05/31/2026
In celebration of National Preservation Month and America’s 250th birthday, Army National Military Cemeteries (ANMC) highlights two recent projects to preserve historic grave markers of Revolutionary War veterans at Arlington National Cemetery (ANC). These projects were done in partnership with the National Park Service (NPS) Historic Preservation Training Center (HPTC).
In the 1890s, seven Revolutionary War veterans were reinterred in ANC’s Section 1. Since that time, the ground set stone tablets for Caleb Swan, William Ward Burrows, James R. Wilson, Joseph Carleton, Edward Jones Esq., Thomas Meason and John T. Ritchie had settled and cracked. ANMC documented the condition of the masonry markers, carefully removed them, constructed new elevated foundations, rebuilt the markers, and then filled cracks, patched losses and cleaned the stones.
The Pierre Charles L’Enfant Memorial Grave, the resting place for the French-born Revolutionary War Engineer and District of Columbia city planner, presented another challenge. While the tablet memorial set on a hillside overlooking Washington, D.C. could not be moved, the team instead excavated beneath the base, using hydraulic jacks to level the memorial and realign it, then poured reinforced concrete piers to support the ends and central crack.
These projects present the work that ANMC staff do throughout the year to carefully preserve our nation’s cultural resources, ensuring they endure for future generations.
