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  2. Final Resting Places

Final Resting Places

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Grant’s Tomb<br /> <br /> The interior is patterned after Les Invalides in Paris, where Napoleon rests.
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Grant’s Tomb

The interior is patterned after Les Invalides in Paris, where Napoleon rests.

Kent Beckernot my day job photographyNew YorkGrant's TombJulia GrantRiversideLes InvalidesParisHDRManhattan

  • Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt Grave, Hyde Park, NY
  • Franklin Delano Roosevelt Statue, Hyde Park, NY
  • Paul Revere Grave, Granary Burying Ground, Boston
  • Samuel Adams Grave, Granary Burying Ground, Boston
  • Paul Revere Grave, Granary Burying Ground, Boston
  • John Hancock Grave, Granary Burying Ground, Boston
  • William Dawes, King's Chapel Burying Ground, Boston
  • Grant’s Tomb <br><br> Grant’s Tomb is located near Riverside Church at 122nd and Riverside Ave. After Grant died in 1885, there were several possibilities for a burial site: St. Louis where Grant had lived before the Civil War, Galena, Illinois, which was Grant’s home from before the Civil War until after his presidency, and New York City, where Grant lived in his last four years. Before he died, Grant ruled out West Point because his wife Julia could not be buried beside him. The Grant family chose Riverside Park after ruling out Central Park. <br><br> Grant’s funeral attracted 60,000 marchers that stretched seven miles and took five hours to pass. Over one million spectators witnessed the parade. Attendees included President Grover Cleveland, his cabinet, justices of the Supreme Court, high level figures in the Civil War, and every member of Congress. Grant’s remains were placed in a temporary vault in Riverside Park. <br><br> The day after his death the mayor of New York City wrote a letter to prominent New Yorkers for support for a National Monument in Grant’s honor. A committee was established called the Grant Monument Association (GMA) and headed by ex-President Chester A. Arthur. Early fundraising efforts were slowed by a negative public opinion expressed by out of state press questioning why local residents should help finance a monument in wealthy New York City. Some believed the monument should be in Washington D.C. and some criticized the GMA for not donating enough to support the cause. Not having a concrete plan for a memorial hurt fundraising as donations lagged financial goals by a substantial amount. <br><br> Finally in 1888, the GMA announced a design competition. John Hemenway Duncan won the contest. The objective of his design was to “produce a monumental structure that should be unmistakably a tomb of military character.” The estimated cost was between $500,000 and $900,000. The interior is similar Les Invalides in Paris while the exterior is modeled after the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. The twin sarcophagi of Grant and his wife Julia are similar to that of Napoleon at Les Invalides. <br><br> A debate still raged on where to put the remains, New York or Washington, D.C. The argument ended in 1891 and ground was broken on the 70th anniversary of Grant’s birth. President Benjamin Harrison laid the cornerstone. On April 27, 1897, the 75th anniversary of his birth, Grant’s Tomb was dedicated. The day was a full public holiday, Grant Day, and the number of spectators (about one million with 60,000 marchers) was as great as during Grant’s funeral twelve years earlier. President William McKinley addressed the crowd. <br><br> Julia Grant died in 1902 and her remains were interred beside her husband. <br><br> In the early days, Grant’s Tomb was one of the nation’s great and most popular monuments, attracting over 500,000 people annually. The sight attracted more people than the Stature of Liberty through World War I. <br><br> The Works Progress Administration (WPA) restored the monument in the 1930’s. Projects included restoring the roof, installing electric lighting and heating systems, removing purple stained glass windows, and restoring of two rooms where battle flags were displayed. The WPA installed five busts in the crypt area. The tomb was rededicated in 1939. <br><br> In 1958, the National Park Service (NPS) was granted authority to oversee the monument. Due to a lack of planning and maintenance, the site deteriorated. In the 1970s through the 1990s the site suffered due to vandalism and graffiti. In the early 1990s, Frank Scaturro, a student at Columbia University who volunteered at Grant's Tomb, reported the problems he observed at Grant's Tomb to his supervisors in the NPS. <br><br> After unsuccessful efforts to secure improvements, he went public with a report documenting the condition of Grant’s Tomb. Two Illinois state senators proposed moving the tomb to Illinois if the NPS did not meet obligations in maintaining the site. <br><br> In 1994, the U.S. House of Representatives introduced legislation to restore and preserve Grant’s Tomb. The restoration effort sanctioned by Congress was completed and the tomb rededicated in 1997. For much more detail on the history of Grant’s Tomb, see <a href="http://www.grantstomb.org/ind-gma.html">Grant's Tomb</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant%27s_Tomb">Wikipedia.