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Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia , is an American Military Cemetery established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House , formerly the estate of the family of Robert E. Lee 's wife Mary Anna Custis Lee , a descendant of Martha Washington . The cemetery is situated directly across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. , near to the location of The Pentagon , and is served by the Arlington Cemetery station on the Blue Line of the Washington Metro system. More than 300,000 persons are buried here on 624 acres. Veterans from every one of the nation's wars are interred in the cemetery, from the American Revolution through the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq . Pre-Civil War dead were reinterred after 1900. Arlington National Cemetery and United States Soldiers' And Airmen's Home National Cemetery are administered by the Department Of The Army . The other National Cemeteries are administered by the Department Of Veterans Affairs or by the National Park Service . Arlington House (Custis-Lee Mansion) and its grounds are administered by the National Park Service as a memorial to Lee. HISTORY Traditionally, American military cemeteries developed from the duty of commanders on the frontier and in battle to care for their casualties. When the Civil War casualties overflowed hospitals and burial grounds near Washington, D.C., Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs proposed in 1864 that 200 acres of the Robert E. Lee family property at Arlington be taken for a cemetery. "The grounds about the mansion", Meigs wrote, "are admirably adapted to such a use." Burials had in fact begun at Arlington before the ink was even blotted on Meigs's proposal. By war's end, 16,000 graves filled the spaces close to the house. Heir to the property Custis Lee sued the government claiming that he owned the land. After the Supreme Court ruled in Lee's favor, Congress paid him $150,000 for title to the land. Arlington is not the largest national cemetery, but is possibly the most well-known. BURIAL CRITERIA Historical Today |
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