ON HALLOWED GROUND The Story of Arlington National Cemetery

Author and narrator Robert Poole could be mistaken for a funeral director—he’s a man with the appropriate words to discuss a sensitive subject. In his taciturn manner he tells of Arlington Cemetery’s inception during the Civil War. Pilfering the land from the estate of Confederate General Robert E. Lee caused the Union Army no embarrassment. Poole chronicles the evolution of the graveyard in sequence with the conflicts that sent men and women to fill its fields. The services for President Kennedy in 1963 brought such attention to the grounds that many Americans began to aspire to be interred there someday. Other voices from Arlington’s history punctuate the writer’s narrative with their personal experiences. The production ends with the 24 most moving bugle notes ever written, “Taps.” J.A.H. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2010]