An intimate, behind-the-scenes chronicle of America's most
sacred ground.
"Along Eisenhower Drive, as far as the eye could see, the grave
markers formed into bone-white brigades, climbed from the flats of the
Potomac River, and scattered over the green Virginia hills in perfect
order. They reached Arlington's highest point, where they encircled an
old cream-colored mansion with thick columns and a commanding view of
the cemetery, the river, and the city beyond. The mansion's flag, just
lowered to half-staff, signaled that it was time to start another day of
funerals, which would add more than twenty new conscripts to Arlington's
army of the dead."
So does Robert Poole describe a day like so many others in the long
and storied history of Arlington National Cemetery. Created towards the
end of our greatest national crucible, the Civil War, its story—as
revealed in On Hallowed Ground —reflects much of America's own
over the past century and a half. The mansion at its heart, and the
rolling land on which it sits, had been the family plantation of Robert
E. Lee before he joined the Confederacy; strategic to the defense of
Washington, it became a Union headquarters, a haven for freedmen, and a
burial ground for indigent soldiers before Secretary of War Edwin
Stanton made it the latest in the newly established national cemetery
system. It would become our nation's most honored resting place.
No other country makes the effort the United States does to recover
and pay tribute to its war dead—an effort Poole reveals in poignant
details from the aftermaths of the Civil War, Spanish-American War,
World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, and the conflicts in the Gulf and
Afghanistan today. Every tombstone at Arlington tells a story: from
Private William Christman, the first soldier buried at Arlington on May
13, 1864, to Union General Montgomery Meigs, whose idea Arlington was;
from Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, the first casualty of powered flight,
to Audie Murphy, America's most decorated soldier; from the Tomb of the
Unknown Soldier, so lovingly tended today, to John F. Kennedy's eternal
flame; from scientists and slaves to jurists and generals and tens of
thousands of ordinary citizen-warriors, among the more than 300,000
interred on Arlington's 624 acres. Their sagas, and the rites and
rituals that have evolved at Arlington—the horse-drawn caissons, marble
headstones, playing of taps, and rifle salutes—speak to us all.
Advance Praise for On Hallowed Ground
"Vivid, compelling, filled with rich and unexpected detail, On
Hallowed Ground tells the little-understood story of Arlington National
Cemetery and in the process chronicles how we have honored—and sometimes
dishonored—those who gambled everything on our behalf. Robert M. Poole
is a fine storyteller and this is a great story."—Geoffrey C.
Ward, author of The Civil War and The War: An Intimate History
1941-1945
"Improbably gripping and often deeply moving, On Hallowed Ground
chronicles both the evolution of our national cemetery and the profound
ways in which treatment of the war dead reflects a nation's soul.
Readers interested in political, social or military history from the
Civil War on will want to read this book."—Caroline Alexander,
author of The Endurance and The War That Killed
Achilles
"Most Americans, especially most historians, think they know all
about Arlington Cemetery. They respect what it represents, and revere
the heroes resting there. But only Robert Poole has brought to life all
the historic figures, from privates to presidents, who made this
national shrine and populate its rolling hills. On Hallowed Ground is a
memorable combination of historical research, first-hand reporting and
sensitive writing—a definitive work that should last as long as the
eternal flame at John Kennedy's grave site."—Ernest B.
Furgurson, author of Freedom Rising: Washington in the Civil
War
