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In Honored Glory: Arlington National Cemetery: The Final Post

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Whether you are a history buff or looking for information on Arlington National Cemetery, this book has everything you need. From how the land was acquired to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, its hard to put the book down. You don't have to be a military veteran to enjoy this book. I am on an Honor Guard and was looking for some history...I found it in this book. It makes you realize how others paid the ultimate sacrafice for the freedom you enjoy today.

Great book about the history of Arlington National Cemetery. It's a history of Arlington as well as devoting one to two pages to stories about some of the individuals that are buried there. Interesting little-known facts are in the book throughout. Truly pays respect those that rest at Arlington. Anyone going to Arlington should have this book, indispensable. RECOMMENDED.

Arlington National Cemetery has long been a subject of interest to countless Americans. However, there has been a lack of solid information about the cemetery and its place in American history.

With this book, Mr. Bigler (a high school teacher and a former National Teacher of the Year awardee), has done justice to this fascinating subject. He has captured both the history and the spirit of this hallowed ground. He takes us from the original owners of the land and the pre-Revolutionary era through the Civil War and its transformation from a private estate, owned by Mrs. Mary Lee (the wife of Confederate General Robert E. Lee), to a national cemetery, through every conflict that American has fought in since that time right up to the modern era.

Anyone with even a casual interest in American History will find this book to be one that they simply cannot put down.

Michael Robert Patterson Webmaster, Arlington National Cemetery Website http://www.arlingtoncemetery.com

Philip Bigler's IN HONORED GLORY: ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY: THE FINAL POST (0918339677, $16.95) comes from a historian and educator who covers the history and future of the Arlington National Cemetery in a new updated fourth edition survey. What is contained here is expanded coverage of ceremonial units, and the impact of modern war outcomes - including the war on terrorism - on the cemetery's institution. IN HONORED GLORY, as an insider's view and survey, makes for an important historical guide to internment and honor alike.

Growing up in Washington, DC, I visited Arlington National Cemetery on numerous occassions. I can remember looking from aunt's 8th floor apartment near Union Station and looking toward Arlington. On clear days and evening I could see the Custis-Lee Mansion. I was always impressed with the changing of guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns and remember attending serveral Easter Sunrise services at the amphitheater. Yet through out my youth I was never interested in the history of this sacred place.

In Honored Glory, Philip Bigler has through 4 editions and 17 printings, with latest being June 2007, captured the essence as why Arlington National Cemetery is hallowed ground to so many Americans. Bigler takes one back to the earliest days of history in colonial Virgina to tell a very interesting story of how Arlington as a colonial plantation came into existence and its tie to America's First Family, George and Martha Washington. It was a pleasant surprise to this Washington native to learn how Arlington was so linked not to just colonial history but to development and history of the Washington, DC area.

The Custis-Lee Mansion along with the surrounding land was the home of General Robert E. Lee prior to the Civil War. It was from Arlington, that Lee left and offered his services to the South. In the early days of the war, the mansion along with surrounding property were seized by the Union for both military as well as psychological purposes. Mrs. Lee and family were expelled from the property which was converted to a gun placement, with mansion being used by Union officers.

It is from this historic perspective that Bigler takes one through 146 years of Arlington National Cemetary history that officially recorded its first internments in 1864. In concise terms, Bigler weaves American military history through the thousand of interments, not ignoring any military conflict nor having one part of military history dominate the story. In this narrative we also learn of heroes of so many stripes, some who are tied to the exploration of Earth and the cosmos. Today Arlington contains the remains of those who fought in the Revoluntionary War, former slaves from the Civil War, Presidents (Taft and Kennedy)polar explorers,foreign POWs, astronauts and men along with women who fought the Global War on Terror.

The appendices if just read alone will provide the reader a treasure trove of American history and so many interesting facts about the final resting place of those who gave the best in service to our nation.

After so many years away from Washington, Arlington became an important part of my life with the passing of a man who became my hero, my father in law, MSgt Henry Patrick, USA, Retired. This retired Air Force officer laid him to rest in March 2003, a wonderful man who continues to this day to influence my life. Sarge died on 25 Feb 2003 during the worst blizzard that hit the Arlington area in many years. It was not until a week later that our family got to say goodbye. Sarge was laid to rest with the same respect as any General.

How did Bigler's work come into my hands, it was on 24 Mar 2010 that fate brought me back to Washington, where I took the drive from my hotel near George Washington University to Arlington to Section 53, Site 1318 to pay my respects and express my love to MSgt Patrick. My hero rests in honored glory.