$Unique_ID{USH00262} $Pretitle{20} $Title{Arlington House - The Robert E. Lee Memorial Arlington House - The Robert E. Lee Memorial [Complete Text]} $Subtitle{} $Author{Brooks, Nancy Growald} $Affiliation{National Park Service} $Subject{lee arlington custis house washington war robert virginia family union} $Volume{Handbook 133} $Date{1985} $Log{Arlington*0026201.scf Arlington Map*0026202.scf Mary Custis*0026203.scf Household Slaves*0026204.scf Lee in Uniform*0026205.scf Family Parlor*0026206.scf Household Office*0026207.scf The Lee's Bedroom*0026208.scf Winter Kitchen*0026209.scf } Book: Arlington House - The Robert E. Lee Memorial Author: Brooks, Nancy Growald Affiliation: National Park Service Volume: Handbook 133 Date: 1985 Overview of Arlington House - The Robert E. Lee Memorial The Robert E. Lee Memorial -- Arlington House -- serves as a stately memorial to Robert E. Lee. It is located on a bluff in northern Virginia overlooking Arlington Cemetery, the Potomac River and the City of Washington. Arlington House - The Robert E. Lee Memorial [Complete Text] Part 1 - Welcome to Arlington House Honoring a Great Leader Robert E. Lee, born of two distinguished Virginia families, was raised to follow the path of honor and duty. A devoted son, an outstanding West Point cadet, and a United States Army officer for 32 years, Lee came face to face in 1861 with a most difficult choice: Allegiance to the American nation and the flag he had served so long and well, or loyalty to his native Virginia. A lieutenant colonel in the cavalry on the Texas frontier, Lee was ordered back to Washington in 1861 when Texas seceded from the Union. Through the long and tedious months of his Texas tour, he had hoped some way would be found to avert civil war. On his return to Arlington, the estate bequeathed to his wife Mary by her father, George Washington Parke Custis, Lee was offered the command of a large Union army being organized to take the field against the South. He courteously declined the offer, expressing his opposition to both secession and war and an unwillingness to participate in an invasion of the Southern states. The next day news of Virginia's adoption of the Act of Secession reached Lee. Not wishing to be placed under orders he could not follow, Lee wrote his resignation from the U.S. Army on April 20, 1861. Two days later, Lee bid farewell to his wife and children and to Arlington and hoarded a train to Richmond to take command of Virginia's military forces. Well aware that Arlington's commanding site high on a bluff overlooking the Nation's Capital would make it an early target of federal capture, Lee may have wondered if he would ever return to the house and estate he had known since childhood. [See Arlington: View of Arlington House overlooking the front grounds. (FRONT COVER)] As the war progressed, Arlington House was occupied by the Union Army. The Lees lost title to the house in 1864 when Arlington was seized for non- payment of taxes and acquired by the Federal Government for $26,800. In 1873 George Washington Custis Lee, the Lees' eldest son, sued the Federal Government for the return of the property charging that the seizure had been illegal. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed and restored the estate title to Lee in 1882. By then, however, several thousand war dead had been buried in Arlington's hills, and Custis Lee accepted $150,000 from the U.S. Government for the property. Union fortifications built on the property during the Civil War were absorbed by Fort Myer, by Arlington National Cemetery, and subsequently by the Department of Agriculture. Freedman's Village, a settlement established in wartime for emancipated slaves, operated there for about 20 years. At one time it provided homes and jobs for 2,000 residents and contained three churches, a school, an orphans home, and a home for the aged. From 1900 to 1933 the Department of Agriculture operated a 330- acre experimental farm on estate land near the Potomac River. With the passage of time, many people came to appreciate Robert E. Lee's role in reuniting the American nation after the Civil War. The Confederate general's example inspired men and women of his day to lay down old grievances and get on with the job of rebuilding a new and better America. Lee used his influence to move away from the bitterness of war to reunion and peace. "Madam," Lee admonished a Southern visitor in his last years, "don't bring up your sons to detest the United States Government. Recollect that we form one country now. Abandon all these local animosities and make your sons Americans." U.S. Rep. Louis