When an officer above the rank of colonel is buried, there are cannon employed instead of small arms. A brigadier’s funeral is attended by two squadrons and one battalion, and a salute of nine cannon is given. A major-general’s is attended by three squadrons and two battalions and eleven pieces of cannon. A lieutenant-general’s thirteen pieces of cannon, three battalions and four squadrons. A general’s with fifteen pieces, four battalions, and six squadrons. And a field-marshal’s saluted with seventeen pieces of cannon, and attended by six battalions and eight squadrons.
When a general or flag officer is being conveyed to the grave, minute guns are fired; but these are not to exceed the number to which the officer was entitled when alive.
When an officer dies in any garrison town, it is customary to send round with the orders, which are read by every officer each evening, a notice to the effect that the funeral will take place on a particular day, and any officers wishing to attend are to be at a place named at a given hour. It is usual for every officer belonging to the regiment or corps of the deceased in the garrison to attend, if not otherwise occupied, and personal friends of the deceased follow also.
All officers who attend funerals appear in full dress with a piece of black crape above the elbow of the left arm, this being the only mourning allowed in the army. The pall-bearers, who should be of the same rank as the deceased, usually wear a crape scarf in addition to the crape on the arm.
When the officer belonged to the royal artillery or cavalry his charger is led to the grave, saddled and equipped, the boots of his master being suspended on each side of the saddle, the heels turned to the front. On the coffin, the busby, helmet, or shako is placed, and the officer’s sword-belt and gloves.
There are few things more imposing in outward appearance than a soldier’s funeral. The slow, measured beat of the drum, the firing party marching with their arms reversed, a position highly emblematic of grief, the strange mixture of uniform and black pall, invariably tend to make the bystanders feel that a soldier’s funeral is far more solemn and impressive than is that of a civilian.
When the procession approaches the grave the firing party file to the right and left, and thus form on either side; they then rest upon their arms reversed, whilst the coffin is borne between the ranks. When the coffin has been lowered into the grave and the service completed, three rounds of blank cartridge are fired in the air as a feu de joie—a somewhat inappropriate term for the occasion—but modified by an old corporal who instructed us in the goose step, and who used to order us to fire a “few de joy—as for the Queen’s birthday,” or “a feu de wo for a funerial.”
A soldier’s life is, when on service, passed amidst scenes of danger, and thus probably he to a certain extent becomes indifferent to death; to say the least, he has not time to grieve very long. Thus no sooner has the ceremony of depositing his comrade in the earth been accomplished, than the band, or drums and fifes, which so solemnly performed the dead march when proceeding to the burial place, strike up a cheerful quick march, and the soldiers return to barracks to the tune of “Here we are again,” forgetful of the scene in which they have lately been actors, and regardless of the probability of themselves being the next claimants for six feet of earth.