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.
Spanish–American War Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery)
The book stand was given to Arlington National Cemetery in 1904. Although designed to stand on the earth in the cellar of Arlington House, cemetery officials placed it on one of the wooden floors above. The book stand was so heavy that the floor sagged and required reinforcement. At the time, the building was not a house museum but rather contained the living quarters of the Superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery and office space for him and his staff. In 1929, the Record Book was transferred from Arlington House to Arlington Memorial Amphitheater when the main floor of the amphitheater became a Memorial Exhibit Hall displaying honors received by the unknown soldiers lying beneath the Tomb of the Unknowns. (It is not clear if it was put on display, or housed in the second-floor offices.) The cemetery offices moved into what is now the Old Administration Building in 1932, and the book stand was misplaced. Its whereabouts are not known as of 2013.