Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1865-04-19
miseellaneous.
Tie E,mst and the Present.

The Washington Mtelhgencea has the
following description and narrative:
A visit to the Arlington Mansion and
surrounding estate, a few days since,
filled US with oppressive and melancholy
reflections. -Four years ago Robert l..
Lee, then lieutenant colonel OF cavalry
in the Uuion army, and now commander
in-chief Of the rebel army, was with his
family i'll the happy possession OF that
magnificent inheritance. More than one
half of the estate, consisting OF thousand
acres, was covered with splendid for
est of oak and other timber, and the rich
and productive fields adorned with the
hand of culture. To-day what a change!
The venerable ancestral mansion erected
by the honored son by adoption OF the
Father Of his Country, and for halt CEN
tury his cultivated and delightful home,
is now in the centre of a vast cemetery OF
those who have f:,llen in the service of
their country.
Two hundred and fifty acres of this
estate surroun, q the mansion have been
permanently appropriated for burial pur-
poses by the government, mcioscd by
substantial and handsome fence. Nearly
five thousand soldiers have already been
there buried, and the number is daily
growing larger In 1858, Mrs. Gusts,
the mother of MIS-. Gen. Lee, died in the
Arlington Mansion, and was buried IN
sequestercd and delightful grove near the
mansion ; and in 1857 Mr.. Custis died,
azd his remains were deposited by her
side. "A vast concoursc of persons Of every
rank testifying their reverence for the de-
parted by their presence at the o5s'quIes.
That sequeStered grove, thus selected
by its owner as the last resting place for
himself and his, has been in the tempest
| Of the times invaded, the forest has been
transformed into field of the dead, and
the two marble columns marking the re-
mains of George Washington l'arke Cur
It's and Mary Lee Fitzhugh, his wife,
| now rise III tke midst of more than four
thousand patriot soldiers graves. Nearly
the whole of the timber and y, Cd has
| been swept from the entire estate and
used for war purposes. The Freedmen's
Village is established upon one portion of
the land thus cleared, and it is all being
put under cultivation by contraband negro
| labor.
Mr. Custis inherited this estate from
| his father, who was the son of Mrs.
| General Washington by Il former hns-
| band Soon after his mother died in
| 1902, he, then about twenty-five years of
age. came here from Mount Vernon. and
with his young and accomplished wife
took up their residence in the Arlington
Mansion, which he had just then erected,
and which evermore was their beautiful
and cultivated home. The fruits of this
union were four daughters, all of whom
died in infancy, except Mary Gusts, the
wife of General Robert +. Lee. Mr.
| Custis' father, John Parke Gusts, was
aid-de= camp to Washington, and died of
"A camp fever IN 1871, contracted at the
| siege of Yorktown, at the age of twenty
seven years. He had married, at nne-
teen years of age, Eleanor Calvert, of
Mount Airy, Maryland, a descendant of
the second Lord Baltimore. when but
fifteen years of age, and at twenty three
she was thus made widow with four
children. General Washington FASTENED
to Ethan, Md. where the husband was
sick. only to see him in his dying mo-
ments. This was the only surviving
child of Mrs. Washington, the daughter
having died some years before. He was
deeply affected, and, weeping, said to the
mother: q adopt the two Younger
children as my own" These were Ella
nor Gusts, then two and half years OF
age, who died at seventeen, of consump-
tion, and George Washington Parke
Gusts, then six months old
General Robert Edmund Lee is the
son of General Henry Lee, of Revolution.
airy memory, and known as % Light Horse
Harry" whose mother was the beautiful
: Miss Grimes, General Washington's first
love, and whom he celebrated as .sthe
low land beauty" General Harry Lee
; was twice married. BY the first MARI.
age he had two children, Henry Gan Off
Ger in the war of 1922 and Lucy. By
the second wite-a Miss Garter, of Shir.
ley-he had five childred, two daughters
Annie and Mildred, and three sons The
sons were Charles Carter, Robert Ed
mund (the generaD and Sidney Smith, the
last named an officer in our navy. and
now in the rebel navy.
General Robert +. Lee was born ir
1908, and is, consequently fiftv-sever
years of age. He graduated second ir
| his class, in 1929 (Judge Charles Mason