How did Arlington cemetery get its name?

Answer 1

Arlington was an estate, and the home of Robert E. Lee. Lee's wife was a granddaughter of Martha Washington and had inherited Arlington. The first southern territory the Yankees overran was Virginia just across the Potomac from Washington DC, including Arlington.

The Quartermaster General of the US Army was Montgomery Meigs. Meigs was responsible for seeing to the burial of fallen Union soldiers. Existing cemeteries were soon full. Meigs was vindictive - his son had just died in the Union service. He issued an order confiscating Arlington house and its grounds for use as a cemetery. Some time later he visited the new cemetery and found that burial crews were interring the dead in a field far distant from the house. Meigs flew into a rage, and issued specific orders that the dead were to be buried as close to the house as possible, right by the foundations. Meigs wanted to ensure that "no one would ever live in that house again", and no one has. There is no record of how the families of the dead soldiers buried right by somebody's foundation to make a point might have felt, but that does not seem to have been the sort of thing which would trouble Meigs very much. I believe any such burials close to the house were moved later.

The government eventually paid Lee's heirs something for the house and property, many years after Lee was dead.

Months before his death President Kennedy visited the Custis-Lee House, as Arlington house is now known. He marveled at the beautiful view from the veranda, and said it would be a lovely place to be buried. And that's where he is, just down the hill below General Lee's house.