September 28, 2023 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, you've heard us tell the story of Abraham Lincoln's train ride to Washington for his inauguration. This is the story of his train ride home to his final resting place.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
For his inauguration in eighteen sixty one, Abraham Lincoln took
a thirteen day train ride from Springfield, Illinois to Washington,
d C. Facing assassination attempts and a union splitting apart
(00:30):
at the seams along the way. Four years in a
Civil War later, he'd take the same trip in reverse
under very different circumstances. Here to tell the story of
Lincoln's assassination and funeral train is Lewis Picone, author of
The President Is Dead, The Extraordinary Stories of Presidential Deaths,
(00:52):
Final Days, Burials and beyond. Take it away, Lewis.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
On April fourteenth, eighteen sixty five, this was Good Friday,
and it was also the first Friday since Robert E.
Lee's surrender to General Grant at Appomattics. This was a
very festive and jubulant Washington, DC, as well as jubulant
Abraham Lincoln. For his entire presidency, Abraham Lincoln had been
(01:23):
fighting the Civil War. One of his children died too,
will He died while in the White House. So this
was a man whose entire presidency was filled with misery,
and for the first time he can be happy, he
could celebrate, He can be joyful.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
So even though it was Good Friday.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Which is probably the most solemn day on the Christian calendar,
Abraham Lincoln, at the suggestion of Mary Todd, Lincoln decided
that evening he was going to go see a comedy
play called Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater. So he
woke up that morning in a good mood, and the
pace people who saw him said that Abraham Lincoln was
(02:03):
more cheerful and jubilant than he had been in a
long time, and probably they had really ever seen him.
He had breakfast with his son Robert Todd. In the
last months of the Civil War. Robert Todd had convinced
his father and mother to allow him to go into
the military because he didn't want to grow old, thinking
that he didn't take part in this seminal event, in
(02:26):
this seminal war of his youth when he was of
age to fight in it. So he finally convinced his
father and Abraham Lincoln reached out.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
To Ulysses S.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Grant, who took him on as an aide. So Robert
Todd Lincoln, the son of Abraham Lincoln, was with Ulysses S.
Grant at the surrender of Robert E.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Lee.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So that morning, Abraham Lincoln was having breakfast with Robert
Todd and he was.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Telling him all about the surrender.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
At about eleven o'clock, he had a cabinet meeting, including
Ulysses as Grant, and at that cabinet meeting they discussed
the the peaceful restoration of the Union. He was committed
to honor his pledge in his second inaugural speech of
malice towards nun and charity for all. That was the
approach that he was taken, not vindictiveness. He wasn't looking
(03:13):
to punish the South. He was looking to welcome them
back in. So he had lunch with Mary after his
cabinet meeting, and then they took a carriage ride to
the Washington Navy Yard. On that carriage ride, Mary Todd
Lincoln later recalled how happy Abraham Lincoln was and how
he was imploring Mary Todd Lincoln that finally this misery
is behind us, we must be happy. They were trying
(03:35):
to figure out together how to move forward as a couple,
and they had talked wistfully about the travel they would do.
Abraham Lincoln wanted to go to the Holy Land. He
wanted to travel internationally for the first time. He can
think more about the day in front of him, and
the week in front of them, and the battles in
front of him, which really makes his assassination just so
much more tragic.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
So about eight thirty.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Abraham Lincoln walked into the theater and they took their
seats in the balcony a little bit late, tried to
be discreet. He arrived during the first act, but Abraham
Lincoln couldn't be discreet in the setting like that, so
he received the standing ovation and the orchestra struck up
Hail to the Chief. So Lincoln acknowledged the crowd at
(04:26):
Ford's theater. There was about seventeen hundred patrons at Ford
Theater that day, and then he took.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
His seat.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
At about ten o'clock. During the performance, Mary Todd Lincoln.
She was holding his hand and hugged him very self consciously, though,
and she whispered, what will miss Harris think of my
hanging on to you?