Cramton of Michigan learned of Lee's greatness from his father, a Union soldier who served in Virginia for nearly the entire war. In 1925 Congress unanimously passed Cramton's legislation establishing the Lee Mansion National Memorial. In testimony supporting his bill, Cramton declared; "I believe it is unprecedented in history for a nation to have gone through as great a struggle as that was, and in the lifetime of men then living to see the country so absolutely reunited as is our country there was no man in the South who did more by his precept and example to help bring about that condition than did Robert E. Lee." Restoration of Arlington House was begun in 1925 by the War Department and has been continued by the National Park Service since 1933. Today Arlington House serves as a stately memorial to Robert E. Lee, welcoming guests daily from around the nation and the world. Across the Potomac River stands the Lincoln Memorial commemorating the President who gave his life to preserve the Union. Thus Arlington Memorial Bridge, which links the two memorials, symbolizes the reconciliation these two leaders sought between the North and the South. Part 2 - The Historical Legacy The Child of Mount Vernon In 1781 Martha Washington's son by her first marriage, John Parke Custis, died of camp fever while serving as an aide to Gen. George Washington at Yorktown. To ease the burden upon Custis' young widow, the Washingtons brought home to Mount Vernon the couple's two youngest of four children, the 6-month-old George Washington Parke Custis and his 2 1/2-year-old sister Eleanor Parke Custis. Martha Washington doted on "Tub" and "Nelly," overjoyed that her grandchildren were in perfect health and good spirits. Young Custis was greatly influenced growing up in the presence of George Washington. An indifferent student, Custis nonetheless absorbed a strong sense of history and ideals from his guardian and the constant stream of distinguished visitors to Mount Vernon. Formal studies must have paled next to the bustle and ceremonial flurry of daily life in the Washington household. The Marquis de Lafayette, who spent considerable time at Mount Vernon, once recalled how young Custis, clutching Washington's hand, would tag along as the general showed visitors about the estate. Between the ages of 8 and 16, Custis witnessed the Washington presidency in New York and Philadelphia. He attended many theatrical productions and musical performances with Washington in both cities, watched him lay the cornerstone for the Capitol, and heard countless discussions about his guardian's hopes and dreams for America and its economic independence from Europe. Life with Washington imbued the young man with a reverence for American history, a thirst for progress, ideals of the Revolution, and a strong and energetic intellect that would serve him all his days. The Washington Treasury The deaths of George and Martha Washington in 1799 and 1802 deeply affected Custis and closed a chapter in his life. Disappointed that he was unable to purchase Mount Vernon from Bushrod Washington, the general's nephew and heir, Custis prepared to leave Mount Vernon, taking with him his bequests from the Washingtons and as many relics and mementos as he was able to purchase from the estate. Custis' portion of items from Martha Washington's estate included furniture, silver, china, and family portraits. At auctions in 1802 and 1803 Custis bought heavily; in the end he owed $4,545. His purchases included Washington's coach, tents used in the Revolution, and the Hessian and British flags presented Washington by Congress in honor of the final victory at Yorktown. Custis decided to settle on his 1,100-acre tract overlooking the City of Washington that his father, John Custis, had purchased in 1778. He moved in 1802 to a four-room brick cottage at "Mount Washington" - a name later changed to Arlington after the Custis property on Virginia's Eastern Shore - with his precious store of Washington relics and began to plan a handsome house to hold the treasures from his boyhood home, Mount Vernon. "A Very Showy Handsome Building" Twenty-one-year-old G.W.P. Custis is believed to have engaged the professional services of George Hadfield, a young English architect, to draw plans for his house. Hadfield had studied in Italy and supervised part of the construction of the U.S. Capitol. The Greek Revival design of Arlington House features a two-story central section framed by an impressive Doric-columned portico and flanked north and south by lower wings. The site Custis selected for the mansion was a high bluff crowned