Evening Star Newspaper, June 7, 1931, Page 75

TIHE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JUNE 7, 1931 BY MARY JOHNSON. RLINGTON, hallowed ground because it is God's Acre for the Nation, is to the Southland especially sacred. Nature has contributed the richest among her treasures. The site is one of majestic views, with its wooded slopes and ravines, the hillsides covered with giant oaks, centuries old. The entire estate consists of 1,160 acres. In Colonial days it was a part of the vast lands owned by Edmund Scarburgh, surveyor general of Virginia. It was purchased by John Custis and by him be- queathed to his son, Daniel Parke Custis, on whose death it came to his widow, Martha Dundridge and their children, John Parke and Eleanor Custis. George Washington, then a handsome young officer in the Virginia militia, courted and won the charming widow, and she, with her two children, went to Mount Vernon to live, where her daughter died. Her son grew to manhood, served on the staff of Gen, Washington and died leaving two children, who were adopted by Gen. Washington. This grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, built the present fine mansion and left it to his daughter, the wife of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Here Gen. Lee lived with his family until he left it April 21, 1861, to espouse the cause of his native State and later to draw his sword in the cause of the Confederacy. : After the war between the States, Col. George Washington Custis Lee brought suit against.the United States Government on the ground that the tax sale under which the Government had acquired the land was defective, and the suit was sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States. He subsequently sold the estate to the Government for $150,000. The cemetery was formally established in May, 1864, 208 acres being set aside for that purpose. In 1897 an additional 200 acres were added. It is stated that the first interment therein was that of a Confederate soldier of the 26th or 23d North Carolina Infantry, George L. Rhinehart. Many interments were afterward made of persons held to be citizens in rebellion until as late as the latter part of the year, 1867, but they were not all Confederate soldiers, a few being state prisoners of war who had been held in the old Capitol Prison in Washington. In all there seems to have been buried 377 persons classed as Confederates, and they were all given honorable interment and care except that the headboards over their graves described them as “rebels” and otherwise bore only the number of the grave and the name of the oc- cupant. The quartermaster general’s depart- ment in the early '70s, under act of Congress, marked the graves of the Union soldiers in all the national cemeterics, and as there remained a surplus of the appropriation, Quartermaster Gen. Batchelor used it to mark other than Union dead. All graves were marked with marble headstones of similar description. The graves remained in this condition until 241 were removed by Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, leaving still 136. UTIL 1898 the impression prevailed that there were very few Confederate dead in the vicinity of Washington. There were known to be 17 unknown buried at Woodside, Md., and & supposed half dozen or less buried at Arling- ton. During August of that year a few Con- federate soldier veterans undertook to ascertain whether there yet remained any overlooked In the Confederate Section of Arlington National Cemetery. Hozv the Section Was Set Aside in the National Cemetery for the Southland’s Heroic Soldier Dead—Area Comprises About Three- and-a-Half Acres Incident of the Headstones and the Distinguishing Letters “C. 8. A.” graves of ir comrades. They found the re- maining 136 which had not been removed. The graves were scattered about the cemetery, mainly in four irregular groups, most of them in what is generally known as the Custis Ravine, so called because the Custis family graves are located there, Following this investigation President Mc- Kinley, himself a Union officer, made his memorable address at Atlanta, Ga., on De- cember 14, 1898, when he saild: “And while when these graves were made we differed widely about the future of this Government, these differences were long ago settled by the arbitrament of arms, and the time has now come in the evolution of sentiment and feel- ing under the providence of God, when in the spirit of fraternity we should share with you in care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers. “The cordial feeling now happily existing between the North and South prompts this gracious act, and if it needed further justi- fication it is found in the gallant loyalty to the Union and the flag so conspicuously shown in the year just passed (1898) by the sons and grandsons of these heroic dead. “What a glorious future awaits us if united- ly, wisely and bravely we face the new prob- lems now pressing upon us, determined to solve them tor right and humanity.” Encouraged by the address of President Mc- Kinley, the Confederate veterans who made the investigation at Arlington organized the Charles Broadway Rouss Camp, No. 1171, United Confederate Veterans, with Dr. Samuel E. Lewis, instigator of the investigation, as commander, to secure a separate location and distinguishable markings of these graves ol their Confederate comrades, and a committee representing this body made a petition Lo President McKinley, “That if in his power he take executive action carrying out such remedial measures as were deemed advisable,” setting forth in detail the condition of the graves, and requested that one or more acres be designated a separate plat in which to bury all the Confederate dead scattered in Arling- ton and other national cemeteries within the District of Columbia; that they be arranged in divisions according to States and that ap- propriate headstones bearing a legend of the name, rank, company, regiment and State bz placed on the grave, and a suitable