(By: Aubrey Schultz)
Address: Arlington National Cemetery; Arlington, Virginia
Hours: 9:00 am - 4:30 pm
Cost: Free
Website: www.nps.gov/arho
Contact Number: 703-607-8052
The Arlington House was built in the early 1800's by George Washington Parke Custis as a tribute to his step-grandfather George Washington. However the house is most famous for being the home of General Robert E. Lee and his wife Mary Custis Lee. They lived there for 30 years until they abandoned it during the American Civil War. The house has since been restored and now serves as a memorial to Robert E. Lee.
When President Lincoln asked Robert E. Lee to command the Union Army during the Civil War, Lee, loyal to his home state of Virginia, said no. Soon after, Robert E. Lee became the Commanding General of the Confederate Army of the south. In an act of revenge, General Montgomery Meigs, who despised Robert E. Lee, ordered that the dead bodies of Union soldiers be placed on the front porch of Robert E. Lee's house in Arlington Virginia. The corpses were eventually buried there, and that is how Arlington National Cemetery began.
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