Two more deaths last
night. As I have nothing better to do I will describe what I saw of a military
funeral. It was an artilleryman in a plain pine box over which the U. S. flag
was thrown. His comrades with guns reversed went first. Then came the
gun-carriage with the coffin strapped on and six horses hitched to it. After a
prayer by the chaplain the procession started in order as follows: First, the
fife and drum, playing the dead march. Then an escort of guards, after which
the body, followed by the horse the man had ridden, led by a soldier. He was
saddled and bridled and his dead master's boots were strapped in the stirrups
heels foremost, with his sword hanging from the pommel of the saddle. A
corporal was in charge of the whole. At the grave, three volleys were fired
across the open grave after the body was lowered, and then the procession
marched back in reverse order, the fife and drum playing a lively march. The
soldiers' graves are as close to each other as possible and a pine board giving
the man's name and that of the command to which he belonged is placed at the
head of each.
SOURCE:
Lawrence Van Alstyne, Diary of an Enlisted Man, p. 59
