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April 21st 1865 The Beginning of the journey Home Father and Son going home Mr. Lincoln's Son Willie was exsumed and traveled to Springfield with Mr. Lincoln to be placed at rest with his Dad. The pilot train left the station 10 min. before the departure of the 9 cars of the Lincoln Funeral train which left from Washington's Baltimore and Ohio railroad depot at 8:00 A.M. Aboard the train were many of the President's friends and aides — including General David Hunter, Supreme Court Justice David Davis, U.S. Marshal Ward Hill Lamon and presidential aides John Hay and John G. Nicolay — all of whom had accompanied the pre-inaugural train from Springfield to Washington in 1861. As the train pulled into the station slowly the bell tolled, the time was 10:00 as it arrived in Baltimore, 38 miles away, where Mr. Lincoln's coffin was taken from the train to the Merchant's Exchange Building where it was opened. Some 10,000 mourners showed their respect in a three hour time frame. Mr. Lincolns body would then travel 58 miles to Harrisburg Pennsylvania. The pilot train left at 2:50 before the Lincoln Special Funeral train left Baltimore at 3:00 P.M. Shortly after 8:00 in the evening from the Howard Street Station destined for Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The coffin was then carried by a special hearse to the state House of Representatives, placed in a catafalque, and then opened for public viewing at 9:30 P.M.
April 22nd At 10:00 A.M. It was reported that some 40,000 people lined up along the streets of Harrisburg P.A. to watch the hearse carry the coffin back to the depot. From Harrisburg PA the pilot train left the station at 11:05 ten min. before the funeral train was to depart at 11:15 A.M. The Lincoln Special's next stop down the tracks would be 106 miles over the Pennsylvania Railroad. Throughout the hills and countryside, the Lincoln Special carried his body where not long before Mr. Lincoln had traveld the tracks to give the Gettysburg Address. The next stop would be Philadelphia. In the rain the Lincoln Special arrived at 4:30 P.M. in Philadelphia at the Broad Street Station . There a hearse took Mr. Lincoln's coffin through Philadelphia's jam-packed streets of thousands of people our countriesIndependence Hall. There the coffin was then placed in the East Wing where the Declaration of Independence had been signed. There that same evening the viewing was by invitation only. The next day as the hearse carried the coffin the streets were filled with hundred's of thousand people.
Before the dawns early light, long lines of the general public had formed some three miles long by 5:00 A.M. Mr. Lincolns coffin was opened and officials of Philadelphia estimated 300,000 people waited up to 5 hours to pay their respect to Mr. Lincoln's. So many people wanted to view Mr. Lincoln's body that police had difficulty maintaining order in the lines.
On the morning of April 24th at 4.00 a.m. the Lincoln Funeral train then departed Philadelphia from Kensington Station with its next stop at New York. This part of the journey would be a 86-mile trip. While in New Jersey, the train passed through Trenton, Dean's Pond, Princeton, New Brunswick, Metuchen, Rahway, Elizabeth, and Newark. The train arrived in an immense train station at Jersey City at 10:00 A.M. It was here at the station in Jersey City that the huge clock inside the station had been frozen in time at 7:20, the approximate time of Mr. Lincoln's death on April 15th.
Mr. Lincoln's coffin was then removed from the special funeral car and taken across the Hudson River by ferry. It was then borne to City Hall where it was carried up the circular staircase under the rotunda to be placed in a black velvet dais for the public to pay their respects. Shortly after 1:00 P.M. the public was admitted to pay their respect. It was on this day that the only picture of Mr. Lincoln laying in state was taken. At one point more than 500,000 people waited in line to view Mr. Lincoln.
The Times' Raymond wrote: "At half-past eleven [on Monday] the head of the procession entered the Park, and while cannon thundered from every fort in and around the harbor, while church-bells from every spire pealed out the nation's sorrow, and while eight hundred choristers chanted the 'Chorus of the Spirits' and filled the charmed air with its sadly enchanting melody, the coffin was borne up the steps of the city Hall, and placed under the dome, draped, decorated, and dimly lighted, upon the place prepared for its reception." According to Searcher: "A noonday sun sent summertime heat on a concourse of bared heads that completely pervaded the park and all adjacent streets. Distant artillery thundered. Steeples wailed. The spire of nearby Trinity Church chimed 'Old Hundred.' Near and far as one could see scores of thousands of red-white-and-blue symbols of liberty hung at the half position and many were rimmed in sable. The Times' Raymond wrote: "At twenty minutes to twelve on the 25th, the doors were closed. The appointed pall-bearers took their place beside the coffin, which at one o'clock was lifted and carried, to the tolling of the bell and the tap of the drum, out through the double line of the Seventh Regiment, and placed upon the funeral car." Appropriately, it was the Seventh Regiment which had been first to arrive to defend Washington after the fall of Fort Sumter four years earlier.Windows and rooftops were overburdened with citizenry straining for the sight. Trees in the park, budding spring green, were bent with the weight of determined sightseers.
