Here's a closer look at Lee's mansion. His wife inherited the plantation from her family, the Custis family, who were related to George Washington. Colonel Lee received a letter here offering him command of the Union Army when the Civil War broke out. He slept on it, then rode his horse to the White House to tender his resignation from the Army. Virginia, where Lee's mansion lie, was a Confederate state. Lincoln could look into the Confederacy from the balcony of the White House.

Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs, ordered to find a new cemetery for the Union dead, decided in a fit of spite to bury them on Lee's plantation. He had once served under Lee. He made a point of burying soldiers in Mrs. Lee's rose garden to make the place uninhabitable. He buried his son, First Lieutenant John Rodgers Meigs, there. And Meigs, himself, is buried at Arlington.

John F. Kennedy is buried at the foot of the hill directly below Lee's mansion. His brother, Robert, is buried to the left of him, marked by a plain white cross.