</a> <br><br> We had a family outing to Grant’s Tomb and Riverside Park on a warm Saturday in June 2012. Eagerly approaching the building, we noticed that it was closed; it has strange hours, from 10-11 am, noon-1 pm, 2-3 pm, and 4-5 pm. Waiting for the noon opening, we went to the nearby visitor center. It is a rather small, spartan building, consisting of restrooms, a souvenir shop, and small room with information and a few artifacts on Grant. To our relief, the center was well air-conditioned on a hot summer day. After watching a short video, we walked around the Tomb. There are odd-looking mosaic benches surrounding the building. The City Arts Workshop put up the benches, done by children in 1973 in an effort to beautify the site. I don’t think the benches fit well next to a tomb of a great leader and we should be thankful that no such project was contemplated around other great monuments such as the Lincoln Memorial or Washington Monument. <br><br> The interior resembles Les Invalides, the final resting place of Napoleon with the dome roof and twin sarcophagi of Grant and his wife Julia. We spent a half hour touring the site along with about a dozen other people. It is fairly dark, so a tripod is nice to have and tripods are allowed. <br><br> The area has other interesting sites such as Riverside Church and Saint John the Divine, and if the kids get bored, Riverside Park.
  • The twin sarcophagi of Grant and his wife Julia.
  • Grant’s Tomb<br /> <br /> The interior is patterned after Les Invalides in Paris, where Napoleon rests.
  • Grave of Alexander Hamilton, Trinity Church Cemetery <br><br> A number of prominent Americans from the 18th and 19th centuries are buried in the Trinity Church cemetery including Alexander Hamilton and his wife Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, inventor Robert Fulton, Secretary of Treasury Albert Gallatin, War of 1812 naval hero James Lawrence, and Revolutionary War General Horatio Gates in addition to many members of Congress. See <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_Church_Cemetery">Wikipedia</a> for more detail. <br><br> Alexander Hamilton was a member of Trinity Church, but it is not known whether he attended services there. After his duel with Vice President Aaron Burr as he lay bleeding and paralyzed in a house on Greenwich Street, he called for Rev. Benjamin Moore, rector of Trinity Church, Bishop of New York, and president of Columbia College, according to the <a href="http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/news/blogs/the-archivists-mailbag/the-last-hours-of-alexander-hamilton">Trinity website.</a> <br><br> According to Ron Chenow’s classic biography of Hamilton, due to his premature death, large bereaved family, and extended service to his country, there was an outpouring of sympathy from all strata of New York society at the news of his death, something that eluded him in life. This outpouring of grief was repeated in Boston and Philadelphia. <br><br> The Saturday morning of his funeral, guns fired from the Battery, church bells rang, and ships flew their colors at half-mast. According to Chernow, the funeral began around noon, with the somber thud of military drums led by New York militia units at the head of the funeral procession followed by numerous clergymen and members of the Society of the Cincinnati (Revolutionary War officers). Eight pallbearers carried Hamilton’s casket with his hat and sword pierced on top. Hamilton’s horse with Hamilton’s boots and spurs reversed in the stirrups trailed. Tearful spectators looked on as the procession wound along Beekman Street then down Pearl Street and Whitehall Street to Broadway. The procession went on for two hours before arriving at Trinity Church where Gouverneur Morris, delivered the funeral oration. Morris, who drafted large segments of the Constitution, also gave the final oration for George Washington. Chernow depicts the tragic scene as four of Hamilton’s sons aged 18, 14, 11, and 6, sat weeping at the stage near Morris. <br><br> From Chernow: “Once Morris had finished his speech, the casket was transferred to a grave site in the Trinity churchyard, not far from where Hamilton had studied and lived, practiced law and served his country. With Bishop Moore officiating, Hamilton’s remains were deposited in the heart of the district that was to become the center of American finance. At the close, troops gathered around his grave, formed a neat square, and fired three volleys at intervals into the air. Hamilton was laid to rest with full honors in a martial style that would have gratified the most florid fantasies of the adolescent clerk on St. Croix who had once prayed for a war to prove his valor. “This scene was enough to melt a monument of marble,” said Hamilton’s New-York Evening Post. Thus ended the most dramatic and improbable life among the founding fathers.”
