Norwich bulletin., 1922-07-29
JENNIE.
"REMINISCENCES OF ARLINGTol
 HEIGHTS.

virginia hills with the placid Potomac ! below, where the shadows of the capi- tals white dome fall and the monument, | like 8 grim sentinel, is ever on duty at | the gateway, his Arlington, the national | city of the dead. There sleeps nearly | 19,000 soldiers of the Union Arlington | has had but a few owners, and the title i to the estate is easy to trace One year less than 40 after the Pilgrims land ed at Plymouth Rock, the HOO acres in l
 Fairfax, Va, were granted under a | patent of Sir William BerkIey, governor | of Virginia, to Robert Howser. who | named the estate for the earl of Ari- | ington. Its next owners were the Alex anders. From them 1t was purchased i, by John Park Curtis, the son of Martha | Washington by her first husband. oil | the S4 national cemeteries, Arlington is l the most beautiful and best known. It
 never belonged to George Washington or Robert Lee. The United States l bought the Arlington estate. paying for 1 it six times as much as it was declared ] to be worth
 Nature has done her best for the beautiful spot. 4 stone wall surround 1 ed the cemetery, when sGw 1t, but 1t 1 was hidden under clinging vines. On l the river side it is entered by three his l toric gateways. The material of which these gates are constructed was taken from the old war department building
 which was taken down to make room for the present magnificent structure. l Under stately trees stands the tomb | Of the Unknown Dead, a grim pile of
 rough hewn granite and marble, stand l ing four square to the world. and hous | ing the remains of 2,111 dead. From Chantilly to the Rappahannock they | were gathered. They were found in | lonely fence corners, under tangled 1 thickets, by running streams and in 1 the deep forests. Sometimes there were l only a few bones and belt buckle to tell the story. The graves in Arlington. as in all national cemeteries, were at I first marked with a wooden slab bear | ing the name, service and date of death. | In 1872 the auartermaster-gen de- cided to mark them all with small mar ble slabs, suitably inscribed, and this has been done. There are about 1S.000 of these small headstones in Arlington,
 nearly 4,0o0 of these being very small. They have upon them the single word, Unknown" It Is a very interesting sight as you go up the river to see all
 those white slabs standing in rows, as far as you can see.
 T I did not see the national cemetery in Alexandria when I was there. It con
 tains four acres and in It are buried
 the remains of 3.660 Union soldiers. In the center stands a fine monument to : the four citizen firemen Of Alexandria
 who lost their lives in a collision on the Potomac while in pursuit Of the assas- sin. Booth, on April q, 1865. In Arlington. under the trees and along the paths beside which these : heroes sleep there are tablets of bronze bearing in white letters the following 3 verses from the great poem Of Col
 Theodore O'Hara:
 The mufied drums sad roI, has beat The soldiers last tattoo, I. No more on Life's parade shall meet
 That brave and fallen few. On Fame's eternal camping ground Their silent tents are spread.
 And glory guards with solemn round , The bivouac of the dead.
 No rumor Of the foes advance Now swells upon the wind:
 No troubled thought at midnight haunt!
 of loved ones left behind.
 Nor vision of the mornings strife
 The warriors dream alarms;
 No praying horn or screaming fife
 At dawn shall call to arms. The weighing troop. the flashing blade
 The bugle's stirring blast; | : The charge, the dreadful cannonade, , The din and shout are past. ) Rest on embalned and sainted dead, Dear as the blood ye gave; No impious footsteps here shall tread The herbage of your grave. Nor shall your giories be forgot While fame her record keeps, Or honor points the record spot here valor proudly sleeps,
 Nor wreck. nor change, nor winter ; blight,
 Nor times remorseless doom Shall dim one ray of holy light ,, That gilds your glorious tomb. These same lines are found in each O
 the s4 national cemeteries. Hoping this small record of the Civi , war may be interesting to the veteran ! 1 should they chance to see 1t. DOM PEDRO.