with a forest of oak. The serene simplicity of the Arlington facade would be visible from the Capitol three miles away. [See Arlington Map: Map shows the extent of the Arlington estate about 1860.] Undaunted by a shortage of funds to complete the project, Custis began work on the north wing in 1802 using materials from his estates. This wing was divided into living quarters and temporary space for the Washington treasury. The south wing was completed in 1804 and contained a large parlor and a smaller room that served as an office and study. When Custis brought his young bride, Mary Lee "Molly" Fitzhugh, home to Arlington that year, they set up housekeeping in the north wing and entertained in the south wing. Even incomplete, the building was quite impressive. Cornelia Lee, a relative, wrote that during an 1804 visit Custis stopped caulking a boat long enough to offer a "glass of excellent wine" and a tour. "The House," she predicted, "will be a very showy handsome building when complete." After Robert E. Lee moved to Alexandria in 1811, he frequently visited Arlington and saw the house under construction. The main section with its great portico was completed in 1818. By then Arlington House dominated the Virginia horizon opposite Washington. G.W.P. Custis possessed an intriguing combination of traits. He was a practical man, but he also was an idealist and an artist who found his highest calling in perpetuating the memory of George Washington through oratory, poems, heroic paintings, and preservation of his memorabilia. Custis also was an unpretentious individual, as was his wife Molly. He liked to wear rough clothing and a battered hat about his farm. The farm activities he directed at Arlington were limited and experimental in character, and he relied on income from two farms on the Pamunkey River and land on Virginia's Eastern Shore to sustain the household. The Custises had four children, but only their daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, lived past the age of three. Custis left most of the child rearing to his wife and devoted his time to his many interests. Custis was one of the first advocates of a U.S. Department of Agriculture. On his birthday in 1805 he inaugurated an annual sheep-shearing to encourage improved breeding and to help establish an independent American woolen industry. Those gatherings gave local farmers an opportunity to exhibit their best animals and homespun. He wrote plays celebrating both heroic episodes in the nation's past and stirring current events. Produced from Boston to Charleston, they helped America create its own form of theater. Among his successes were "Pocahontas," commemorating the settling of Virginia, and "Railroad," an operetta praising technology and progress. His other writings included "Conversations with Lafayette," written after the aged general's visit to Arlington in 1825, and "Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington." A Summer Wedding, 1831 "Never was I more surrounded with the joys of life than at this time," Mary Custis wrote to a friend in the fall of 1830. "I am engaged to one to whom I have been long attached - Robert Lee." The slim, dark-eyed daughter of George Washington Parke Custis and Molly Fitzhugh Custis had attracted many beaux, including the Tennessee frontiersman Sam Houston, but it was Lee, her distant cousin and childhood playmate, whose proposal she accepted. [See Mary Custis: Auguste Herview painted the oil portrait of Mary Anna Randolph Custis shortly before her wedding.] Lee returned to his army post outside Savannah without a date set for the wedding. They were delighted the next spring with his transfer to Fort Monroe, Virginia, closer to Arlington. Plans for the wedding progressed. Lee wrote his brother Carter in New York to order wedding clothes: "I believe I will wear my uniform coat on the important night, & therefore white pantaloons must be in character. Let the material of all be the best & don I let him charge too much." Soon thereafter, Lee's commanding officer notified him he could take a one-month furlough, and a date was set for the wedding. Writing once again to Carter, Lee confided: "The day has been fixed & it is the 30th of June. I can tell you I begin to feel right funny when I count my days. . . . Can you come on to see it done? . . . I am told there are to be sit pretty Bridesmaids, Misses Mason, Mary, Marietta, Angela, Julia and Brittannia & you could have some fine Kissing. For you know what a fellow you are at these weddings Meanwhile a whirlwind of preparations was underway at Arlington, with extra quilts, mattresses, candlesticks, and