Morning ceremony honors Chester A. Arthur

PHOTOGRAPHER: The Associated Press

The New York National Guard is honoring Chester A. Arthur, the nation’s 21st president, with a wreath-laying ceremony at his gravesite on the 183rd anniversary of his birth.

Arthur was born in Fairfield, Vt. on Oct. 5, 1829. He attended Union College and lived in Hoosick, on the Vermont border in Rensselaer County, before serving as quartermaster general of New York during the Civil War.

Arthur became president in September 1881 when President James Garfield died more than two months after being shot by an assassin.

This morning, Brig. Gen. Anthony German of the New York National Guard will lay a wreath sent from the White House at Arthur’s grave in Albany Rural Cemetery in suburban Menands