Opening paragraphs..........................

     The coach rolled through the small iron gates, up the slight rise, toward massive white columns.  Lee had not seen Arlington for nearly three years, saw again the pure size, the exaggerated grandeur.  It was the home of George Washington Parke Custis, the grandson of Martha Washington and Lee's father-in-law, and the old man had built the mansion more as a showplace for the artifacts of President Washington than as a home for a living family.  The design was cold, impractical, but to Custis, the impression was the important thing, the shrine to his revered ancestors.  But now Custis was dead.
-Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals