The press reported that there were 147 graves at Colon Cemetery, although since there were believed to be 166 bodies it was also assumed that some coffins contained more than one body. In October 1899, Representative Charles A. Boutelle sponsored successful legislation that appropriated $10,000 to have the U.S. Navy repatriate the bodies buried at Colon Cemetery. Boutelle wanted them reinterred at Arlington National Cemetery near the field where the dead of the Siege of Santiago were buried. With the Spanish–American War over, Spanish law no longer barred disinterment in Cuba. By mid-November, as plans for the disinterment proceeded, the "Washington Post" reported that reburial at Arlington was not yet official.