Thursday, June 19, 2014

Arlington National Cemetery's 150th-- Part 3

5.  Three World War II enemy combatants are also buried there: 2 Italian POWs and one German.  They died in the Washington, D.C. area and the Geneva Convention requires proper burial and Arlington was chosen.

In addition, some 60 foreign nationals are buried there, most Allied servicemen.

6.  Nearly 4,00 former slaves are buried there as well.  After seizing the estate, acreage was set aside for a model community for emancipated, freed and fugitive slaves called Freedman's Village.

It operated until 1900 and blacks who died there are buried in Section 27, with headstones inscribed as "citizen" or "civilian."

--Cooter

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