Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, Quartermaster Corps, United States Army, was the first to suggest to President Lincoln that the estate be converted into a military cemetery, and in 1864, by order of Secretary of War Stanton, 200 acres were set apart and dedicated as a national cemetery for the burial of Union soldiers and sailors. However, the first man to be buried there was a Confederate soldier who died in the hospital May 13, 1864.
There are buried in Arlington a small number of those who fought in the Revolutionary War and some who were in the War of 1812. Their remains were removed to Arlington from an abandoned cemetery in 1892. Thousands of men who died in the Civil War are buried there, with veterans of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine campaign, and now the veterans of the World War are steadily being added to the number.
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY—MEMORIAL AMPHITHEATER
In front of Arlington House is the tomb of Maj. Pierre Charles L’Enfant, engineer, artist, and soldier, who, under the direction of President Washington and Thomas Jefferson, designed the plans for the city of Washington.
ARLINGTON MEMORIAL AMPHITHEATER
On May 5, 1868, Gen. John A. Logan, commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued the following general order (No. 11):
The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country, * * * posts and comrades will, in their own way, arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.
There has been an annual observance of this ceremony in all the national cemeteries of the country since this order was promulgated.
For years a vine-covered pergola, erected by the Quartermaster’s Department of the Army, was used for the Memorial Day exercises. When it was found to be entirely inadequate to accommodate the increasing number of people who attended the exercises, it was decided to erect a suitable building which would serve not only as a memorial to our soldiers and sailors but which would also provide an assembly place for those attending such exercises as might be held in the cemetery grounds.