Civil War Unknowns Monument

The Civil War Unknowns Monument is a burial vault and memorial honoring unidentified dead from the American Civil War. It is located in the grounds of Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, in the United States. It was designed by Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs and constructed in 1865 in a former tree and flower garden.Many sources often incorrectly state that the monument was constructed in the middle of the Lee flower garden (often mischaracterized as a "rose garden"). However, the monument is just west of the flower garden, in what was once a grove of oak and elm trees.History of the siteConstruction of Arlington House and "the Grove"In 1778, John Parke Custis purchased an 1100acre tract of forested land on the Potomac River north of the town of Alexandria, Virginia. This land became the Arlington Estate. John Custis died in September 1781, and in 1799 his son, George Washington Parke Custis ("G.W.P.")—step-grandson of George Washington—inherited the site. G.W.P Custis and his wife, Mary, moved onto the estate, and between 1802 and 1814 they constructed Arlington House. The Custises extensively developed the site. Much of the steep slope to the east of the house became a cultivated English landscape park, while a large flower garden with an arbor was constructed and planted south of the house.