special permission for him to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.
The McClellan Gate (sometimes known as the McClellan Arch) is a memorial to Major General George B. McClellan located inside Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States. Constructed about 1871 on Arlington Ridge Road (then the eastern boundary of the cemetery), it served as a main gate until about 1879 when the Sheridan Gate was constructed. The McClellan Gate became nonfunctional in 1966 when the road closed, and expansion of the cemetery eastward in 1971 left the gate deep inside Arlington. It is the only gate constructed on the cemetery's eastern boundary in the 1800s that survives.
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."
With local cemeteries in Alexandria County and Alexandria filling rapidly with war dead, Quartermaster General of the United States Army Montgomery C. Meigs proposed using of the Arlington estate as a cemetery. The first burial there was made on May 13, 1864. United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton approved the establishment of a military cemetery on June 15, 1864, creating Arlington National Cemetery. By the end of the war in April 1865, more than 16,000 people had been buried at Arlington. In September 1866, a memorial and a burial vault (containing the remains of 2,111 U.S. and Confederate soldiers who died at the First Battle of Bull Run, Second Battle of Bull Run, and along the Rappahannock River) were buried in Lee's former wildflower garden on the mansion's east side beneath the Civil War Unknowns Monument, a memorial to honor unknown soldiers who had died during the American Civil War.
President Herbert Hoover conducted the first national Memorial Day ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery, on May 30, 1929.[23]
A number of public improvements and memorials were planned for construction in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area for the 1932 bicentennial of the birth of George Washington, the first President of the United States and American Revolutionary War hero. Among these were Arlington Memorial Bridge and the Mount Vernon Memorial Parkway (now known as the George Washington Memorial Parkway). To link the Virginia landing of the bridge with Arlington National Cemetery, a wide avenue known as Memorial Avenue was constructed and a new entrance to the cemetery (the Hemicycle) constructed.
Arlington National Cemetery is a military cemetery in the United States established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House. Veterans and military casualties from each of the nation's wars are interred in the cemetery, ranging from the Civil War through to the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. More than 300,000 people are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, including veterans, their dependents, other casualties of war, two American presidents, famous sports legends, and various other dignitaries. About 125 burials occurred at Arlington each week in 2010.
To fix the infrastructure problems, the U.S. Army quadrupled its budget for Arlington National Cemetery to $174 million. While the cemetery's $46 million burial operations account remained stable, it added $103 million in construction and $25 million in maintenance funds for fiscal year 2013 (which began July 1, 2012). This included the first installment of an estimated $35 million to locate and remove abandoned utilities, maintain and upgrade existing ones, and build a geographic information system database. Some of this work began in late 2011, when ANC staff began mapping all underground utilities and storm drain structures. It also included the first phase in an effort to reconstruct all roads in the cemetery from the base up.
In January 2013, the County Manager of Arlington County, Virginia, and the Executive Director of the Army National Military Cemeteries (consisting of Arlington National Cemetery and the United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery)[40] signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Arlington County Board and the Department of the Army to expand the cemetery even further. Under the tentative plan, Arlington County would give up the easement for Southgate Road (which lies between the Navy Annex property and the cemetery's 2012 boundary), and obtain a narrow easement along the southwest border of the Navy Annex site for a new Southgate Road. In exchange, the Department of Defense would give the Navy Annex parking lot to the county.
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.
The U.S. Army has statutory authority to manage Arlington National Cemetery under the National Cemetery Act, as amended. Under regulations issued in Title 32, Section 553.22 of the Code of Federal Regulations, the Army established a mechanism for proposing and building minor memorials at Arlington National Cemetery without requiring an act of Congress. Appendix A to Section 553 ("Specifications for Tributes in Arlington National Cemetery") lays out the specific form these minor memorials may take. In summary, most minor memorials must be a small plaque no more than in area, and no more than thick. Wording must be dignified, and the Superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery has sole and unlimited authority to accept or reject the plaque's design and wording.
The first memorials at Arlington National Cemetery were built during and immediately after the Civil War. These first memorials were small, as the federal government (burdened by the cost of the war) expended little money on the cemetery.
Multiple routes were considered by Arlington County and Virginia officials to implement the Sinclair plan. At the time, Lee Boulevard was being built from Seven Corners eastward toward Arlington National Cemetery. Construction officials announced in July 1926 that Lee Boulevard. would go south around Arlington National Cemetery, then proceed up the Potomac River shoreline to either connect with Arlington Memorial Bridge near the cemetery's main gate or bridge the Boundary Channel to connect with the roads on Columbia Island. However, in December 1926, the CFA learned that Arlington National Cemetery was likely to expand eastward onto the property of the USDA Experimental Farm (which lay east of Arlington Ridge Road). Because this significantly impacted the radius of road approaches to the bridge as well as the proposed Lee Boulevard. route, the CFA asked Kendall to restudy the Columbia Island terminus.
Memorials and monuments at Arlington National Cemetery include 28 major and 142 minor monuments and memorials. Arlington National Cemetery is a United States national cemetery located in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States. It is managed by the United States Army, rather than the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.