Burial Ritual for UCV Tennessee

Ole Miss

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While reading through a Confederate Veteran Magazine I found this Burial Ritual. Since it was dated 1895, I imagine they were holding many funerals.
Regards
David



BURIAL RITUAL FOR VETERANS.
Comrades generally in Tennessee are so well pleased with the Ritual in use by them that it is

submitted in the faith that Veterans in other States may be pleased to adopt it in whole or in part. Changes were proposed at the last meeting of the Frank Cheatham Bivouac, because of the discomfort in using it at the grave in bitter winter weather. The change suggested that the principal part of this service by comrades be performed at the residence or in the church where the regular funeral is attended.
At the hour and place appointed, the Bivouac (or Camp) of which the deceased was a member will meet. The President will appoint pall bearers, marshal and assistant, if necessary. All members to be supplied with a badge of crape and sprig of ever- green, to be worn with badge of the Association. The Bivouac (or Camp) will pass in procession from the place of meeting to the place whence the

deceased is to be taken for interment. The order of procession to be as follows:
1st. The Marshal with black scarf and a baton
with black crape and ribbon on each end, inches
wide, of color (blue, red or yellow) representing that branch of service to which the comrade belonged.
2nd. The Sergeant-at-Arms, with sword draped as baton of marshal.
3rd. Members in double rank.
4th. Recording and Corresponding Secretaries.
5th. Financial Secretary and Treasurer.
6th. Chaplain and Surgeon.
7th. Second and Third Vice Presidents.
8th. President and First Vice President.
On arriving at the house the President will place the badge of deceased on coffin.
The procession, in above named order, will precede the corpse to the place of burial. On arriving there, the members will open ranks, stand uncovered, with hat in left hand, and with right hand raised as if making a military salute, while the cortege will puss between the two lines, after which the members will reform in reverse order. The President and Vice President, leading, passing through to the front, others following to the grave, open ranks and passing round both right and left. After the performance of such religious services as desired by friends of deceased, and before final closing of grave, the members will silently approach as near the grave as convenient, the President at the head, the Chaplain at the foot, all uncovered, hat in left hand, when the President will read the following address:


Comrades: We are here to-day to pay the last tribute of friendship in the presence of the honored dead.
Response by Comrades: Our honored dead.
We are to commit to the grave the body of a comrade whose life — aside from its other ties of friend- ship and sociability — was drawn very close to our lives by a bond of love which was formed amidst common perils and hardships, and welded in the fires of battle.
Response: The fires of battle.
Not in the pomp and circumstance of war, not with musket shot and roll of drum, do we bury our comrade. The roar of the cannon and the din of the conflict are hushed, and in this time of solemn peace we lay the citizen-soldier in his last resting place — an honorable grave.
Response: An honorable grave.
He was a veteran Confederate soldier, true and tried. Freely and cheerfully he risked his life in defense of his home and his people; bravely and grandly he bore himself amidst all the dangers and privations of an unequal contest. He answered to the last roll call that summoned him to duty as a soldier, and when he yielded to the arbitrament of war, it was not as a conquered slave, but as a hero — one of the gallant spirits who have immortalized the Southern Arms. He fought a good fight, and has left a record of which we, his surviving comrades, are proud, and which is a heritage of glory to his family and their descendants for all time to come.
Response: A glorious heritage!
With equal courage and fortitude and patience our comrade accepted the fortune of peace, made arduous by losses and reproaches, and as a citizen of a reunited country, true to his innate manhood, he evinced a loyalty which, making no apology for the past, was true in every quality of patriotism and which none can question without aspersion.
Response: He was tried and true.
Rest, soldier, rest! Impartial history will vindicate thy motives and write thy deeds illustrious. Comrade and friend, we give thy body to the dust and'commend thy spirit to God.
Response: Rest, soldier, rest!
Chaplain's Prayer.
(Chaplain shall pray some short prayer suited to the occasion). Each Comrade deposits a twig in the grave.



The Confederate Veteran

Volume III, February 1895, Number 2
Burial Ritual for Comrades
Page 43
 
They were very solemn occasion. Thanks for sharing this. One of the things I love about collecting UCV Camp Members ribbons is they were 2 sided and the black side was worn at these funerals by the members.

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Really neat article. I never thought about post war burials, and whether there would be fellow veterans there to participate. Food for thought!
 
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