"General Washington Last Guard of Honor"

I visited the newly opened Fred W. Smith National Library located at Mount Vernon. The library opened in 2013 and is a center for researching George Washington, colonial America, and the Revolutionary and founding eras. 

The staff at the library was fantastic to work with. They provided me stacks of information on the Fairfax Resolves, Pohick Church and the funeral of George Washington.

I was able to find several gem stones in the piles of paper. They had an original Columbian Centinel and Massachusetts Federalist newspaper dated January 1st 1800 about George Washington's Funeral. On the front page was a drawing of George Washington's casket and how the funeral procession was formed. Right there to the left of the head of Washington was Colonel Payne one of the six Pall Bearers. 

I was also excited to find an old Pamphlet entitled "General Washington's Last Guard of Honor". In 1909 the Mount Vernon chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution set out to honor the pall bearers of George Washington by attempting to find each of the pall bearers tombstones. They were unable to find any of them. The pamphlet included a 2 page bio of Colonel William Payne

Since they were unable to find any of the tombstones they then decided to dedicate a plaque in honor of them. I was excited to find out this plaque was on the East side of the Christ Church in Alexandria only about 20 minutes away, which I immediately had to drive to. 

Christ Church is another historic church in which Washington and Payne attended. Here on the east wall near one of the entrances is the memorial plaque.