The following is a book review written in September 2015.
Robert Poole’s Section
60, Arlington National Cemetery: Where War Comes Homes (2014) is centered
around the 14-acre Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, itself 624 acres.
(5) It is here that soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.
It is written in a journalistic style, quoting extensively from interviews, conveying
the sentiments of the book’s subjects in their own words. These personal
accounts are interspersed with snippets of the broader historical context.
While its subject matter is grim, it is a light read.
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| A scene from the funeral of John F. Kennedy. JFK's funeral helped transform the national significance of Arlington National Cemetery. |
Regarding
the history of the cemetery itself, the land once belonged to George
Washington’s adopted son George Washington Parke Custis. The cemetery’s name
and the Greek Revival mansion on the property are legacies of Custis’s
ownership. Custsis was a slave owner, and between 1802 and 1818, his slaves
constructed the mansion on the property. Custis’s ancestors owned an estate
named Arlington House, and so his mansion came be called Arlington House. When
Custis’s daughter married Robert E. Lee in 1831, the ceremony was conducted in
Arlington House. Lee and his new wife raised their family in Arlington House
until the Civil War. (25-26)
It
was during the Civil War that the land acquired its current function as a
burial ground. Union troops seized the property, and as casualties mounted,
they established a national cemetery on the property in 1864. By the end of the
war, 10,000 dead were already interred. (26) During this period, a Freedman’s
Village was also established on the property.
In
the post-Civil War period, part of the former Custis estate was turned into a
cavalry outpost. This became what is today Fort Myer. And in 1900, an
additional portion of the property was turned into an experimental farm managed
by the Department of Agriculture. The farm was relocated to Beltsville,
Maryland in 1940. The Pentagon was built on part of the farm’s former location.
During the Second World War, military infrastructure gradually expanded onto
the land surrounding the cemetery.
The turning point was JFK’s
funeral in 1963, which dramatically heightened the cemetery’s profile. The
funeral was televised and watched by more than 41 million people. The funeral
“transformed the landscape at Arlington with the swiftness of an Old Testament
cataclysm.” (28) Less than 2.5 million people visited the cemetery annually in
the year before the funeral. 7 million people visited the cemetery in 1964.
Before the funeral, 4,000 soldiers annually opted to be buried in the cemetery.
After the funeral, the number of soldiers who chose Arlington as a place of
burial rose to 7,000. In response to the influx of visitors, $2.5 million
dollars was invested in redesigning JFK’s tomb, and cars were banned from the
cemetery. In response to the influx of soldiers choosing to be lain to rest in
Arlington, burial qualifications were tightened, the cemetery was expanded to
its currents size, and a columbarium with a capacity of 50,000 inurnments was established.
(29) A columbarium is a building that stores burial urns of cremated remains.
Section 60 does something extraordinary. It demonstrates the
dynamism of cemetery history. Generations of countless individual lives
converge on cemeteries. Yes, this is true of those who are buried in them. In
the case of Arlington, soldiers from conflicts as geographically and
ideologically disparate as the American Civil War, the Vietnam War, and the
Iraq War, to name just a few, are lain beside each other.
This convergence goes well
beyond the lives of the dead, however. For the wealthy Custis and Lee families,
the land once served as an estate. Here, they resided in opulence. Meanwhile, for
the people they held in bondage, it served as a plantation, a place of labor
and servitude, though also the place where the meaningful moments of their
lives played out, such as in interactions with loved ones. For soldiers at Fort
Myers, the nearby land has served as a training ground. Also nearby, others
worked on an experimental farm run by the Department of Agriculture. Countless
people from all walks (or at least a lot them) of American life visit the
cemetery each year, bringing with them countless attitudes and perspectives on
the cemetery symbols in which Arlington envelops them. For many, such as the
nearby florists, the land remains a source of income.
Part of the dynamism of
Arlington’s history is the evolution of its symbolic meaning. Formerly worked
by about 200 slaves, following the Civil War the land was the site of a
1,000-strong Freedman’s Village. Formerly an estate occupied by Robert E. Lee,
the most famous Confederate general, it was quickly occupied by the Union and
designated a national burial ground for those who lost their lives defeating
the Confederacy.
Section 60 will be of value primarily to those interested America’s
recent wars, especially firsthand accounts of soldiers and their loved ones. It
contains many black-and-white photographs of the cemetery and the individuals
who populate its pages. However, it will also be of value to those who are
interested in the history of cemeteries and their evolving meaning and
landscapes.
Robert M. Poole, Section
60, Arlington National Cemetery: Where War Comes Home (New York:
Bloomsbury, 2014).
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