Signpost To The Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier At Arlington National Cemetery Editorial Image

In December 1920, New York Congressman and World War I veteran Hamilton Fish, Jr. proposed legislation that provided for the interment of one unknown American soldier at a special tomb to be built in Arlington National Cemetery. The purpose of the legislation was “to bring home the body of an unknown American warrior who in himself represents no section, creed, or race in the late war and who typifies, moreover, the soul of America and the supreme sacrifice of her heroic dead.”