1905 Video: The Funeral of Hiram Cronk, The Last Surviving Veteran of the War of 1812

200 years ago today, Amer­i­ca stunned the world when it declared war on Britain, begin­ning what’s now called The War of 1812. The Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War had end­ed only 29 years ear­li­er. But despite agree­ments made with the Treaty of Paris (1783), the British kept pres­sur­ing the Unit­ed States, try­ing to sti­fle Amer­i­ca’s trade with France and the young nation’s expan­sion into the North­west Ter­ri­to­ry, among oth­er things. So the two coun­tries went to war again.

Now fast for­ward 93 years and watch as Hiram Cronk, the last sur­viv­ing vet­er­an of the war, gets laid to rest. Cronk, a shoe­mak­er by trade, served with the New York Vol­un­teers in the defense of Sack­et­t’s Har­bor, and lived to be 105 years old. Above, you’ll see crowds lin­ing the streets of Brook­lyn and watch­ing the mil­i­tary pro­ces­sion pass by. Some 25,000 peo­ple paid their respects that day.

via matthi­as­rasch­er