Editing Arlington National Cemetery (section)

====American Civil War====
{{Further|American Civil War}}
In April 1861, following the [[Confederate States Army]] bombing of [[Fort Sumter]] in the [[Battle of Fort Sumter]] and the [[Union Army]]'s subsequent surrender of the fort, the American Civil War was launched, and [[Virginia Secession Convention of 1861|Virginia promptly seceded from the Union]]. On 15 April, realizing that Fort Sumter's fall left the national capital of [[Washington, D.C.]] highly vulnerable to Confederate attack and occupation, [[Abraham Lincoln|President Lincoln]] [[President Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers|called for 75,000 volunteers]] from around the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] to help defend it.

Five days after Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers to defend the national capital, on 20 April, [[Robert E. Lee]], embracing the cause of Virginia's separation from the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]], resigned his [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] commission to lead Virginia's separatist armed forces; the following year, on 1 June 1862, Lee was appointed commander of the [[Army of Northern Virginia]], the Confederate Army's primary military force.{{sfn|Warner|1959|p=181}}

When the Civil War commenced, American military personnel who died in battle near [[Washington, D.C.]], were buried at the [[United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery|United States Soldiers' Cemetery]] in Washington, D.C., or [[Alexandria National Cemetery (Virginia)|Alexandria Cemetery]] in [[Alexandria, Virginia]]. By late 1863, however, both cemeteries were nearly full.{{sfn|Hanna|2001|p=84}}

On 3 May 1861, General [[Winfield Scott]] ordered [[Brigadier general (United States)|Brigadier General]] [[Irvin McDowell]] to clear all troops not loyal to the Union from Arlington and neighboring [[Alexandria, Virginia|Alexandria]].{{sfn|Chase|1930|pp=175–176}} On 7 May 1861, however, the Confederate-aligned [[Virginia militia]] captured Arlington and Arlington House.{{sfn|Hansen|2001|p=69}} With Confederate forces occupying the high ground of Arlington, the neighboring national capital in [[Washington, D.C.]] was left vulnerable to Confederate Army attack.{{sfn|Chase|1930|p=173}}

Despite not wanting to leave Arlington House, Mary Lee believed her estate would soon be recaptured by Union soldiers. On 14 May, she buried many of her family treasures on the grounds, and then left for her sister's estate at [[Ravensworth (plantation)|Ravensworth]] in present-day [[Fairfax County, Virginia]].{{sfn|McCaslin|2004|pp=79–80}}{{sfn|Atkinson|2007|p=25}} Some of the personal property she buried included family portraits that were stolen by Union soldiers.<ref>Van Horn, Jennifer. “‘The Dark Iconoclast’: African Americans’ Artistic Resistance in the Civil War South.” ''The Art Bulletin'', vol. 99, no. 4, 2017, p. 135. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/44973219 JSTOR website] Retrieved 1 June 2023.</ref> McDowell occupied Arlington without opposition on 24 May.{{sfn|Chase|1930|p=176}}

On 16 July 1862, the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] passed legislation authorizing the [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. federal government]] to purchase land for national cemeteries for the purpose of burying military dead, and placed the [[Quartermaster General of the United States Army|U.S. Army Quartermaster General]] in charge of this program.{{sfn|Hanna|2001|p=84}}

Beginning in 1863, the federal government used the southern portion of the land now occupied by the cemetery as a settlement for freed slaves, giving the land the name "Freedman's Village". The government constructed rental houses that 1,100 to 3,000 freed slaves eventually occupied while farming {{convert|1,100|acres|ha}} of the estate and receiving schooling and occupational training, both during the Civil War and after its end.{{sfn|Schildt|1984|p=}}<ref>(1) {{cite web|title=Freedman's Village |work=Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial|publisher=[[National Park Service]]: [[United States Department of the Interior]] |url=https://www.nps.gov/arho/learn/historyculture/emancipation.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160714094821/https://www.nps.gov/arho/learn/historyculture/emancipation.htm|archive-date=July 14, 2016|access-date=September 28, 2016|year=2016}}<br />(2) {{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160123151016/http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Explore/Notable-Graves/Minorities/Black-History-at-ANC|archive-date=January 23, 2016 |url=http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Explore/Notable-Graves/Minorities/Black-History-at-ANC|title=Black History at Arlington National Cemetery|work=Arlington National Cemetery|publisher=United States Army |location=[[Arlington County, Virginia]]|access-date=September 26, 2016}}<br />(4) {{cite web |url=https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=5293|editor=Swain, Craig|title="Freedman's Village: A New Home for African Americans" marker |publisher=HMdb: The Historical Marker Database|access-date=December 26, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226204407/https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=5293|archive-date=December 26, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In May 1864, the [[Union Army]] suffered large fatalities in the [[Battle of the Wilderness]]. Quartermaster General [[Montgomery C. Meigs]] ordered a review of eligible sites for the establishment of a large and new national military cemetery. Within weeks, his staff reported that Arlington Estate was the most suitable property in the area.{{sfn|Hanna|2001|p=84}} The property was located at a relatively high elevation and was typically free from floods capable of unearthing graves, and it was aesthetically pleasing. An additional factor in its selection was likely that it was the residence of Robert E. Lee, a leader in the Confederate States Army, and denying Lee use of his home during and following the war was advantageous to the Union.{{sfn|Hanna|2001|p=88}}

