Funeral and Burial of Abraham Lincoln - Funeral Train

Funeral Train

At 7 a.m. on Friday, April 21, the coffin was taken to the depot to the funeral car. Edwin M. Stanton, Gideon Welles, Hugh McCulloch, John Palmer Usher, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, and Montgomery C. Meigs left the escort at the depot., and at 8 A.M. the train departed. At least 10,000 people witnessed the train's departure from Washington.

The funeral train consisted of nine cars, including a baggage and hearse car. Eight of the cars were provided by the chief railways over which the remains were transported; the ninth was the President's car, which had been built for use by the president and other officials, contained a parlor, sitting room, and sleeping apartment, and had been draped in mourning and contained the coffins of Lincoln and his son. Different locomotives were used on different stretches of the trip. The train was preceded by a pilot locomotive and one car to see that the track ahead was unobstructed.

The Department of War designated the route and declared railroads over which the remains passed as military roads under the control of brevet Brigadier General Daniel McCallum, the director and superintendent of United States Military Railroads. No person was allowed to be transported on the cars except those authorized by the War Department, and the train never moved at speeds of more than 20 miles (32 km) an hour to avoid any accidents.

Five relatives and family friends were officially appointed to accompany the funeral train: David Davis, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; Lincoln's brothers-in-law, Ninian Wirt Edwards and C.M Smith; Brigadier General John Blair Smith Todd, a cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln; and Charles Alexander Smith, the brother of C. M. Smith. An honor guard accompanied the train; this consisted of Union Army Major General David Hunter; brevet Major General John G. Barnard; Brigadier Generals Edward D. Townsend, Charles Thomas Campbell, Amos Beebe Eaton, John C. Caldwell, Alfred Terry, George D. Ramsey, and Daniel McCallum; Union Navy Rear Admiral Charles Henry Davis and Captain William Rogers Taylor; and Marine Corps Major Thomas H. Field.

Four accompanied the train in an official capacity: Captain Charles Penrose, as quartermaster and commissary of subsistence; Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln's longtime bodyguard and friend and U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia; and Dr. Charles B. Brown and Frank T. Sands, embalmer and undertaker, respectively.

Governor Oliver P. Morton of Indiana; Governor John Brough of Ohio; and Governor William M. Stone of Iowa accompanied the train with their aides.

"The Greatest Funeral in the History of the United States" Lincoln's funeral train was the first national commemoration of a president's death by rail. Lincoln was observed, mourned, and honored by the citizens of Washington, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois in the following cities:

The train passed 444 communities in 7 states (Lincoln was not viewed in state in the state of New Jersey).

Remarks

• Remark #1: April 14, 1865: president Lincoln was shot in the head at ~10.30 p.m at Ford's Theatre, 511, 10th Street, NW, Washington, DC and carried ("borne on loving hands") to Petersen's House by: Dr. Charles S. Taft, assistant surgeon Dr. Charles A. Leale, four soldiers of Thompson's Battery C. (Jacob J. Soles, John Corey, Jake Griffiths and William Sample) and outside the theatre with 2 soldiers more (William McPeck and John Weaver) of the Union Light Guard. Mary Todd Lincoln and others followed.

• Remark #2: April 15, 1865: president Lincoln died at 7.22 a.m at Petersen's House, 453, 10th Street, NW, Washington D.C.

• Remark #3: April 15–19, 1865: body of the deceased president in the White House; shortly after 9 o'clock Saturday morning (April 15, 1865) the remains were placed in a temporary coffin, under the direction of undertaker Frank T. Sands, and removed to the White House, six young men of the quartermaster's department carrying the body. An escort of cavalry Union Light Guard, under the command of Lieutenant James B. Jameson, accompanied the remains, which were followed by Generals Augur, commanding Department of Washington; Rucker, depot quartermaster, Colonel Pelouze, of the War Department, Captain Finley Anderson, A.A.G. Hancock's corps, Captain D.G. Thomas, clothing depot, Captain J.H. Crowell and Captain C. Baker, all walking bareheaded. The hearse moved slowly up 10th street to G, and thence to the White House (east gate). The martyred president's autopsy was performed in a second floor guest room by army pathologist J. Janvier Woodward and his assistant Edward Curtis; also present: Surgeon General Dr. Joseph K. Barnes, Dr. Robert King Stone, Dr. Charles Sabin Taft, General Dr. Charles H. Crane, assistant surgeon William Morrow Notson, General Rucker and Lincoln's friend Orville H. Browning. After the autopsy Lincoln’s body was brought (Monday evening, April 17) to the great East Room; the room was draped with crape and black cloth, relieved only here and there by white flowers and green leaves. The catafalque upon which the casket lay was about fifteen feet high, and consisted of an elevated platform resting on a dais and covered with a domed canopy of black cloth which was supported by four pillars, and was lined beneath with fluted white silk... From the time the body had been made ready for burial until the last services in the house, it was watched night and day by a guard of honor, the members of which were one major-general, one brigadier-general, two field officers, and four line officers of the army and four of the navy. The room was darkened — a sort of chapelle ardente. April 19: a short service was held in the Green Room

• Remark #4: April 19–21, 1865: lying in state in the U.S. Capitol rotunda. Arrival: April 19, 1865, 3 p.m. The procession started from the White House at 2 p.m. and proceeded up Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol amidst the tolling of bells and the firing of minute-guns. The funeral car was large. The lower base was fourteen feet long and seven feet wide, and eight feet from the ground. The upper base, upon which the coffin rested, was eleven feet long and five feet below the top of the canopy. The canopy was surmounted by a gilt eagle, covered with crape. The hearse was entirely covered with cloth, velvet, crape and alpaca. The seat was covered with cloth, and on each side was a splendid lamp. The car was fifteen feet high, and the coffin was so placed as to afford a full view to all spectators. It was drawn by six gray horses, each attended by a groom. The avenue was cleared the whole length... The sound of muffled drums was heard, and the procession, with a slow and measured tread, moved from the home of mourning on its mission with the remains of the illustrious dead. Despite the enormous crowd the silence was profound. The funeral car was carried up the steps of the Capitol, beneath the very spot where, six weeks before, the -now deceased- president had delivered his second Inaugural, and into the rotunda, where the body was removed from the car to another catafalque, where a service was read. Here the procession dispersed, leaving the remains of the president in the rotunda, where they were open to view the next day—The public viewing started April 20, 1865 (early morning)-- Depart from U.S. Capitol: April 21, 1865, 7 a.m.; coffin moved to Washington's Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Depot

• Remark #5: Michigan City, Ind. was a 35 min. stop; Lincoln's funeral train was forced to wait here for a committee of more than one hundred important men from Chicago, who were coming out to escort the train into their city; citizens of Michigan City held an impromptu funeral (patriotic organizations conducted memorial services and 16 young women were permitted to enter the funeral car; flowers were placed on the coffin) --