The McClellan Gate (sometimes known as the McClellan Arch)Dieterle, p. 94. is a memorial to Major General George B. McClellan located inside Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States. Constructed about 1871 on Arlington Ridge Road (then the eastern boundary of the cemetery), it served as a main gate until about 1879 when the Sheridan Gate was constructed. The McClellan Gate became nonfunctional in 1966 when the road closed, and expansion of the cemetery eastward in 1971 left the gate deep inside Arlington. It is the only gate constructed on the cemetery's eastern boundary in the 1800s that survives.
About the site
Creating Arlington Estate
In 1778, John Parke Custis purchased an tract of forested land on the Potomac River north of the town of Alexandria, Virginia, in 1778.Perry, p. 25-26. Custis died on November 5, 1781, leaving one-third of his estate to his wife, Eleanor, and a life estate interest in the remaining two-thirds to his step-father, George Washington.Cultural Landscape Program, p. 22. Accessed 2013-05-29. After the death of George Washington in 1799 and Martha Washington in 1802, Custis' son, George Washington Parke Custis (known as "G.W.P.") inherited the property. He named his new estate "Mount Washington" after his foster grandfather,Holt, p. 334. and put 57 African slaves to work building log cabins for themselves, clearing land, and farming.Rose, p. 71.
Custis' estate encompassed an area with a highly varied topography. Near the river, the land was flat and lush. But about inland, a ridge ran roughly parallel to the shoreline. Another or so beyond the ridge, the land rose sharply by nearly to reach the uplands. "Mount Washington" was too small to be self-supporting as a working farm, so Custis sought to make Arlington into a family seat — complete with a large park, a forest, and gardens. Farming occurred so that G.W.P. could experiment in land management techniques and animal husbandry, and to enhance the diets of his family, farm hands, and slaves.Cultural Landscape Program, p. 35. Accessed 2013-05-29. From 1804 to about 1840, Custis worked to create what he called "the Park". Patterned on the English landscape park, "the Park" was bordered by the carriage drive on the south, native forest on the north, uplands and the house on the west, and the ridge in the east.Cultural Landscape Program, p. 52. Accessed 2013-05-29.
On July 7, 1804, G.W.P. Custis married Mary Lee Fitzhugh, daughter of one of the wealthiest landowners in northern Virginia.Rose, p. 68. Shortly after their marriage, the Custises began to refer to their estate and home as "Arlington" rather than Mount Washington — an homage to Arlington in the United Kingdom from whence his family emigrated.Aiken and Kane, p. 10.
Creating Arlington Ridge Road
In 1808, the Washington and Alexandria Turnpike was authorized by Congress,Bryan, p. 532-533. Accessed 2013-06-02. and constructed on Custis' land near the river bank."Rose, p. 68. This toll road extended from the Long Bridge (south of the estate) down to Alexandria.Cultural Landscape Program, p. 39. Accessed 2013-05-29.
In 1840, Custis agreed to allow a road to be cut across his land. This road was covered in gravel, rather than dirt like the turnpike. It began in the south near the junction of what is now Virginia State Route 27 and the Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway, and continued in a nearly straight line north-northwest until it reached what is now the intersection of North Fort Myer Drive and U.S. Route 29. For many years, this gravel road was known as Mount Vernon Avenue, but it later became known as Arlington Ridge Road after the great estate through which it passed.Templeman, p. 52.
The nature of Arlington Estate changed abruptly in 1861. G.W.P. Custis died on October 10, 1857, leaving the estate to his daughter, Mary. She had married United States Army officer Robert E. Lee on June 30, 1831. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Robert E. Lee resigned his commission and joined the army of the Confederate States of America. The U.S. Army occupied Arlington on May 24, 1861.Chase, p. 176. The estate served as headquarters for a portion of the regional defenses of Washington, D.C., and the Arlington Line of forts lined the upland: Forts Cass, Craig, DeKalb, Tillinghast, and Woodbury.Cultural Landscape Program, p. 74-75. Accessed 2013-05-29. South of the estate, north of what is now Overlook Park, Fort Albany was built on the side of Arlington Ridge Road.Connery, p. 57. Extensive horse and mule corrals were built east of the road (near the current Visitors Center and parking lots and the area just south of them).Cultural Landscape Program, p. 79. Accessed 2013-05-29. In August 1862, Fort Whipple (now known as Fort Myer) was constructed in the northwest part of the estate.Cultural Landscape Program, p. 78. Accessed 2013-05-29. Freedmen's Village, a housing development for escaped slaves ("contraband") and free blacks, was constructed in May 1863 the very southern part of the estate immediately west of Arlington Ridge Road.Cultural Landscape Program, p. 84. Accessed 2013-05-29. East across Arlington Ridge Road from Freedmen's Village was Hell's Bottom,Carroll, p. 22. a site at the foot of the Long Bridge. A horse racing track occupied the bottom."Field In Arlington to be Air Terminal." Washington Post. June 28, 1926.
