I'm not going to say this was the best book I ever read, but it's certainly top three non-fiction. I can think of only two others that are even close. This was just that good!

I bought this in 2014 and I actually don't recall the circumstances that drew me to it as it was long enough after my trip to Arlington that I don't think it was spurred by seeing it in the Arlington gift shops, although that certainly endorsed it in my view. It is compulsively readable-almost like a novel in that I grew attached to Meigs, Lee and his family, Black Jack (the man & the horse), Fighting Joe and the others.

At the same time, Poole interspersed the basic knowledge of the Civil War (Lee's refusal to draw his sword against a fellow Virginian) with the history of the United States that led to the Arlington that we know and visit today. Among my personal favorite pieces of information, which I'll mark as spoilers in case:


-the healing role that the Spanish American War played after the civil war. I especially want to read more about Fighting Joe and his role. I think it's a story lost among the heroics of Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders.

-Black Jack Pershing and his Buffalo Soldiers

-the detail on the state funerals; whether they were something obvious like the Kennedy assassination or the return of the WW1/WW2/Vietnam Unkowns.



More TK on my blog, but an amazing read for anyone interested in the Civil War, Arlington or US military history.