NY Army National Guard salutes President Chester Arthur during Monday, October 5 ceremony at Albany Rural Cemetery

Latham, New York (10/02/2026) — New York Army National Guard Brigadier General Patrick Clare will honor Chester A. Arthur, the 21st President of the United States, with a formal wreath laying on his grave at Albany Rural Cemetery on Monday, October 5, 2026, his 197th birthday.

WHO: Brigadier General Patrick Clare, the Director of Joint Staff for the New York National Guard, New York Army National Guard Command Sgt. Major Leyland Jones, and men and women of the New York Army National Guard who will form the honor cordon.

WHAT: Annual presentation of a wreath at the grave of Chester A. Arthur, the 21st president of the United States who died on Nov. 18, 1886, at age 57. Since 1967, United States military leaders have laid wreaths from the White House at the graves of Presidents of the United States on the anniversary of their birth. The wreaths are from the current president to former presidents.

WHEN:11 a.m., Monday, October 5, 20265

WHERE: Albany Rural Cemetery, Cemetery Avenue, Menands (follow the Cemetery event signs to Chester Arthur's memorial)

Coverage Opportunities:

Visual opportunities will include the formal wreath-laying ceremony, and the presentation of the colors by a New York Army National Guard Color Guard. An Honor Cordon of troops will be present. A bugler will sound taps. Clare and cemetery officials will deliver brief remarks.

BACKGROUND:

Brig. Gen. Patrick Clare:

Brigadier General Patrick Clare serves as both the Director of Joint Staff for the New York Army National Guard and as the Deputy Commander for Support for the 42nd Infantry Division.

He previously served as the Chief of Staff of the New York Army National Guard and the commander of the 369th Sustainment Brigade.

Clare enlisted in the New York National Guard in 1994 as a truck driver and became an officer in 2000 after completing Officer Candidate School.

Clare has served in a number of logistics positions to include forward support battalion company commander, forward support battalion commander, brigade logistics officer, Assistant Chief of Staff for Logistics for the 42nd Infantry Division, deputy commander of the 53rd Troop Command, and Joint Force Headquarters logistics officer.

From 2005 to 2006 he deployed with the 42nd Infantry Division headquarters to Kuwait. The division headquarters served as the command for Task Force Spartan, the Army combat force in the region. In that role he oversaw the 2026 Bright Star exercise conducted in Egypt in August 2025.

Clare deployed to Iraq in 2004/2005 as the transportation officer for the 42nd Infantry Division in Tikrit. In 2011 he deployed to Kuwait as brigade logistics officer for the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. He also deployed to Kuwait as the chief logistics officer for the 42nd Infantry Division in 2020.

In September 2001 Clare was one of thousands of New York National Guard members who responded to New York City in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Clare is a 2002 Graduate of Nyack College with a BS in Business Administration and a 2019 graduate of the U.S. Army War College with a master's in strategic studies.

His awards include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Iraqi Campaign Medal, and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

He resides in Clifton Park with his wife Nicole, their son Ryan, and daughter Michaela.

CHESTER ARTHUR

Chester Arthur, a one-time schoolteacher in Pownell, Vermont and in Cohoes, a lawyer, a Republican politician and a member of the New York Milita during the Civil War, became president on Sept. 19, 1881, when President James Garfield died from a bullet wound suffered at the hands of an assassin on July 2, 1881. Born in Vermont, Arthur attended Union College in Schenectady and later became a lawyer.

He had never held political office before being elected as vice president.

Arthur worked as a lawyer and was active in Republican politics in New York.

In 1855 he represented Elizabeth Jennings, an African American woman who had been thrown off a New York City horsecar in July 1854 because only white people were allowed to ride that car. He won Jennings a settlement of $225 in damages and the court ruled the Black Americans could not be excluded from public transit provided they were "sober, well behaved, and free from disease."

Arthur also served as the Judge Advocate General of the New York National Guard, then known as the New York State Militia. In this capacity he drafted a military law which restructured the organization.

During the Civil War he was appointed Quartermaster General of New York and was responsible for equipping and transporting 70 New York Volunteer Regiments, totaling about 70,000 Soldiers, during his two years on the job. He erected a tent city in New York for deploying Soldiers, and was also charged with surveying the New York harbor fortifications to prepare them for defending against a Confederate naval attack.

He helped recruit over 120,000 Soldiers to fight for the Union.

From 1871 to 1878 he was the chief Customs Inspector in New York City and the leader of the "Stalwart" wing of the Republican Party. He was elected vice president during the election of 1880.

During his time in office, he signed the first federal Civil Service Law, oversaw the implementation of the first law governing immigration, and advocated for an international conference to that set the prime meridian-used for determining a place on earth and for time keeping-as running through Greenwich, England.

He is also created with being the father of the modern United States Navy since he endorsed the construction of steel, coal-fired steam engine propelled ships, and the creation of the Naval War College to teach officers strategy.

Arthur, who had been in poor health during the latter part of his term as the result of a kidney disease, died of a cerebral hemorrhage less than two years after leaving office, and is buried next to his wife Ellen who died of pneumonia in 1880.

The writer Mark Twain, who was notoriously cynical about politicians praised Arthur upon his death. "I am but one in 55,000,000; still, in the opinion of this one-fifty-five-millionth of the country's population, it would be hard to better President Arthur's administration," Twain wrote.

Editor and writer Andrew McClure, also praised Arthur, writing," No man ever entered the presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted as Chester Alan Arthur, and no one ever retired more generally respected, alike by political friend and foe."

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