United States v. Lee (1882)
With local cemeteries in Alexandria County and Alexandria filling rapidly with war dead, Quartermaster General of the United States Army Montgomery C. Meigs proposed using of the Arlington estate as a cemetery. The first burial there was made on May 13, 1864. United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton approved the establishment of a military cemetery on June 15, 1864, creating Arlington National Cemetery. By the end of the war in April 1865, more than 16,000 people had been buried at Arlington. In September 1866, a memorial and a burial vault (containing the remains of 2,111 U.S. and Confederate soldiers who died at the First Battle of Bull Run, Second Battle of Bull Run, and along the Rappahannock River) were buried in Lee's former wildflower garden on the mansion's east side beneath the Civil War Unknowns Monument, a memorial to honor unknown soldiers who had died during the American Civil War.
List of memorials and monuments at Arlington National Cemetery
Several memorials and monuments in Arlington National Cemetery no longer exist. One of the earliest memorials to be built in the cemetery was the Sheridan Gate, named for General Philip Sheridan. The gate was constructed in 1879 of four Ionic columns salvaged from the demolition of the War Department Building (located at the site of the current Eisenhower Executive Office Building). Initially, there was no name inscribed on the gate's pediment, although the last names of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Edwin M. Stanton, and Winfield Scott were chiseled into the front of each column. After the death of Sheridan, his last name was added to the pediment and the gate became known as the Sheridan Gate. Another early memorial was the Ord-Weitzel Gate, named for Major General Edward Ord and Major General Godfrey Weitzel. Also completed in 1879, it was constructed from two salvaged War Department Building columns. Like the Sheridan Gate, this gate was initially not dedicated to anyone. But by 1902, with the passing of both Ord and Weitzel, their names were inscribed into left and right columns of the gate, respectively. Arlington National Cemetery's easternmost boundary had, since 1864, been the Arlington Ridge Road (what is present-day Eisenhower Drive). In 1971, the cemetery expanded eastward to its present boundary (the Jefferson Davis Highway). At that time, the Sheridan and Ord-Weitzel gates were dismantled and the columns, marble pediments, and iron gates put into outdoor storage. Unfortunately, both gates were severely damaged during their dismantling. They were further damaged by inappropriate outdoor storage, and have been heavily vandalized.