silver being requisitioned from Aunt Maria Fitzhugh and others to supply the wedding party, close friends, and relations. Rain fell steadily on the last day of June, but candlelight set the mansion aglow, reflecting the warm and happy atmosphere surrounding the festivities. The officiating clergyman, the Rev. Reuel Keith, arrived on horseback drenched to the skin. He was hastily fitted out in a coat and trousers belonging to the bride's father - too short and too wide by far for the rangy Mr. Keith, who managed to conceal his hilarious outfit beneath clerical robes. Aunt Nelly Custis Lewis played music as Mary Custis entered the family parlor and took her place next to Lee, resplendent in his white trousers and dress uniform jacket, with its gold braid trim. The bride's hands trembled during the brief ceremony, Lee confided later to his commanding officer, and "The Parson had few words to say though he dwelt upon them as if he had been reading my Death warrant." "This evening was one to be long remembered," Mary Lee's bridesmaid and cousin Marietta Turner recalled. "My cousin, always a modest and affectionate girl, was never lovelier, and Robert Lee with his bright eyes and high color was the picture of a cavalier. The elegance and simplicity of the bride's parents, presiding over the feast, and the happiness of the grinning servants . . . remain in my memory as a piece of Virginia life pleasant to recall." Following the custom of the day, the couple remained at Arlington with the wedding party, gathering on the Fourth of July for a final round of festivities at the home of family friends on Analostan (now Roosevelt) Island. A few weeks later, Lt. and Mrs. Lee accompanied Mrs. Custis on a trip to visit relatives. At the end of the summer the Lees went to Fort Monroe, where he resumed his army duties. The marriage vows exchanged at Arlington by Mary and Robert Lee in the summer of 1831 bridged the loneliness that was inevitable in a soldier's life and supported husband and wife as their family grew to include seven children, three sons and four daughters. The family usually traveled with Lee to his various posts, and Mrs. Lee returned to Arlington for the births of six of their seven children. The whole family customarily returned to Arlington in the winter when engineering projects closed down. Lee respected his wife's parents as his own, mindful of Custis' warm reception of him as a son and Molly Custis' unfailing kindness to him throughout his boyhood. She was one of the few relatives in attendance when Robert's mother, Ann Carter Lee, died in 1829 at Ravensworth, the Fitzhugh estate. The Lees were a study in contrasts: she, outspoken, casual in appearance and housekeeping, artistic and impulsive; and he, reserved, gracious and whimsical, punctual, thrifty, and a born organizer. They were devoted parents anxious that each of their children learn their responsibilities and fulfill their duties. Their mutual affection was constant and a source of strength through many separations and the final loss of their beloved Arlington. Writing to Mary on June 30, 1864, under Union fire in the trenches of Petersburg, Lee asked, "Do you recollect what a happy day thirty-three years ago this was? How many hopes and pleasures it gave birth to!" Christmas Puddings and Summer Picnics In the transitory life of a military family, Arlington House represented permanency, and Christmas at the beloved homestead was a particularly happy season of reunion. The Lees were together at Arlington for 24 of the 30 Christmas seasons they celebrated before the Civil War. In 1846, one of the Christmases he missed, Lee wrote to sons Custis and Rooney: "I hope good Santa Claus will fill my Rob's stocking to-night: that Mildred's, Agnes's, and Anna's may break down with good things. I do not know what he may have for you and Mary, but if he only leaves for you one half of what I wish, you will want for nothing!" For son Custis at West Point in 1851, Lee summed up the family's holiday visit to the Custises at Arlington: "The children were delighted at getting back, and passed the evening in devising pleasure for the morrow. They were in upon us before day on Christmas to overhaul their stockings . . . I need not describe to you our amusements, you have witnessed them so often; nor the turkey, cold ham, plum pudding, mince pies, etc., at dinner." The hospitality of Arlington spread far beyond the family circle. G.W.P. Custis opened Arlington Spring on the Potomac to picnicking parties from Georgetown, Washington, and Alexandria. Custis added a dancing pavilion and kitchen, and he