Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-07
BY MARY JOHNSON.

RLINGTON hallowed ground because
~ it Is Gods Acre for the Nation, Is
~ to the Southland especially sacred.
n Nature has contributed the richest
among her treasures The site Is one
Of majestic views, with its wooded
slopes and ravines, the hilSideS covered with
giant oaks, centuries old. The entire estate
consists OF 100 acres. In Colonial days it was
q part Of the vast lands owned by Edmund
Scarburgh, surveyor general of Virginia. 1t was
purchased by John Gusts and by him be-
queathed to his son. Daniel Parke Gusts, on
whose death it to his widow Martha
Dundridge and their children, John Parke and
Eleanor Gusts
George Washington, then a handsome young
officer in the Virginia militia, courted and won
the charming widow. and she. with her two
children, went to Mount Vernon to live, where
her daughter died. Her son grew to manhood.
served on the staff OF Gen. Washington and
died leaving two children who were adopted by
Gen. Washington. This grandson, George
Washington Parke Gusts. built the present fine
mansion and left it to his daughter, the wife
of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Here Gen. Lee lived
with his family until he left it April 81, 1861,
to eSpouse the cause of his native State and
later to draw his sword in the cause OF the
Confederacy.
After the war between the States. Col. George
Washington Gusts Lee brought suit against. the
United states Government on the ground that
the tax sale under which the Government had
acquired the land was defective, and the suit
was sustained by the Supreme Court Of the
United States. He subsequently sold the estate
to the Government for $4,000. The cemetery
was formally established in May. 1864, 2o8 acres
being set aside for that purpose. In 1897 an
additional 200 acres were added.
1t is stated that the first interment therein
was that of a Confederate soldier Of the Goth
or 23d North Carolina Infantry, George L.
Rhinehart. Many intermentS were afterward
made of persons held to be citizens In rebellion
until as late as the latter part of the year. 1867
but they were not all Confederate soldiers,
few being state prisoners Of war who had been
held in the old Capitol Prison in Washington.
In all there seems to have been buried BIT
persons classed as Confederates, and they were
ALI given honorable interment and care except
that the headboards over their graves described
them as rebels" and otherwise bore only the
number Of the grave and the name Of the oc-
cupant The quartermaSter generals depart
nnent in the early '7Os under act Of Congress,
marked the graves Of the Union soldiers in all
the national cemeteries, and as there remained
o surplus Of the appropriation, QuartermaSter
Gen. Bachelor used it to mark other than
Union dead. All graves were marked with
marble headstones of similar description The
graves remained in this condition until 241
were removed by Virginia. North Carolina and
South Carolina, leaving still 1885,
1 IUTIL 1898 the impression prevailed that
- there were very few Confederate dead in
the vicinity of Washington. There were known
to be II unknown buried at Woodside, Md, and
O supposed half dozen or less buried at Airing
ton. During August of that year q few Con-
federate soldier veterans undertook to ascertain
whether there yet remained any overlooked