The Portland daily press., 1895-06-01
AMONG 10000 GRAVES.
Women Who Sleep Among the yete.
rams at Arlington.


The Home of the Custises and of Robert
e. Lee Now a Great Burning Ground
Sheridan's Grave.
Very few people know that about thirty
women and several children lie among
the l6 600 veterans whose ashes rest under
the beautiful oaks at Arlington Nor is
1t generally known that the law permits
! the wife of any officer in the regular or
volunteer army or navy to be buried
there The same privilege pertains to all
OF the eighty national cemeteries in which
the veterans of the war are buried, with
the exception of that attached to the Sol
dlers' Home in Washington. writes the
Washington correspondent of the New
York Sun. The latter belongs to the reg
ular army, and it is not maintained bv a
congressional appropriation, but by tax
OF IL cents month upon all the officers
and soldiers in the regular service, the
Paymaster General being authorized to
transfer that amount from the appropria
ton for the pay of the army to the credit
OF the Commissioners of the Soldiers
Home, who are the General of the Army
and the heads of the Quartermaster's and
Commissary Departments.
1t was originally proposed to bury Gen.
Sheridan at the top of one of the shady
| knobs in the park that surrounds the Sol
diers' Home, but his widow would not
permit it because she could not lie there
by his side. The same is true of Gen
Logan Mrs Logan selected site for
his tomb on the grounds of the Soldiers
Home, and orders were issued by the
Commissioners for the preparation of a
vault to receive his casket but when he
was confronted with the inexorable rule
| prohibiting the burial of woman there,
she selected a lot in Rock Creek Cemetery
Which lies just across the highway. where
she has since erected an elaborate mortu-
airy chapel, large enough to contain t he
bodies of her children and grandchildren
for several generations.
Gen. Sheridan's S body lies on the grassy
slope in front of the old mansion at Ar
lington, with a dignifed and imposing
l
there also. At the other end of the lawn,
in corresponding position, lies Admiral
Porter, and his widow will have a place
at his side
| Other women who will sometime have
conspicuous burial places at Arlington
are the widow of Gen. Ricketts,, who
| commanded brigade or division or a
| corps in twenty seven battles, and in five
OF them was wounded so severely that he
had to be carried off the field. He served
a year in Libby Prison, and when ex-
changed went down the Shenandoah Val
ley in command of the Sixth Army Corns.
and fought with Sheridan until he re-
ceived the wounds which caused his
death.
Mrs Paul, the widow of a gallant SOL
dier who lost his eyes by the explosion of
a shell, and for many years was wander
| ing blind around the streets of Washing
ton will find her final home there also !.
and Mrs. Heintzelman, whose husband
was hero of two wars.
They wanted to bury Gen. Crook in
Omaha, as they wanted to bury Sheridan
and Logan in Chicago, but the widow of
| the great Indian fighter consented to let
his remains rest at Arlington, provided
she might lie by his side.
The first woman buried at Arlington
after it became military cemetery was
Louisa Rogers-Meigs, the daughter of the
famous Commodore John Rogers, and
the wife of Montgomery Meigs, who was
| Quartermaster- General of the Federal
armies throughout the war, whose respon-
sibilities in supplying the needs of two
millions of soldiers were quite as arduous
and important as those of the Generals
who commanded them in the field The
remains of Mrs. Meigs and her daupher
lie in beautiful marble sarcophagus. On
one side is the body of the Generals faith
er, Josiah Meigs, who was the first Com
missioner of the United States Land
Office, and on the other side is the grave
of his son, Lieut.. John Rogers Meigs,
| who was Sheridan's chief of engineers in
the Shenandoah, and was killed at the
battle of Winchester. His grave is marked
by block of beautiful marble, upon
which rests life-sized figure of the young
soldier in the posture in which his body
lay when it was found upon the battle
field. Gen Meigs may be regarded as the
founder of the Arlington Cemetery, and
it was therefore appropriate that he and
his family should lie there.
The Arlington estate, which is our
national Metropolis, stretches along the
| Potomac river for considerable distance,
| with the old National pike between
| Georgetown and Alexandria marking its
southern boundary. The place was part
of grant made by Sir William Berkeley,
Governor of Virginia, to Robert Howson,
| in 1862 and was named in honor of the
Earl of Arlington. The property was first