Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary Soldier Dedicated in Alexandria

In 1929, the National Society of the Children of the American Revolution erected the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution within the 18th-century burial ground of the Old Presbyterian Meeting House. The tomb honors an unidentified patriot whose remains were unearthed nearby in 1826 during the construction of St. Mary’s Catholic Church—now the Basilica of Saint Mary.

The monument’s poetic inscription celebrates liberty, faith, and the ideals of the American founding. It became a site of quiet reverence and remembrance. Around 1930, Eleanor Washington Howard—last child born at Mount Vernon and a descendant of George Washington—was photographed beside the grave in a now-rare postcard image.

Mary Gregory Craufurd Powell, a dedicated member of the Mount Vernon Chapter DAR, played a central role in establishing the tomb as a memorial site. Though buried in the Presbyterian Cemetery west of town, her preservation work at the Meeting House left a lasting legacy.

“Here lies a soldier of the revolution whose identity is known but to God…”

In this image found in Alexandria’s Special Collections and Local History at the Kate Waller Barrett Library, Mary Gregory Craufurd Powell can be seen on the right-hand side. Powell was a close friend of Kate Waller Barrett, the library’s namesake, where this photograph is now preserved. The occasion captured in the image was the dedication of a marker at the location of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from the American Revolutionary War at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House on S. Fairfax Street in Old Town in 1927, a year before Powell’s death.