Ceremonies used in today's service for Marine Cpl. Evan James have deep roots. The images and sounds are seared into our national consciousness - a weeping mother accepting a folded flag, three sharp rifle reports, a lonely bugler blowing Taps. When Marine Corps Reserve Cpl. Evan James is buried today with all the solemn formality due a national hero, elements of the funeral ceremony will date back to the origins of the U.S. military and before.

Six Marines will place the flag-draped casket at the front of the gym prior to the service.

According to military historians, the custom of covering a fallen serviceman's casket dates to the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. In the U.S., the flag is placed with the union of white stars on the blue field at the head and over the left shoulder.

As the service ends, the six pall bearers will carry the casket to the hearse for the brief procession to LaHarpe Cemetery.

The most distinctive aspects of a military funeral - the folding of the flag, the rifle salute and the playing of Taps - occur at the grave site.

A noncommissioned officer wielding a cavalry sword directs the pall bearers in the flag folding ceremony.

At the leader's order, three pall bearers on either side of the casket lift the flag, holding it taut and level.

The flag is first folded twice lengthwise, with the blue field remaining in full view. A triangular fold is then started at the striped end and continued until only the blue field is visible.

The folded flag will be presented to James' parents, either by a military chaplain or the officer commanding the funeral detail. By rule, the flag should go to the Marine's eldest parent, but families frequently choose for the mother to receive the flag.

Although the flag-folding ceremony is regimented and highly symbolic, the U.S. Flag Code does not list a meaning for each of the thirteen folds made in the flag, as is sometimes claimed. An unofficial ceremony at the U.S. Air Force Academy does include such a detailed interpretation, and the American Legion Web site features a shorter meaning for the program.

Following the presentation of the flag, James will be honored with the traditional firing of rifles over his grave site.

Because the firing party consists of seven riflemen firing three volleys, the rifle shots are often mistakenly referred to as a 21-gun salute. According to the United States Navy Historical Society and Army protocol doctrines, however, 21-gun salutes are reserved for dignitaries or to render honors to another nation. They typically involve the firing of artillery pieces or a ship's guns.

By contrast, the tradition of firing rifles at a funeral likely originated in the old custom of halting a battle to remove the dead from the battlefield. When the armies had cleared their dead, they would fire three volleys to indicate they were ready to resume the fight.

The last lines of Shakespeare's Hamlet offer the first mention in English literature of firing muskets at a military funeral. The words seem as appropriate today: "And for his passage, the soldiers music and the rites of war speak loudly for him ... Go, bid the soldiers shoot."

The playing of Taps by a Marine bugler will conclude James' funeral, although a single Marine will stand sentinel until the interment is complete.

The only distinctively American aspect of the funeral ceremony, Taps was written in 1862 by the Union Army's Brig. Gen. Daniel Butterfield to be played at the end of the day and officially adopted by the U.S. Army in 1874.

The song was first used for a funeral in 1862 by soldier's of the Union's 2nd Artillery who were afraid the traditional rifle shots would give away their position.

For many, the melancholy song is the saddest part of a military funeral.

"Taps usually gets to me the most," said Todd Cary, a member of the Hamilton Walters Marine Corps League in Burlington.

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