Sunday Cemetery - General Henry Van Ness Boynton

Published on the 8^th of June in 1905 in the Baltimore American out of Baltimore, MD

BURIED WITH MILITARY HONORS

GENERAL BOYNTON NOW RESTS AT ARLINGTON CEMETERY

A Funeral Befitting the Rank of a Brigadier General – The Services Held at New York Ave. Presbyterian Church – Representatives Present From Gridiron Club – Remains Taken to Cemetery on a Gun Caisson – Salute of Eleven Guns From Fort Myer.

     Washington, June 7 – Gen. Henry Van Ness Boynton was buried today in Arlington National Cemetery with distinctive military and civic honors. Although a civilian at the time of his death, he was accorded a funeral befitting an office of the rank he at one time held in the United States Army, that of brigadier general. The funeral services, which took place at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, were conducted by Rev. Dr. Wallace Radcliffe and were participated in by a numerous representation of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, the Loyal Legion and the Gridiron Club, in all of which organizations General Boynton had for many years past been a leading spirit.

     The funeral services were unostentatious, being in strict accord with the wishes of the deceased. The church ceremony consisted principally of an eulogy by Dr. Radcliffe and the singing of two hymns by the Gridiron Club Quartet. Dr. Radcliffe’s eulogy was an eloquent review of the career of a lifelong friend. The floral tributes were many and of varied design, the casket being literally buried in masterpieces of the florist’s art.

     Among the tributes was large floral wreath sent by the city of Chattanooga, where General Boynton was well-known, and a delegation of whose citizens attended the funeral, President Roosevelt, in expressing sympathy to Gen. Andrew S. Burt, Chairman of the committee representing the Army of the Cumberland in the funeral arrangements, took occasion to pay a high tribute to the character and public services of General Boynton, saying that he regarded him as the highest type of a soldier and a citizen, and one of the best examples of patriotic American manhood.

     At the conclusion of the church services two troops of cavalry escorted the remains, which rested on a gun caisson, with artillery sergeants as body bearers,  to their resting place in the historic Arlington. As the funeral cortege passed Fort Myer a brigadier general’s salute of 11 guns was fired and the last military honors were rendered by a volley over the distinguished soldier and citizen’s grave.

     General Boynton, up to within a few weeks of his death, had been president of the Board of Education of the District of Columbia, and as a tribute to his memory the public schools were closed for the day. The flag on all District buildings were placed at half staff.

     The pallbearers, eight in number, selected by the General before his death form the Gridiron Blub, introduced an innovation. Each member of the club wore a boutonniere of lavender sweet peas, tied with black and white ribbons, the colors of the blub. At the Arlington Cemetery, after Dr. Radcliffe, the officiating clergyman, had pronounced the benediction over the open grave, the eight Gridiron pallbearers advanced and unpinning the flowers from their coats, dropped them in upon the casket as a last tribute to the memory of their fellow member.