Arlington National Cemetery - A United States military cemetery where those that have...

A United States military cemetery where those that have died in conflicts since the Civil War have been buried.

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The land that holds more than 400,000 American veterans once belonged to the family of a Confederate general. Arlington sits on what used to be Robert E. Lee's home, taken away by the government during the Civil War.

The land first belonged to George Washington Parke Custis. He was the step-grandson of George Washington, the first president of the United States.

Custis built a big house there and filled it with things that had belonged to George Washington. His daughter Mary married Robert E. Lee, and they lived there together.

When the Civil War started in 1861, Lee left the U.S. Army to fight for the Confederacy. Union soldiers then took over his home.

On May 13, 1864, a soldier named Private William Christman was buried on the land. He was the very first burial there. A month later, an Army general named Montgomery Meigs made it official: this would become a military cemetery.

Meigs did not like Lee at all. Over time, he ordered soldiers to be buried closer and closer to the house, so the Lee family could never move back in.

After the war, Lee's son sued the government to get the land back. In 1882, the Supreme Court agreed the government had taken it unfairly. But instead of digging up more than 16,000 graves, Congress simply bought the land in 1883.

One of the most famous spots in the cemetery is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was built in 1921 to honor a soldier from World War I whose name was never known.

Unknown soldiers from World War II and the Korean War joined him in 1958. A soldier from the Vietnam War was buried there too, until scientists used DNA testing in 1998 to learn his name.

Special soldiers from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment guard the tomb every day and night. They are called the Old Guard, and they've stood watch since 1937, no matter the weather.

Watch the Changing of the Guard, one of the most careful and exact ceremonies in the whole military. Visit Arlington House, the home where the Lee family once lived, sitting right on the hill above the graves.

Walk to the graves of President John F. Kennedy and President William Howard Taft. They rest here among the many soldiers they once led.