Enclosing Arlington National Cemetery Not all of the Arlington estate was immediately used for burials. Only were allotted to the cemetery initially.Bell, p. 10. Most burials occurred in what is now Section 13, the "Field of the Dead". By the end of the war in April 1865, more than 16,000 remains were interred at Arlington, surrounding Arlington House on the north, west, and south.Jacob, p. 78. Because Arlington National Cemetery was segregated until 1948,Dodge, p. 93. more than 4,000 free African Americans, contrabands, and veterans of the United States Colored Troops were buried in the far northeast corner of the cemetery in Section 27.Atkinson, p. 31. This left roughly land for other purposes. About land was being cultivated by former slaves at Freedmen's Village, who used it for subsistence farming.Cultural Landscape Program, p. 101. Accessed 2013-05-29. The remaining was either not in use or was used by the U.S. Army for growing fruits, vegetables, hay, and grain for consumption at nearby Fort Whipple.Cultural Landscape Program, p. 100. Accessed 2013-05-29.
In February 1867, Congress passed a national cemeteries bill which required that all military cemeteries be surrounded by a fence.Cultural Landscape Program, p. 102. Accessed 2013-05-29. Arlington was already enclosed by a picket fence, painted white. Construction soon began on a fence composed of sandstone taken from Seneca Quarry in Maryland. Five years later, all the Arlington Estate land not encompassed by the cemetery was declared to belong to Fort Whipple (now Fort Myer).Lowther, p. 80. Enclosure of Arlington National Cemetery was complete by 1891.Annual Report of the Secretary of War for the Year 1891, p. 484. Accessed 2013-06-06. (Due to expansion into the area formerly occupied by Freedmen's Village, the fence was enlarged. This enlargement was completed in 1897.)Cultural Landscape Program, p. 102-103. Accessed 2013-05-29.
Constructing the McClellan Gate
The need to enclose Arlington National Cemetery with a boundary wall naturally led to the decision to create gates to the cemetery. With Fort Whipple to the west and Freedmen's Village to the south, the gates were created on the long eastern boundary which fronted Arlington Ridge Road and on the narrow north boundary.
Four gates were constructed:There is disagreement among sources as to how many gates there were, and when. Architectural historian James Goode lists five gates constructed by 1879: Fort Myer, McClellan, Treasury/Meigs, Ord-Weitzel, and Sheridan. See: Goode, p. 334. However, David H. Rhodes, a gardener who worked at the cemetery from 1873 onward, was interviewed in 1930. Rhodes said that in late 1890s there were only four gates: Fort Myer, McClellan, Ord-Weitzel, and Sheridan. Rhodes also mentions a service gate or "gravel gate" that existed in the southern boundary wall about east of what is now the West Gate/Confederate gate. See: Cultural Landscape Program, p. 197 , accessed 2013-05-29. This gate provided access to the gravel pit, opened in the mid-1800s, which existed at what is not the site of Memorial Amphitheater. See: Cultural Landscape Program, p. 130, accessed 2013-05-29. Fort Myer Gate - For military personnel conducting funerals, the main gate was the Fort Myer Gate (later renamed the "Wright Gate" in honor of Orville and Wilbur Wright). This gate was in the west-central boundary wall. A winding road (now called Meigs Avenue) passed between the "Field of the Dead" in Section 13 and the original "officers' section" (Section 1).Decker and McSween, p. 89; Poole, p. 145. McClellan Gate /1872. Treasury Gate (also known as the "Meigs Gate") in 1874 or /1891.Architectural historian James Goode says this gate was constructed in 1874. See: Goode, p. 334. However, authors Karl Decker and Angus McSween, writing in 1892, call the gate "new" and "as yet little used"—indicating it was built or 1891. See: Decker and McSween, p. 86. The Historic American Buildings Survey of the National Park Service cites Decker and McSween as authoritative. See: "Arlington National Cemetery, Sheridan Gate (Center Gateway)", p. 33 , accessed 2013-06-07. Decker and McSween claim it was originally created from "massive piles of masonry that once formed a portion of the old War Department building." Decker and McSween, p. 86. But at some point, these were apparently replaced by masonry and iron gates taken from a renovation of the Treasury Building. See: Netherton and Netherton, p. 241. The gate remained unnamed until at least 1900. See: Pepper, p. 340, accessed 2013-06-07. But it acquired the name "Treasury Gate" by at least 1918. See: "City Briefs", Washington Post, February 9, 1918; Committee on Appropriations, p. 950. Ord-Weitzel Gate - Constructed in 1879,Goode, p. 334. this gate was in the cemetery's eastern boundary wall near the corner with the northern boundary wall, and provided access to a sexton's lodge that served as a receiving vault and kitchen and rest facilities for gravediggers.Dennee, p. 4, 7. Accessed 2012-07-09. Sheridan Gate - Constructed in 1879.
Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs was Quartermaster General of the United States Army, had founded Arlington National Cemetery, and was superintendent over all Army cemeteries until his retirement in February 1882. Meigs personally designed or oversaw the design of most of the early structures at the cemetery (such as the Civil War Unknowns Monument and Old Amphitheater), and in 1871 he ordered a gate constructed in the eastern boundary wall to honor Major General George B. McClellan.Decker and McSween, p. 75.Poole, p. 89. When built, the structure was a tribute, not a memorial, to McClellan, for McClellan was still living.Peters, p. 242.