A rare photograph of President Theodore Roosevelt speaking in front of the remains of Captain John Paul Jones as his body is re-interred on U.S. soil in 1913.
John Paul Jones (July 6, 1747 – July 18, 1792) was America’s first well-known naval commander in the Revolutionary War. He is regarded as the first leader of America’s navy and is known to have uttered the legendary reply about surrendering to a British captain: “I have not yet begun to fight!”
The historical circumstances regarding his burial and the finding of his body over 100 years later are equally as fascinating.
In May 1790, Jones arrived in Paris, where he remained in retirement during the rest of his life. He died of a severe brain tumor and was found lying face-down on his bed in his third-floor Paris apartment, on July 18, 1792. He was buried in Paris at the Saint Louis Cemetery, which belonged to the French royal family. Four years later, France’s revolutionary government sold the property and the cemetery was forgotten. The area was later used as a garden, a place to dispose of dead animals, and a place where gamblers bet on animal fights.
In 1905, Jones’s remains were identified by the US Ambassador to France who had searched for years to track down the body using old copies of Jones’s burial record. Jones’s body was ceremonially removed from his interment in Paris and brought to the United States aboard the USS Brooklyn, escorted by three other cruisers. On approaching the American coastline, seven U.S. Navy battleships joined the procession escorting Jones’s body back to America.
On April 24, 1906, Jones’s coffin was installed in Bancroft Hall at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, following a ceremony presided over by President Theodore Roosevelt. On January 26, 1913, the Captain’s remains were finally re-interred in a magnificent bronze and marble sarcophagus at the Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis.