The Civil War began in 1861 after years of conflict over slavery and its expansion. Southern states seceded after Abraham Lincoln’s election, and Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter. The United States fought to preserve the Union; as the war continued, emancipation became central to its outcome. The 13th Amendment ended slavery, while the 14th and 15th Amendments addressed citizenship and voting rights.

The war’s enormous loss of life led to new national burial grounds. Arlington National Cemetery was established on the occupied Arlington estate in 1864. Its graves, memorials, Arlington House, and the history of Freedman’s Village reflect different parts of that conflict and its aftermath.

Washington during the war

Across the Potomac, Washington was the Union capital and a base for its armies. Soldiers built a ring of defenses around the city, and wounded troops arrived from the front. The population grew rapidly as the war reshaped daily life. In July 1864, fighting reached Fort Stevens in northern Washington. Arlington’s occupation and eventual use as a cemetery belong to this wider story of a capital at war.

For a separate day of exploring, the American Battlefield Trust’s Civil War Washington itinerary connects nine sites, including Arlington House, Frederick Douglass’s home, Ford’s Theatre, and Fort Stevens. It estimates about 7½ hours. Check each site’s current hours and tour availability before setting out.

When civilians came to watch

At the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) in July 1861, curious civilians traveled from Washington expecting a quick Union victory. Some brought food and opera glasses, but food was practical for the long trip. Most watched from around Centreville, about five miles from the fighting; only a few moved closer. When Union troops retreated, spectators joined the congested flight toward Washington. The familiar “picnic battle” label makes the outing sound more carefree, and closer to combat, than it was for most onlookers.

People also visited battlefields after the fighting. In 1863, Julia Wilbur traveled with other women to the Manassas area. Her diary described wounded soldiers’ stories and traces of the dead still visible on the ground. Her account shows how different those later visits were from watching a battle at a distance.

How the war changed funerals

Before the war, many Americans died and were buried close to home. Soldiers died far away in unprecedented numbers, and families often wanted to bring them back. Embalming became more common because it could preserve remains for the journey. The demand also helped turn undertaking into a larger profession that arranged transport, preparation, viewings, and funerals. Writer Tom Poland also describes how earlier home funerals and locally made coffins gave way to new customs; Lincoln’s widely viewed funeral train helped people see what embalming made possible.

Some of the war’s most memorable stories happened beyond Arlington. The sources below help separate documented history from later legend.

Jackson’s arm and Sickles’s leg

After Confederate general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s arm was amputated in 1863, it was buried in the Ellwood family cemetery near the Wilderness battlefield. A granite marker was placed there in 1903, but it identifies only the general area; archaeologists have not found the exact burial spot. The National Park Service also explains how the marker became part of later Confederate memorialization. Union general Daniel Sickles lost a leg to a cannonball at Gettysburg. He donated it to the Army Medical Museum and later visited the display, sometimes bringing guests.

Why a shallow creek could still stop soldiers

At Antietam, the National Park Service describes a waist-deep creek with swift water, slippery footing, and steep banks. Wet wool clothing and ruined black powder added to the risk. The broader claim that most Civil War soldiers could not swim or feared even shallow water is not established by this example.

“Angel’s Glow” at Shiloh

A popular story says some wounds glowed and healed unusually well after the 1862 battle. The glowing bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens is a possible scientific explanation, but there is little historical evidence that glowing wounds were observed at Shiloh. The proposed cause and better survival are hypotheses, not established facts.

How legends spread

The National Archives’ list of unusual Civil War facts includes a correction to a Gettysburg horse-statue tale: the number of raised hooves does not reliably tell you whether the rider survived, was wounded, or died in battle. It is a useful reminder to check a striking story against records and the people who study the site.

Arlington National Cemetery was established during the Civil War on June 15, 1864. Its first military burial, Private William Christman, took place on May 13, a month before the formal designation. The first national Decoration Day observance, a predecessor of Memorial Day, was held here in 1868.

Before it was a cemetery, the Arlington estate was a plantation sustained by enslaved African Americans. Freedman’s Village began on the grounds in 1863 for people who had been enslaved; it offered schools, churches, and other services. The government removed the remaining residents in 1900. These histories are part of understanding the place today.

How large was the estate? John Parke Custis purchased 1,100 acres in 1778; his son George Washington Parke Custis later inherited the property. The Army designated 200 acres of that estate for military burials in 1864. Through later expansions, Arlington National Cemetery grew to 639 acres. See ANC’s historical expansion

Before it was a cemetery, the Arlington estate was a plantation sustained by enslaved African Americans. George Washington Parke Custis, Martha Washington’s grandson and George Washington’s stepgrandson, had Arlington House built there between 1802 and 1818 as a memorial to George Washington. Enslaved African Americans built the house. The house later became home to Custis’s daughter Mary Anna Custis Lee, an artist and writer, and her husband Robert E. Lee, who left the U.S. Army and led Confederate forces during the Civil War. The U.S. Army occupied the strategically placed estate in 1861. Freedman’s Village began on the grounds in 1863 for people who had been enslaved; it offered schools, churches, and other services. After a Supreme Court ruling over the property’s seizure, the federal government purchased the estate from the Lee family in 1883. The government removed the remaining village residents in 1900. These histories are part of understanding the place today. The National Park Service preserves the house as Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial.

Mary Randolph published The Virginia House-Wife in 1824, a book the Library of Virginia calls the first American regional cookbook. She was a cousin of George Washington Parke Custis and, according to the National Park Service, the first person recorded buried on the grounds that later became Arlington National Cemetery. The Arlington Historical Society explains how plantation cooking depended on the labor of enslaved people. Mary Randolph was a different person from Mary Custis Lee. This book is historical context, not one of Betty’s recipes.

