Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1865-04-19
THE PAST AND THE PRESENT.
A True Story of Great Change-Arlington
and its Proprietors.

| A visit to the Arlington Mansion and sur
rounding estate, a few days since, filled US
with oppressive and melancholy reflections.
Four years ago Robert +. Lee, tfen Lieu
tenant Colonel OF cavalry in the Union army,
and now Commander-in-C Chief Of the rebel
army, was with his family in the happy pos
session of that magnificent inherltence.
| More than one half OF the estate, consisting
OF a thousand acres, was covered with splen
did forest, OF oak and other timber, and the rich
and productive fields adorned with the hand
OF culture. To-day what change The
venerable ancestral mansion, erected by the
son, by adoption, of the Father of his Coun-
| try, and tor half century his cultivated and
delighted home, is now In the centre of a
cemetery Of those who have fallen in the
sevice OF their country.
Two hundred and fifty acres of this estate
surrounding the mansion have been perma-
nently appropriated for burial purposes by
the Government, and inclosed by substan-
tial and handsome fence Nearly five thou
sand soldiers have already been there buried,
and the number is daily growing larger. In
| 1858, Mrs. Custis, the mother If Mrs Gen.
| Lee, died in the Arlington Mansion, and
| was buried in sequestered and delightful
grove near the mansion, and in 1857 Mr.
| Custus died, and his remains were de-
| posted by her side, vast concourse of per-
sons of every rank testifying their reverence
| for the departed by their presence at the OBJ
| sequles.
| That sequestered grove, thus selected by
its owner as the last resting place for L i'm
| self and his, has been in the tempest of the
times invaded, the forest has been transform
ed into field of the dead, and the two mar
| BILE columns marking the remains of George
Washington, and Parke Custis and Mary
Lee Fitzhugh, his wife, now rise in the midst
of more than four thousand patriot soldiers
graves Nearly the whole of the timber
and wood has been swept from the entire
estate and used for war purposes. The
Freedman's Village is established upon one
portion of the land thus cleared, and it is all
being put under cultivation by contraband
negro labor.
| The mansion is now occupied by the Off
Ger in command of the post and his subordi-
mates. The dining hall is used as an Office. In
| this room are three old fashioned book cases,
containing some four hundred volumes, prin-
cipally old books-broken sets of very small
value. The parlor adjoining the hall is not
| occupied, the only article in it being ma
| hogony side board, which came from Mount
Vernon. In the parlor, beyond, are two
sofas and six stuffed mahogony chairs, COW
cred with scarlet velvet two marble top ia
bles, a side board and piano stool, matching
the chairs. On the walls are several coarse
large portraits, and one or two oil paintings.
There are, also two old engravings of aclas-
steal NEUROLOGICAL character, hanging with
| the rest The room in the Southerly wing,
and used by Gen. Lee for his Office, is now
used as bedroom; and all the upper
part of the mansion is used for like pur-
pose The building is not injured. The
| flower garden has been enclosed by new
fence and is laid out and tastefully adorned
this spring
The grave of each soldier is neatly mark
ed by wooden slab at the head and foot,
painted white, inscribed with the name of
the soldier, and his company and regiment,
at little distance these slabs have the ap-
pearance of marble The mounds are to be
| neatly covered with sod.
| Gen. Robert 4. Lee was born in 1903, and
| is consequently, htty-seven years of age.
! He graduated second in his class, in 1929,
| Judge Charles Mason, ofWashington City,
and formerly Commissioner of Patents, stand
ing first in that class, and was assigned to
the Engineer corps, as Second Lieutenant !;
| in 1885 an Assistant Astronomer, fixing the
| boundary between Ohio and Michigan in
| 1886 promoted to First Lieutenant; Captain
in 1883; Chief Engineer under Gen. Scott,
in Mexico, and greatly distinguished. being
promoted successfully, by merit, Major, 1t.
Colonel and Colonel, for his gallantry; in
! 1852 Superintendent of Military Academy ;
in 1856, transferred as Lieutenant Colonel of
the new regiment of cavalry March 10th,
| 1861, promoted Colonel of the First Cavalry
resigned April 18th following, and embark
ed in the rebellion.
The following are the children of General
Lee George Washington Custis Lee, about
thirty three years of age; Mary Custis Lee,
about thirty; William Henry Fitzhugh Lee,
about twenty-seven; Annie Lee died at
Berkley Springs in 1868, and would have
been now about twenty-five; Agnes Lee, "a
bout twenty-three Robert T. Lee, about
twenty; Mildred Lee. about eighteen. None
of them have married except William Hen
ry Fitzhugh, whose wife, Miss Charlotte
Wickham, died in Richmond in 1868. The
eldest son, George, graduated at the head of
his class, at West Point, in 1854, and was
first lieutenant in the corps of engineers
when he followed his father into the South
ern service. William Henry was farming
upon the White House estate. which be-
longed to the Custis inheritance when the
war opened He was commissioned second
lieutenant in the Sixth Infantry In 1858, but
resigned in 1859. Robert was at military
school in Virginia. The sons, it is well
known, are all officers in the rebellion. The
three surviving daughters are with their
mother, who, it is believed, has latterly been
at Lynchburg.
Mr. Gusts, at the time of his death, own
ed some two hundred slaves, who, by his
will, were to be free at the termination of
five years from his death, which period ex-
pired October 10, 1862 The most of these
slaves were kept on the White House es-
tate, and Ill the valuable portiou vore oaz>