monu- ment be erected to mark the site.” President McKinley directed the quarter- master general to carry out the measures re- quested. The investigation, with inspection of the register, brought tc notice that the original register was held in a sealed vault in Philadelphia and was inaccessible, and from this seven transcripts had been made. The quartermaster general detailed a clerk to make an accurate register from these seven transcripts. The quartermaster general’s report of June, 1898, submitted by the Secretary of War to the President, stated the number of Confed- erate dead originally interred in Arlington, the number removed by the several Southern States, and at that date there remained 136 in Arlington and, in the Soldiers’ Home Cem- etery, 128. It was not until some years later that there were found at St. Elizabeth's, the District of Columbia Asylum for the Insane, another group of Confederate dead, the asylum having been used as a military hospital during the war between the States. July 6, 1899, the Committee of Charles Broadway Rouss Camp was invited by letter from Secretary Cortelyou to call at the Executive Mansion and to read this report and expr:iss its views in writing. The committee reiterated its views as expressed in the petition to President McKinley. N August, 1899, the depot quartermaster sent for Dr. Samuel E. Lewis, the commander of Charles Broadway Rouss Camp, and his com- mittee and astonished them with drawings showing not only the acre of ground requested, but plans including more than three acres and submitted two plans of which the committee were to select whichever they preferred. One drawing was in fan shape, the other a circle. ‘The committee decided on the circle. ‘This plat lies between the Spanish section and the roadway and was the first ground selected in the new part of the cemetery. It has an area of about three and one-third acres. The largest circle is 300 feet in diameter and has an area of about one and three-fifths acres. In the center space was reserved for the monu- ment, completed some years later. Outside the largest circle are Southern ornamental shrubs, and the interior has suitable shrubbery to define the quarter sections. It was believed the emergéncy fund would pay for the work, but so much money had been used in bringing home the bodies of the victims of the Maine from Cuba that no funds were avail- able, so the matter was laid before Senator Hawley, who requested that a bill be prepared stating the conditions and giving estimate of amount needed, which he would offer as an amendment to the sundry civil expense ap- Photo by C. O. Buckingham. propriation. ‘This amendment was adopted by Congress, and was approved by the President June 6, 1900, with the sum of $2500 ap- propriated. In addition to the $2,500 ap- propriated by Congress there was expended from the annual appropriations for cemeteries more than $4,000 for the purpose of grading, orna- menting with shrubbery, etc. A resolution was passed at the United Confederate Veterans’ Reunion in Memphis in May, 1901, extending thanks to the President of the United States and to Congress for this act. At this time Southern enthusiasm was awak- ened and there was a general movement throughout the South, first to have the bodies removed from Arlington to their respective States, and later to have all remains shipped to Hollywood Cemetery, in Richmond, Va. Such strong influence was exerted to this effect that the Secretary of War was em- barrassed as to what action to take. There seemed a probability that the appropriation would lapse back into the Treasury. Then the friends of Charles Broadway Rouss Camp came to their aid—the United Confederate Veterans’ Association, the Confederate organizations of the District of Columbia, Gen. Stephen D. Lee, Gen. John B. Gordon and many prom- inent individuals of Washington. On April 25, 1901, the Secretary of War issued an order to the quartermaster general to carry out the provisions of this law of Congress, In March, 1906, when President Taft was Secretary of War, the then president of the District of Columbia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy wrote to him requesting permission for the erection of a monument, and he replied in the affirmative. This request, however, was superfluous, as Congress in June, 1900, had already given permission when the bill was passed “with space reserved for a monument.” The headstones were designated by Dr. Samuel E. Lewis, who was frequently called in consultation by the quartermaster general as the work progressed. Dr. Lewis submitted the design with a pointed arch to distinguish from the curved arch of the Union soldiers, and submitted further for inspection the number of the grave, the name of the occu- pant, his rank, company, regiment, State and the letters “C. S. A.” When Dr. Lewis sub- mitted the design to an officer in the quarter- master's office, the officer laid his pencil across the letters “C. S. A.” and said: “Dr. Lewis—not that.” Dr. Lewis replied: “These men were members of the Confederate States Army. Without those letters, they are not distinguishable; the section would mean noth. ing. I am sorry to have caused you so much trouble, but without those letters we do not want—we cannot accept—the section. I bid you good-morning, sir.” The officer asked Lewis to wait. Then he called a clerk, gave him a key and, handing him the drawing, told him to lock it in a certain drawer and return the key to him. When this was done, the officer turned to Dr. Lewis and sald: *“Doctor, I am now ready to bid you good-morning.” Some months later the officer sent for Dr. Lewis, called the clerk, gave him the key and instructions to bring the drawing. When the latter was in his hand he said: “Dr. Lewis, I am happy to inform you your request has been complied with.” That design had since been used in marking the graves of the Confederate dead in all the national cemeteries throughout the North, for out of the reburial at Arlington Continued on Fourteenth Page