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For whom or what was the City of Arlington, Texas named (in 1876)? Was it Arlington, the Custis family home (as most historians believe), or was it Arlington National Cemetery?

Just before the Civil War, the George Washington Parke Custis mansion could be seen from almost anywhere in Washington city if you were looking toward the west. The mansion at Arlington, the estate, was one of the most recognized buildings in the region. It stood as a proud tower, a symbol of the nation’s recent but great past, celebrating the man known to Americans as the Father of Our Country. George Washington Parke Custis was the step grandson and adopted son of George Washington. Washington’s personal belongings still were in the home. The mansion was a living memorial to George Washington and a beloved home for the Custis family, including daughter, Mary Anna Custis Lee and her husband General Robert E. Lee. They had lived there for thirty years.

As the war came, Lee chose not to accept leadership of the Union forces because he did not want to fight against his own state and family and friends. Lee left the mansion and eventually so did Mary Anna and the rest of the family, leaving behind the relics of George Washington and other family treasures, some of which the Lees never regained, though they never quit trying.

The house was used by Union officers as headquarters, and later, in a bit of revenge toward Lee, his former friend and fellow soldier, Montgomery C. Meigs, began ordering soldiers' remains to be buried on the grounds so that the family could not move back into the home. As an added blow, he built the tomb of the unknown in Mrs. Lee’s favorite rose garden.

In 1870, after the death of Robert E. Lee, Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee petitioned Congress for the return of Arlington to the family. A committee was formed, but the idea of Arlington as a national cemetery had begun to take hold. Mary’s petition was rejected. The fight went all the way to the Supreme Court, which found in favor of the Lees on January 10, 1879. The court ordered fair value and restitution in dollars. George Washington Custis Lee, Robert and Mary’s oldest son agreed to $150,000, and the matter was closed on April 24, 1883. The mansion at Arlington National Cemetery is the most visited historic house in the national park system.

Information from: Mrs. Lee’s Rose Garden: The True Story of the Founding of Arlington, by Carlo DeVito. Robert M. Poole, author of On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery, had this to say: "Every place has a biography, none with more tragic twists and turns than Arlington National Cemetery. An old garden, once the delight of Mary Custis Lee, still sits at the heart of the cemetery and is key to the story of its evolution, a tale movingly and deftly told in this splendid new book by Carlo DeVito." That book is Mrs. Lee's Rose Garden: The True Story of the Founding of Arlington (the cemetery).