  • Napoleon's Sarcophagus at Église du Dôme <br /> <br /> Napoleon's sarcophagus at Église du Dôme. He was initially buried on Saint Helena, but King Louis-Philippe arranged for his remains to be brought to France in 1840. His tomb was finished in 1861.
  • Benjamin Franklin's Grave, Christ Church Burial Ground, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage <br><br> Gravesite of Andrew and Rachel Jackson <br><br> Our family visited Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage outside of Nashville in December 2011. The site consists of a visitor center, mansion, slave quarters, and graves of Andrew, Rachel, and family. We first saw a short film in the visitor center that did a reasonable job of summarizing the highlights of Jackson’s life, hitting the good points-support for democracy, expansion of voting rights, and support of the Union and bad-slavery and Indian removal. From the Hermitage tourist literature: “For the nation founded on the idea of individual liberty, it was an age when progress came hand-in-hand with contradiction. The most divisive of these issues: Indian removal and slavery. As a political and military leader, champion of the common man, and slave-owning cotton planter, Andrew Jackson was at the center of these controversies.” <br><br> Viewing a model of Jackson and wife Rachel, I was struck by how thin he was. At 6’1, he was at most 145 pounds. Despite this thin build, he was a tough-as-nails guy, nobody that you wanted to mess with. A bad-ass in today’s vernacular. In a 1806 duel with Charles Dickinson, his strategy was to take the first hit, and rely on his willpower to sustain himself; then shoot deliberately and shoot to kill. This was what happened as Jackson was hit in the chest near his heart. Jackson, with his left boot filled with blood, aimed and fired at Dickinson, killing him. See <a href="http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/g07.htm#zree4">Dr. Zebra</a> for more detail (this site summarizes health issues of presidents). <br><br> My favorite passage from Jon Meacham’s Pulitzer Price winning biography "American Lion" provides an example of his toughness and how it made him a hero: <br><br> “As a judge of the Tennessee Superior Court-a post he held from December 1798 until July 1804-Jackson was riding circuit when he encountered the case of a man, Russell Bean, who had been indicted for “cutting off the ears of his infant child in a drunken frolic.” The local sheriff was afraid of Bean, who refused to appear in court. “Russell Bean would not be taken,” the sheriff told Jackson, who later related the incident to Henry Lee. “At this Judge Jackson expressed much astonishment, and peremptorily informed the officer “‘that such a return was an absurdity and could not be received, that the culprit must be arrested, and that he [the sheriff] had a right to summon the posse comitatus, to aid the execution of the law.’” The sheriff asked Jackson to join the posse, and after arming himself, Jackson agreed. “Sir, I will attend you and see that you do your duty,” he said the sheriff, who led Jackson to the place in town where Bean, “armed with a dirk and a brace of pistols,” was “boasting of his superiority to the law and entertaining the populace with taunts and reflections upon the cowardice of the sheriff and the pusillanimity of the court.” Then the court-in the person of Jackson-appeared. “Now surrender, you infernal villain, this very instant,” Jackson said, “or I’ll blow you through.” <br><br> Wilting under Jackson’s “firm advance and formidable look,” Bean was “unnerved entirely.” He dropped his guns. “I will surrender to you, sir, but to no one else,” Bean said to Jackson. <br><br> Jackson could be touchy and unreasonable, but here, in a corner of Tennessee, we can see the faith others put in Jackson in times of peril and the respect his bravery inspired in his foes. “When danger rears its head, I can never shrink from it,” Jackson once told Rachel. He did what others would not-or could not-do. In a world of threats, that willingness made him a hero, a central figure, someone who could be counted on.”
