Editing Arlington County, Virginia (section)

===Civil War===
{{Further|Virginia in the American Civil War}}
[[File:Arlington House.jpg|thumb|The façade of [[Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial|Arlington House]] (background), once the residence of [[Confederate States Army|Confederate Army]] General [[Robert E. Lee]], appears on Arlington's seal, flag, and logo.]]
During the [[American Civil War]], [[Virginia in the American Civil War|Virginia]] seceded from the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] following a statewide referendum on May 23, 1861; the voters from [[Alexandria County, Virginia|Alexandria County]] approved [[Secession in the United States|secession]] by a vote of 958–48, indicating the degree to which its only town, Alexandria, was pro-secession and pro-[[Confederate States of America|Confederate]]. Rural county residents outside Alexandria were largely Union loyalists and voted against secession.<ref>{{cite book |author=Bradley E. Gernand |title=A Virginia Village Goes to War: Falls Church During the Civil War |location= Virginia Beach |publisher= Donning Co Pub |year= 2002 |page=23 |isbn=978-1578641864}}</ref>

For the duration of the Civil War, the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] claimed the whole of antebellum Virginia, including the more staunchly Union-supporting northwestern counties that eventually broke away and were later admitted to the Union in 1863 as [[West Virginia]]. However, the Confederacy never fully controlled all of  present-day [[Northern Virginia]]. In 1862, the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] passed a law that required that obligated owners of property in districts where active Confederate insurrections were occurring to pay their real estate taxes in person.<ref name=Hunter>(1) [[s: Bennett v. Hunter]]<br />(2) {{cite journal |last=Wallace|first=John William|author-link=John William Wallace|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QL0GAAAAYAAJ|title=Bennett v. Hunter|journal=Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Supreme Court of the United States, December Term, 1869|volume=9|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=William H. Morrison|year=1870|pages=326–338|access-date=August 22, 2011}}</ref>

In 1864, during the Civil War, the [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. federal government]] confiscated the [[Abingdon (plantation)|Abingdon]] estate, which was located on and near the present [[Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport]], when its owner failed to pay the estate's property tax in person because he was serving in the [[Confederate States Army]].<ref name=Hunter/> The government then sold the property at auction, and the purchaser leased the property to a third party.<ref name=Hunter/>

In 1865, after the end of the Civil War, the Abingdon estate's heir, [[Alexander Hunter (novelist)|Alexander Hunter]], filed a federal lawsuit to recover the property. [[James A. Garfield]], a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] member of the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]] who was a [[Brigadier general (United States)|brigadier general]] in the [[Union Army]] during the Civil War and later became the [[List of Presidents of the United States|20th President of the United States]], was an attorney on Hunter's legal team.<ref name=Hunter/> In 1870, the [[United States Supreme Court|U.S. Supreme Court]] found that the U.S. federal government had illegally confiscated the property and ordered that it be returned to Hunter.<ref name=Hunter/>

The property included the former residence of Confederate General [[Robert E. Lee]]'s family at and around [[Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial|Arlington House]], which had been subjected to an appraisal of $26,810, on which a real estate tax of $92.07 was assessed. Likely fearing an encounter with Union officials, Lee's wife, [[Mary Anna Custis Lee]], the owner of the property, chose not pay the tax in person. She instead sent an agent on her behalf, but Union officials refused to accept it.<ref name="tax">{{cite web|access-date=September 30, 2011|url=http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/historical_information/arlington_house.html|title=Arlington House|work=History of Arlington National Cemetery|publisher=[[Arlington National Cemetery]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100913093837/http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/historical_information/arlington_house.html|archive-date=September 13, 2010}}</ref><ref name=Kaufman>(1) [[s: United States v. Lee Kaufman]]<br />(2) {{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9U03AAAAIAAJ|title=United States v. Lee; Kaufman and another v. Same, December 4, 1882 (106 U.S. 196)|journal=Supreme Court Reporter. Cases Argued and Determined in the United States Supreme Court, October Term, 1882: October, 1882-February, 1883|volume=1|pages=240–286|editor=Desty, Robert|location=Saint Paul, MN|publisher=West Publishing Company|year=1883|access-date=August 22, 2011}}</ref> As a result of the 1862 law, the U.S. federal government confiscated the property, and transformed it into a military cemetery.<ref name=tax/>

After the Civil War ended and his parents died, [[George Washington Custis Lee]], the Lees' eldest son, initiated a federal legal action in an attempt to recover the property.<ref name=tax/> In December 1882, the [[United States Supreme Court|U.S. Supreme Court]] found that the [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. federal government]] illegally confiscated the property without due process, and the property was returned to Custis Lee.<ref name=tax/><ref name=Kaufman/> In 1883, the U.S. Congress purchased the property from Lee for its fair market value of $150,000, whereupon the property became a military reservation and eventually [[Arlington National Cemetery]]. Although Arlington House is within the National Cemetery, the [[National Park Service]] presently administers the House and its grounds as a memorial to Robert E. Lee.<ref name=tax/>

Confederate incursions from [[Falls Church, Virginia|Falls Church]], [[Minor's Hill]] and [[Upton's Hill]], then securely in Confederate hands, occurred as far east as the present-day [[Ballston, Virginia|Ballston]]. On August 17, 1861, 600 [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] soldiers engaged the [[23rd New York Infantry Regiment]] near Ballston, killing a [[Union Army]] soldier. Later that month, on August 27, another large incursion of 600 to 800 Confederate soldiers clashed with Union soldiers at Ball's Crossroads, Hall's Hill, and at the present-day border between the [[Falls Church, Virginia|Falls Church]] and Arlington. A number of soldiers on both sides were killed. However, the territory in present-day Arlington never fell under Confederate control and was not attacked.<ref>Gernand, ''A Virginia Village Goes to War'', pp. 73–74, 89.</ref>