Virginia

Hidden in the burial yard of Alexandria’s Old Presbyterian Meeting House lies a modest table-top memorial marking the grave of an unidentified Revolutionary War soldier whose remains were discovered there in the 1820s and formally honored in a 1929 dedication that echoed the nation’s renewed interest in its colonial past

On November 11, 1921, three years to the day after the armistice that ended World War I, President Warren G. Harding presided over the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. It was an emotional affair for Washington and the nation.

In November 1862 President Lincoln replaced General George McClellan and two days later appointed Ambrose E. Burnside to lead the Army of the Potomac; his brief, disastrous tenure at Fredericksburg would tarnish his military reputation but cement his curious legacy as the namesake of the sideburns and a perennial "No-Shave November" icon.

Virginia is the 35th biggest state, yet has the 3rd most counties and independent cities in the country. How did that happen? Well, at least part of the answer is lies in the Commonwealth's colonial origins.

You’re sixteen years old, caught up in the intoxicating freedom that comes with your new driver’s license, and it’s Halloween night. You and your friends are driving around your small town looking for a quiet place far away from adult supervision. You decide to park on the side of the road near a secluded railway overpass. It’s the perfect place to get “up to something,” as your mother would say: woods creeping up on either side and the complete darkness you can only find on rural roads without streetlamps or nearby houses.