Mr. Lincolns coffin was placed upon a 14-foot long funeral car with 16 horses dressed in long blankets which lead the funeral procession. At about 2:00 P.M. The funeral procession began that went up Broadway to Fourteenth Street, then over to Fifth Avenue, up Fifth to Thirty-fourth Street, and across Thirty-fourth to Ninth Avenue onward to the Hudson River Railway Depot. There a crowd of 75,000 ordinary citizens marched in the huge procession through New York's jam-packed streets. The buildings along the way were wreathed in black. When the procession neared Union Square, it passed Theodore Roosevelt's grandfather's home where the young lad [Theodore Rossevelt] watched out the window as the procession passed by.
When the head of the procession reached the depot the column halted and faced to the west; and as the car bearing the body came up, the solemn strains of the military bands broke forth, the troops presented arms, the vast crowd kept the most profound and impressive silence, the coffin, with due ceremonies, was placed upon the railway-car, and at four o'clock, to the sound of a funeral dirge, the train took its departure, headed for Albany (141 miles away). During this leg of the journey the train was pulled by a locomotive named the Union, with 7 cars, and the pilot engine was named the Constitution. Along the way large crowds of spectators gathered as the train passed through small communities as, Manhattanville, Yonkers, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington, Tarrytown, Sing-Sing, Peekskill, Garrison's Landing (opposite West Point), Cold Spring, Fishkill, North Hamburg, Poughkeepsie, Hyde Park, Staatsburg, Rhinebeck, Barrytown, Tivoli, Germantown, Catskill, Hudson, Stockport, Coxsackie, Stuyvesant, Schodack, and Castleton. The pilot train arrived around 10:45 P.M. before the funeral train arrived in Albany at 11:00 P.M. The trip had been a weary one as the rain continued to fall. The coffin of Mr. Lincoln was then moved to the State House for public viewing. Throughout the night the local citizens passed by to pay their last respects to their president.
New York to Buffallo a 15 hour night- time journey April 26th 1865
A grand procession with a specially built catafalque drawn by 6 white horses made its way in Albany with Mr. Lincolns coffin. At 3:50- P.M. the pilot train again departed from the station. Then at 4:00 P.M. in the afternoon the funeral train departed Albany headed for Buffalo and a 298-mile trip via the New York Central Railroad. The same route that brought Mr. Lincoln to the White house years earlier with crowds looking on, now gathered to morn the loss of a great President. The " Lincoln Special "passed through the towns of Schenectady, Canajoharie, St. Johnsville, Little Falls, Herkimer, Utica, Rome, Oneida, Syracuse, Rochester, and others. Listed in the News paper article below shows that some 35,000 people looked on with forches and bonfires.
April 27th 1865 The engine 'Dean Richmond' pulled the train into Buffalo Thursday morning at 7:00 A.M. Here upon arrival Mr. Lincolns coffin then was transported to St. James Hall in a magnificent catafalque drawn by 6 white horses dressed in black. The rain continued along the train ride home as the skys poured out with tears from heaven. People again gathered in an orderly manner to pay their respects to the Fallen hero. A crowd of 100,000 people passed by the coffin during the day. The mourners included ex-President Millard Fillmore and future President Grover Cleveland. There was no formal funeral procession in Buffalo. At the close of the day at 9:50 the pilot train lead the way as the journey of 183 miles toward Cleveland Ohio. The funeral train left at 10:00 P.M.
At 1:00 A.M. the train made a brief stop at Westfield, New York, where five young women brought a cross of flowers to Mr. Lincoln's coffin. At 7:00 A.M. the train arrived at Euclid Street Station in Cleveland.
