(Extract from FM 3-21.5 Drill and Ceremonies, Chapter 14 Funerals)

 

Funeral services of great magnificence evolved as custom (from what is known about early Christian mourning) in the 6th century. To this day, no religious ceremonies are conducted with more pomp than those intended to commemorate the departed.

 

     a. The first general mourning proclaimed in America was on the death of Benjamin Franklin in 1791. The second was the death of George Washington in 1799. The deep and widespread grief occasioned by the death of the first President assembled a great number of people for the purpose of paying him a last tribute of respect. On Wednesday, 18 December 1799, attended by military honors and the simplest but grandest ceremonies of religion, his body was deposited in the family vault at Mount Vernon, Virginia.

 

     b. Several military traditions employed today have been brought forward from the past.

 

          (1) Reversed arms, displayed by one opponent on the battlefield, signaled that a truce was requested so that the dead and wounded could be carried off and the dead buried.

 

          (2) Today’s customary three volleys fired over a grave probably originated as far back as the Roman Empire. The Roman funeral rites of casting dirt three times on the coffin constituted the “burial.” It was customary among the Romans to call the dead three times by name, which ended the funeral ceremony, after which the friends and relatives of the deceased pronounced the word “vale” (farewell) three times as they departed from the tomb. In more recent history, three musket volleys were fired to announce that the burying of the dead was completed and the burial party was ready for battle again.

 

          (3) The custom of using a caisson to carry a coffin most likely had its origins in the 1800s when horse-drawn caissons that pulled artillery pieces also doubled as a conveyance to clear fallen Soldiers from the battlefield.

 

          (4) In the mid to late 1800s a funeral procession of a mounted officer or enlisted man was accompanied by a riderless horse in mourning caparison followed by a hearse. It was also a custom to have the boots of the deceased thrown over the saddle with heels to the front signifying that his march was ended.

 

          (5) People who have served in the US Military have the option to be buried in a National Cemetery with full military honors.  They may also be buried in a private cemetery and still have military honors during the funeral.  Military honors may include military clergy, a military honors team that carries the casket from the hearse to the grave, folding and presentation of the US flag to the family, a firing party that fires a final salute to the deceased, and playing of Taps on a bugle.