Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution

[1][2] In 1826, during construction of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, which is located immediately next to the churchyard of the Old Presbyterian Meeting House, the body of an unidentified man, clothed in a Revolutionary War uniform, was unearthed.

The memory that the remains of an unidentified soldier had been reburied at this site was carried into the twentieth century by Mary Gregory Powell (1847–1928), a member of the Meeting House congregation and long-time historian of the Mount Vernon chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Her father, William Gregory (1789–1875), had come to Alexandria from Scotland in 1807 and had served the Presbyterian Meeting House congregation for many years as an Elder and member of the Church Committee.

On the second anniversary of the signing of the treaty that ended World War I, Armistice Day 1920, memorials to unknown soldiers were dedicated in Great Britain and France.

As that project drew to its completion, Mary Gregory Powell contacted John B. Gordon, chair of the Meeting House restoration committee, about honoring the Unknown Soldier.

[7] William Tyler Page, Clerk of the United States House of Representatives and author of "The American's Creed," read the "Epitaph of the Unknown Soldier," which he had prepared for the tabletop memorial.

Following the service inside the Meeting House, the assemblage moved to the gravesite, accompanied by the solemn tolling of the church bell, where numerous wreaths were placed at the foot of the memorial by patriotic and military organizations.