  • George Custer's Grave, United States Military Academy at West Point, New York <br><br> Custer was originally buried at the Little Bighorn Battlefield two days after his death in June 25, 1876. In the summer of 1876, his remains were removed and taken to Poughkeepsie, New York. His remains were taken to the United States Military Academy at West Point. <a href="http://www.sonofthesouth.net/union-generals/custer/custer-funeral-grave.htm">Son of the South</a> provides the Harper’s Weekly story of Custer’s burial and detail on his life. <br><br> Our family took a tour of the U.S. Military Academy in the fall of 2011. The campus is not open to the public so we took a guided tour of the Academy grounds from West Point Tours. Highlights of the tour was the fall scenery from West Point, which overlooks the Hudson River, the Old Cadet Chapel built in 1837, and the West Point Cemetery. Notables buried there include football coach Red Blaik, Daniel Butterfield (composer of Taps), Lucius Clay (father of the Berlin Airlift), George Custer, Frederick Grant (son of U.S. Grant), Winfield Scott, and William Westmoreland. <br><br> Overall, a nice day trip out of the City on a beautiful fall Saturday.
  • Daniel Butterfield's Grave, United States Military Academy at West Point, New York <br><br> The cemetery was one of the highlights of our tour of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in the fall of 2011. Notable people buried there include football coach Red Blaik, Lucius Clay (father of the Berlin Airlift), George Custer, Frederick Grant (son of U.S. Grant), Winfield Scott, and William Westmoreland. <br><br> One of the most prominent and ornate gravesites is Daniel Butterfield’s, the composer of the bugle call Taps. Taps used to signal lights out at the end of the day and is played by the military at funerals and memorial services. The 24-note bugle call is sad and haunting; I feel like crying every time I hear it. Here is an audio clip from <a href="http://www.armystudyguide.com/content/army_board_study_guide_topics/customs_and_courtesies/bugler-playing-taps-in-mp3.shtml">Army Study Guide.</a> <br><br> From <a href="http://www.west-point.org/taps/Taps.html">WestPoint.org</a>, “Daniel Adams Butterfield (31 October 1831-17 July 1901) was born in Utica, New York and graduated from Union College at Schenectady. He was the eastern superintendent of the American Express Company in New York when the Civil War broke out. Despite his lack of military experience, he rose quickly in rank. A Colonel in the 12th Regiment of the New York State Militia, he was promoted to Brigadier General and given command of a brigade of the V Corps of the Army of the Potomac. The 12th served in the Shenandoah Valley during the Bull Run Campaign. During the Peninsular Campaign Butterfield served prominently when during the Battle of Gaines Mill, despite an injury, he seized the colors of the 83rd Pennsylvania and rallied the regiment at a critical time in the battle. Years later, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for that act of heroism. <br><br> As the story goes, General Butterfield was not pleased with the call for Extinguish Lights feeling that the call was too formal to signal the days end and with the help of the brigade bugler, Oliver Willcox Norton, wrote Taps to honor his men while in camp at Harrison's Landing, Virginia, following the Seven Day's battle. These battles took place during the Peninsular Campaign of 1862. The call, sounded that night in July, 1862, soon spread to other units of the Union Army and was even used by the Confederates. Taps was made an official bugle call after the war.” <br><br> After the war, President Grant appointed him to Assistant Treasurer of the U.S. He was involved in the Black Friday gold scandal. Butterfield told Jay Gould when the government was planning to sell gold. Gould and James Fisk wanted to cover the gold market with the information and sold gold before prices dropped. Grant uncovered the plan and sold $4 million of government gold without telling Butterfield, resulting the panic of collapsing gold prices known as Black Friday, on September 24, 1869. See <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Butterfield">Wikipedia</a> for more detail.
  • Angel of Grief, William Wetmore Story, Protestant Cemetery, Rome
  • Angel of Grief, William Wetmore Story, Protestant Cemetery, Rome
  • John Keats Grave, Protestant Cemetery, Rome
  • John Keats Grave, Protestant Cemetery, Rome
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