On 13 May 1864, [[William Henry Christman]] was buried at Arlington Cemetery,{{sfn|Hanna|2001|p=86}} close to what is now the northeast gate in Section 27,{{sfn|Dennee|2012|p=4}} even though Meigs did not formally authorize establishment of burials until the following month, on 15 June 1864.{{sfn|Hanna|2001|p=85}} Consistent with the practices of many cemeteries in the late 19th century, Arlington Cemetery maintained segregated burial practices. On 26 July 1948, however, [[President of the United States|U.S. president]] [[Harry S. Truman]] issued [[Executive Order 9981]], which formally reversed this practice.{{sfn|Poole|2010|p=191}}

In 1864, with the Civil War still ongoing, the Union acquired Arlington Cemetery for $26,800, {{Inflation|US|26800|1864|fmt=eq}}, after the property was placed for tax sale.<ref name="hughes">{{cite book |title=Bivouac of the Dead |author=Hughes, Mark |year=1995 |publisher=Heritage Books |page=265| isbn=978-0788402609}}</ref> Mrs. Lee did not appear in person for the tax sale, but sent an agent, who attempted to pay the $92.07 allegedly owed in property taxes, {{Inflation|US|92.07|1864|fmt=eq}}, which had been assessed on the estate.<ref name="arlingtoncemetery.org">{{cite web| title=Historical Information| publisher=Arlington National Cemetery| url=http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/historical_information/arlington_house.html| access-date=July 29, 2011| url-status=usurped| archive-date=September 13, 2010| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100913093837/http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/historical_information/arlington_house.html}}</ref> The Union government, however, turned her agent away, and refused to accept the tendered payment. The Washington Chronicle described the Freedmen's Village at Arlington in an article published in September 1864 and recorded at that time, "This cemetery is at present divided into the upper yard and the lower yard. The upper yard contains fourteen hundred graves, and the lower twelve hundred. These graves are marked with wooden slabs, with the exception of one marble slab in the upper and one in the lower yard. As we passed by it, a cortege of five ambulances, containing nine coffins, moved by. Some of the coffins were draped with our colors. The cemetery is as yet enclosed with a wooden fence."<ref>{{Cite web |date=1864-09-16 |title=A Freedmen's Village: The Settlement at Arlington Heights |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-liberator-a-freedmens-village-the/158743475/ |access-date=2024-11-10 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 1866, [[Mount Zion Baptist Church (Arlington, Virginia)|The Old Bell Church]], led by [[Robert S. Laws|Rev. Robert S. Laws]], was founded.<ref name="Beyond the Plantation">{{cite journal |last1=Bestebreurtje |first1=Lindsey |title=Beyond the Plantation: Freedmen, Social Experimentation, and African American Community Development in Freedman's Village, 1863–1900 |journal=The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography |date=2018 |volume=126 |issue=3 |page=346 |jstor=26478281 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26478281 |access-date=October 30, 2022 |issn=0042-6636}}</ref> After Freedman's Village became part of a military reservation, the government asked the villagers to leave. In 1887, however, some still remained, and John A. Commerford, the Superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery, asked the U.S. Army's Quartermaster General to close the village on the grounds that people living in it had been taking trees at night from the cemetery for use as firewood.{{sfn|Schildt|1984|pp=18–19}}<ref>Letter from J.A. Commerford to G.B. Dandy, November 12, 1887, ''Consolidated Quartermaster General File''. R.G. 105, cited in {{harvp|Schildt|1984|p=21|loc=Footnote 66}}.</ref> The Quartermaster General and the [[United States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]] then approved Commerford's request.{{sfn|Schildt|1984|pp=18–19}}