loved to mingle with visitors, playing his violin, singing songs of the Revolution, and telling anecdotes and jokes. [See Household Slaves: The slaves of the Arlington household include Sally and Leonard Norris, top, and their daughter, Selina Gray.] United States Army Officer Robert E. Lee began his impressive military career as a lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers, and his first assignment was to work on the construction of Fort Pulaski near Savannah. Transfered to Fort Monroe, Virginia, in 1831, he continued his work on harbor defenses. He then was posted to Washington as assistant to the Chief of Engineers in 1834 and on a temporary assignment to survey and resolve the Michigan-Ohio boundary in 1835. He was assigned in 1837 to St. Louis to work on stabilizing the Mississippi River channel and was promoted to captain in 1838. His success at St. Louis established his reputation as an engineer, and he was assigned to Fort Hamilton in 1841 to work on the New York harbor fortifications. When war with Mexico broke out in 1846, Lee welcomed combat service and spent two years in Mexico as an engineering officer in reconnaissance and staff operations. Lee was praised for his "gallantry and good conduct," for construction of fortifications, and for performance under "the heavy fire of the enemy." Gen. Winfield Scott called him "the very best soldier that I ever saw in the field." The war gave him experience in planning strategy and handling troops. Promoted to the brevet ranks of major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel for gallantry and meritorious service, Lee returned from Mexico to a happy reunion with his loved ones. Assigned to Baltimore in 1848, he supervised construction of Fort Carroll for nearly four years. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, became home to the Lees in 1852, when Lee was appointed superintendent. G. W. Custis Lee graduated first in his class there in 1854. And Lee, in his three-year tenure, raised academic standards, lengthened the program from four to five years, and improved facilities. In 1855 Lee was transferred from the Engineers to the 2nd U.S. Cavalry regiment being organized for duty on the Texas frontier. Mary and the family returned to Arlington, where she helped her elderly father manage the estate. In October 1857 Custis died, and Lee returned to Arlington, requesting a leave of absence to administer the estate as the only qualifying executor. In 1859, while still at Arlington, Lee was given command of federal forces sent to capture the abolitionist John Brown at Harpers Ferry. Lee left Arlington in early 1860 to rejoin his regiment in Texas and uneasily watched his country slip toward civil war. On January 22, 1861, he wrote to Markie Williams: "I am unable to realize that our people will destroy a government inaugurated in the blood and wisdom of our patriot fathers, that has given us peace and prosperity at home, power and security abroad, and under which we have acquired colossal strength unequalled in the history of mankind. I wish to live under no other government and there is no sacrifice I am not ready to make for the preservation of the Union, save that of honour." On the next day, Lee wrote to his son Custis: "If the Union is dissolved, and the Government disrupted, I shall return to my native State and share the miseries of my people, and save in defence will draw my sword on none. On February I Texas seceded from the Union and Lee was ordered back to Washington. He arrived on March 1 and was promoted to colonel of the 1st Cavalry on March 16. Abraham Lincoln signed the commission on March 28. Lee's Fateful Decision At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, South Carolina shore batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. The federal forces surrendered on April 14 without casualties, but the attack by a secessionist state forced the Union to action. On April 15 President Lincoln declared the existence of an "insurrection" and called for 75,000 volunteers to give three months of military service. By that time seven states had left the Union, but not Virginia. The war Lee had long dreaded was at hand. For the North, with a population of 22 million, a strong and balanced economy, a well-developed railroad grid, and naval supremacy, the war began as one to restore the Union, though slavery was an underlying issue. The 11 states that eventually formed the Confederacy had 9 million inhabitants (including 3.5 million slaves), an agricultural economy, and inadequate railroad systems. Overall the Confederacy appeared woefully weak as