Tweleve in 12 – On Hallowed Ground

Twelve in 12 Reading Challenge.

Title:On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery
Author: Robert M. Poole
Twelve in 12: Book 1
State Date: 1-1-11
Fished: 1-9-11

This was a Kindle book my mother loaned me (under the new features – COOL, but that means I only had two weeks before the loan ended on the book), and she had spoken to me for a few weeks about it.

This book is a history of how Arlington came to be America’s National Cemetery. What I found particularly interesting was that it had belong the the family of Robert E. Lee – his wife’s property and has an amazing history. The mansion was originally intended to be living memorial to George Washington, was owned and constructed by his adopted grandson, George Washington Parke Custis; the son of John Parke Custis who was a child of Martha Washington from her first marriage and a ward of George Washington.

Upon the cession of Virgina during what became the Civil War, the Union Government acquired the property through what was shall call interesting means…BUT since the Civil War Arlington has been one of the most controversial properties related to Washington D.C. has has played a large, if quiet, role in the development of the country.

What I found interesting is this is a history, but interwoven into the facts are the biographies of people who were associated with it – from the grandest architect and presidents, down to the names of of the first soldiers buried there, as well as the slaves who had worked for the Lee family prior to the Civil War. There are so many people buried that, it is impossible to name everyone in a book of this length, but the author Poole was dedicated to bringing some of those stories, great and small, to life.