Military Funeral Honors #1
by Allen Beatty
Title
Military Funeral Honors #1
Artist
Allen Beatty
Medium
Photograph - Photographs
Description
As with the military itself, our armed forces' final farewell to comrades is steeped in tradition and ceremony.
Prominent in a military funeral is the flag-draped casket. The blue field of the flag is placed at the head of the casket, over the left shoulder of the deceased. The custom began in the Napoleonic Wars of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when a flag was used to cover the dead as they were taken from the battlefield on a caisson.
One will notice, during a military funeral that the horses that pull the caisson which bears the body of the veteran are all saddled, but the horses on the left have riders, while the horses on the right do not. This custom evolved from the days when horse-drawn caissons were the primary means of moving artillery ammunition and cannon, and the riderless horses carried provisions.
Here we see one of the daily 25 to 30 burials at Arlington National Cemetery being brought to the gravesite. It is emotional and evocative to witness in person and I definitely had a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye.
Uploaded
April 29th, 2014
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