it declared its independence. Lee still awaited Virginia's decision. Unbeknownst to him, the Virginia Secession Convention in a secret session on April 17 passed the Ordinance of Secession 88 to 55. On April 18 Lee met with Francis P. Blair, Sr., at his home across from the White House. Blair, acting on behalf of President Lincoln, offered Lee command of the army being raised to fight the Confederacy. Lee declined. After the war he recalled telling Blair "as candidly and courteously as I could, that though opposed to secession and deprecating war, I could take no part in an invasion of the Southern states." Lee left Blair's home and met with Gen. Winfield Scott in the War Department across the street and told his old friend what had transpired. Not until April 19 did Lee learn that the Virginia Convention had adopted the Ordinance of Secession to be confirmed by public referendum on May 23. Lee knew he must act quickly if he wished to resign before receiving orders. As anxious friends and relatives gathered at Arlington House to discuss the deteriorating situation, Lee walked alone in the garden. He later went to his bed chamber - pacing the floor and pausing to kneel in prayer. Shortly after midnight, he emerged with his letter of resignation. Lee's decision cost him his Union Army career and Arlington House, and it separated him from friends and relatives who would remain with the Union. To his brother, Sydney Smith Lee, he wrote: "I wished to wait till the Ordinance of Secession should be acted on by the people of Virginia; but war seems to have commenced, and I am liable at any time to be ordered on duty, which 1 could not conscientiously perform. To save me from such a position and to prevent the necessity of resigning under orders, I had to act at once. . . ." On April 21, the governor of Virginia asked Lee to take command of the state's military forces, an offer he felt he could not refuse. The next day he left for Richmond to accept the command. He was never to return to Arlington. [See Lee in Uniform: In this 1864 photograph, Robert E. Lee wears his full dress Confederate general's uniform with military sash and dress sword.] For four years Lee's audacity, brilliance, and charismatic leadership inspired the Army of Northern Virginia and the South. But the North's overwhelming advantages in troops and supplies ultimately prevailed, and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant finally took Richmond, the Confederate Capital, on April 3, 1865. On April 9, Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House. Part 3 - The House and Grounds Visiting The Estate Alighting from carriages before the great columned portico of Arlington, guests in the 19th century were surely as moved as today's visitor by the breathtaking panorama of the Nation's Capital spread before them. For more than 50 years Arlington House was first and foremost a home to a lively brood of Custises and Lees, an extended family that included George and Molly Custis, Robert E. and Mary Custis Lee, and the Lees' four daughters and three sons. The tall Greek Revival front doors of Arlington, open during all but the coldest months of the year, welcomed waves of aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and even strangers drawn to the mansion by its legacy of Washington relics and memories. The Arlington atmosphere exemplified Virginia hospitality; expected or not, guests were made to feel at home and often urged to linger for a longer visit. [See Family Parlor: Family parlor in Arlington House.] In the same spirit the National Park Service today invites you to visit Arlington House and immerse yourself in its history as a family estate. The house and its furnishings provide tangible links with early America. As you take the self-guiding tour, imagine the family gatherings and daily routines that took place here. Also, walk about the grounds and visit the outbuildings, museum, and bookstore. [See Household Office: Furnishings in the office of Arlington House.] The house is open daily; the hours vary seasonally. Subway service from Washington and Alexandria is available on Blue Line trains. You may park your car at the Arlington Cemetery Visitor Center and walk, or ride the bus service, to the house. [See The Lee's Bedroom: The Lee's bed chamber contains a family bed.] [See Winter Kitchen: Servants prepared meals for the Custis and Lee families in the winter kitchen using fresh vegetables and fruits of the season.] For more information, ask the staff at the house or write to: Superintendent, George Washington Memorial Parkway, Turkey Run Park, McLean, VA 22102.