Lee became a prominent symbol after the Civil War. Veterans’ groups, descendants, and later memorial organizations placed his name and image on monuments, schools, and public spaces. Many presented him as an emblem of honor and national reconciliation.

That remembrance was also shaped by the Lost Cause, an interpretation that downplayed slavery’s central role in the war and supported segregation and the exclusion of Black Americans. Historians have since examined Lee and these memorials more critically. At Arlington House, the fuller history includes the Custis and Lee families, the people they enslaved, and Freedman’s Village. In 2022, descendants of both the Lee family and people enslaved at Arlington House supported a proposal to rename the site. As of October 2026, the National Park Service still uses the official title Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial.

ANC says it is the final resting place of nearly 430,000 service members and eligible dependents. It projects running out of space for new burials by 2041 under unchanged eligibility rules, or by 2060 with the Southern Expansion project. These are ANC’s planning projections, not fixed closure dates.

Arlington and the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery are administered by the Army. The VA’s National Cemetery Administration manages most of the others: its August 2026 list includes 158 national cemeteries. See the VA list

The Army published a proposed rule in September 2020, and its public comment period closed November 16, 2020. The federal regulatory agenda still lists it at the final-rule stage; the agenda’s August 2026 target was an estimate. These are proposed categories, not the current eligibility rules. ANC says any eventual change would not affect previously scheduled services or VA and state veterans’ cemetery eligibility.

Proposed in-ground interment

• Service members killed in action, including repatriated remains
• Medal of Honor recipients; ANC planned to reserve 1,000 gravesites
• Silver Star or higher award recipients who also have armed conflict service
• Purple Heart recipients
• Service members whose deaths resulted from preparations or operations related to combat, as defined in the proposal
• Former prisoners of war
• U.S. presidents and vice presidents
• Veterans with armed conflict service who also held positions of significant governmental responsibility, as defined in the proposal

Proposed above-ground inurnment

• World War II-era veterans, including legislated active-duty designees
• Armed Forces retirees eligible for retired pay who are not otherwise eligible for in-ground interment
• Veterans with at least two years of active duty and armed conflict service
• Veterans without armed conflict service who held positions of significant governmental responsibility, as defined in the proposal

1789: Congress established the Department of War under President George Washington. Henry Knox became its first secretary under the Constitution.

1947–1949: The National Security Act created the National Military Establishment in 1947. Congress renamed that organization the Department of Defense in 1949.

2025: An executive order authorized “Department of War” as a secondary title for the Department of Defense. The order says references to “Department of Defense” in law remain controlling unless Congress changes them. The order described the secondary title as a way to emphasize military strength and readiness.

The Pentagon was built in Arlington during World War II to house the growing War Department. Its first proposed site was near Arlington National Cemetery. After objections to building there, the site moved downriver, but the architects kept the five-sided design. Ground was broken on September 11, 1941, and construction was completed in February 1943. The building became home to the National Military Establishment in 1947, then the Department of Defense in 1949.

Arlington is also a memorial arboretum. Its published overview describes more than 9,800 trees representing about 400 species and varieties. The tree inventory (opens in a new tab) is dated 2015, with a 2018 summary; use it as a guide, not a live map of every tree.

A second-generation American sycamore in Section 48 is known as the Moon Tree. It was planted in 2005 near Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa’s grave in Section 7A. Seeds from its ancestor traveled around the Moon with Roosa in 1971; the Arlington tree itself did not. Read the Moon Tree story (opens in a new tab)

Cherry trees bloom mainly in spring. The cemetery notes that the Autumnalis variety can sometimes bloom in fall, even November, but blossoms are never guaranteed. Its published cherry guide (opens in a new tab) mentions Section 45 and Crook Walk; Crook Walk has steep steps. For a longer visit, ANC’s mapped arboretum walk (opens in a new tab) is about 2.5 miles and rated moderate.

ANC’s research and conservation archive (opens in a new tab) documents work across different years, including boxwood evaluation, chestnut planting, turf and soil studies, rain gardens, and seed collecting. These are historical project accounts, not a claim that every study is underway now. Explore trees with Medal of Honor stories (opens in a new tab)

Dedicated on November 11, 1921, the Tomb first honored an unidentified American service member from World War I. The idea arose from the vast number of unidentified dead of World War I and related memorials established by other nations. Britain buried its Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey on November 11, 1920, a year before the American dedication. France honored its Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe that same day and completed the burial there on January 28, 1921. Unknown service members from World War II and the Korean War were interred in 1958. President Reagan presided over the interment of the Vietnam War Unknown in 1984.

DNA testing identified the Vietnam War Unknown as Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie in 1998. His family reinterred him at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri. The Vietnam crypt remains empty; it was rededicated on September 17, 1999, to honor missing U.S. service members from that war. ANC marked the Tomb’s centennial on November 11, 2021.

At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the guard changes every hour on the hour from October 1 through March 31. If you hope to see it on Monday, consider an 11:00 AM or noon visit, with generous time for the approximately 0.7-mile walk from the Welcome Center to the Tomb, uphill sections or a tram, ordinary visitor screening, and your return to the funeral vehicle staging area by 2:15 PM. Tram routes may change around funerals.

A sightseeing visit follows normal visitor access and parking rules; it does not authorize early entry for a funeral vehicle. Funeral-party vehicle entry begins no earlier than 2:00 PM. Check ANC’s current plan and follow staff directions on the day.