The coffin was transported by hearse to Cleveland's Public Park and placed in a pagoda in Monument Square; only in Cleveland was the public viewing done outdoors. In the 15 hours 150,000 people payed their final respect to the slain President. Again at 11:50 P.M. the pilot train began the journey over the next 135 mile trip Columbus Ohio traveling over Cleveland,Columbus,and Cincinnati Railroads. The Funeral train departed at Midnight from the Euclid Street Station.
The bells tolled with the engines bells as the Funeral train passed through Indiana , Richmond, Centreville, Germantown, Cambridge, Knightstown, Charlotteville. The pilot trained arrived at 6:45 a.m in Indianapolis, followed by the funeral car at 7:00 A.M. The coffin then was placed in a hearse topped by a silver-gilt eagle and was carried to the Indiana State House. The sky opened with such heavy rain that the giant procession was canceled and the entire day devoted to viewing. The Govenor the honorable Oliver P. Morton did not give his oration, due to the rain falling. Late in the evening of April 30th the Lincoln Special began its journey of some 210 miles to Chicago.
As so stated in the news papers of the time, people gathered, as the train made its way toward Chicago people gathered around the tracks. As the train passed through Whitestown (100 people gathered around a single bonfire at 1:00 A.M.), Lebanon, Thorntown, Colfax, Clarksville, Lafayette, and others. On the way to Chicago the train stopped at Michigan City, Indiana, where an impromptu funeral was held during the morning. At 11:00 A.M. the train arrived in Chicago. The train did not go the full distance to the Union Depot. It stopped on a trestle that carried the tracks out into Lake Michigan for some distance. There had been many processions for the late president along the funeral route, but none rivaled that of Chicago. The horse drawn hearse traveled down Michigan Avenue, then Lake Street, and then Clark to Court House Square. The coffin was opened at 6:00 P.M. for public viewing at the Cook County Court House on Clark Street at 6:00 and lasted all through the night and into the entire the next day. May 2nd 1865 At the rate of 7,000 people per hour, for the entire day, mourners passed by Mr. Lincoln's coffin. Over the passing of the previous days since Mr. Lincolns death the body was with a great discoloration that began in New York and now had reached the extent of distressing the viewers. At 8:00 P.M. the hearse carried the coffin to the depot of the St. Louis and Alton Railroad. This was the last stop to be made before the body reached his hometown of Springfield. The final 184 miles of the Last train ride was now on route. The train would soon pass through Fort Wayne Junction, Bridgeport, Summit, Joy's, Lemont, Lockport, Joliet (12,000 persons were gathered there at midnight), Elwood, Hampton, Wilmington, Stewart's Grove, Braceville, Gardner, Dwight, Odell, Cayuga, Pontiac, Ocoya, Chenoa, Lexington, Towanda, Bloomington, Shirley, Funk's Grove, Mclean, Atlanta, Lawn Dale, Lincoln, Broadwell, Elkhart, Williamsville, Sherman Station, and Sangamon.
The journey had ended, where it once was launched. The First train ride to Washington D.C. was now the final desination. Mr. Lincoln's hometown was reached the next morning, and the train pulled into the Chicago and Alton depot on Jefferson Street. The body was to be moved to the State House's Hall of Representatives, where it would lie in State where once Mr. Lincoln gave his famous Speech " House Divided". The body had endured much discoloration and Thomas Lynch, an undertaker, using rouge chalk and amber restored the face to near normal color. Shortly after 10:00 A.M. the doors were opened to the long line of mourners. Additionally, hundreds of people gathered around Mr. Lincoln's home where his horse, Old Bob, now 16 years old, and his dog, Fido, had been brought back for the day. May 4th 1865
Mr. Lincoln's only two blood relatives in attendance that day were his son, Robert, and his cousin, John Hanks. Mrs. Lincoln was still in mourning in the White House. The Lincoln procession was considered to be the largest event that the Midwestern part of the United States had ever witnessed. Upon arrival at the cemetery, the coffin of Mr. Lincoln and his son Willie was laid upon the marble slab inside the tomb. Bishop Matthew Simpson [Pictured above] who had been chosen over every other minister in the United States for this sad occasion gave an extremely eloquent address. Dr. Phineas Densmore Gurley read the benediction. The crowd then watched as the gates of iron and the heavy wooden doors of the tomb were closed and locked. It was over at last. The final journey home, the last train ride. "Now he belongs to the ages" |