Speaker 1 (04:46):
So?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
And Abraham Lincoln was trying to make her feel better
and said she won't think anything about it.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
These were Abraham Lincoln's last words.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Now this was before Secret Service protection, but Abraham Lincoln
did have a personal bodyguard that would accompany him. But
once Abraham Lincoln was in the balcony and the door
to the balcony was locked, the personal bodyguard decided he
was going to leave and go out and get a drink,
so there was no guard there. At about ten point fifteen,
(05:18):
John Wilkes Booth entered the balcony during the third act, and.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Booth had performed at Ford's Theater.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Abraham Lincoln had even seen some of John Wilkes Booth's performances,
and Booth was probably one of the most famous actors
in America at the time, very well known, so when
John Wilkes Booth came into Ford's Theater.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
He didn't have to sneak in. People knew him.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
When he went towards the balcony, he went rather freely
because he was John Wilkes Booth, so he was very
familiar with the play too, and he knew one of
the scenes in the third act had a big laugh line,
so he knew when to time his assassination. He planned
that during this big laugh line. The shot would be
(06:02):
muffled by the laughter and it would give him a
little more time to make his escape. So during that scene,
John Wilkes Booth snuck in. He had to cover that
he needed. He had a single shot derringer in his hand.
He would manage to get right behind the president and
shoot the pistol. John Wilkes Booth leaped onto the stage,
(06:26):
jumped off of the balcony. In the process, he got
his foot tangled on a flag and he actually broke
his leg in the fall, but he had a boot
on and in the adrenaline.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
He managed to escape anyway. Even with the broken leg.
He held up.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
His dagger and he yelled the South is avenged seasmper tyrannus,
which was Latin for thus always to tyrants.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
And you're listing to Lewis Pocone tell the story of
President Lincoln's assassination and what would follow on his trek,
his body's trek back to Springfield. More of this remarkable story,
Lincoln's last trip back home here on our American story. Folks,
(07:29):
if you love the stories we tell about this great country,
and especially the stories of America's rich past, know that
all of Our stories about American history, from war to politics,
to innovation, culture and faith, are brought to us by
the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students
study all the things that are beautiful in life and
all the things that are good in life. And if
(07:50):
you can't get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you
with their free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale
dot edu to learn more. And we returned to our
(08:10):
American stories and the story of President Lincoln's assassination and
funeral train with author Lewis Pconne. When we last left off,
amidst the clamor and celebration of a country finally at
peace with itself, the man who had seen it all
to fruition lay dying in a theater in Washington. Lincoln
had gone to Ford's Theater that night with his wife
(08:32):
Mary Todd, Henry Lee Rathbone, and Clara Harris, his wife.
He'd soon be joined by others rushing to his aid.
Let's get back to the story here again. Is Lewis becone?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Someone yelled, is there a doctor in the house? And
there was a twenty three year old assistant surgeon of
the US volunteers there.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Who just happened to be in the audience.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
He had heard that Abraham Lincoln was going to see
the play that day, so he wanted to get a
chance to see Lincoln. His name was Charles Augustus Leal.
He became the chief doctor who cared for Lincoln until
his death.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
The next day.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Despite being the first one there, he found Lincoln on
the floor. Mary Lincoln was trying to cradle him, and
he examined him. He thought he was stabbed because there
was blood everywhere from rathbone. He saw that John Wilkes
Booth had the dagger in his hand, so he just
assumed that Abraham Lincoln was stabbed. He couldn't find the wound,
and he couldn't find the pulse. Finally, he put his
(09:33):
hand behind his head and he discovered.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
The bullet hole.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Two more doctors arrived, Charles Taft and Albert King. Between them,
they basically performed CPR in artificial respiration to get him
breathing again. But Mary Todd asked him is he going
to recover? And Leo was honest because he knew that
no one had ever recovered from a bullet wound to
the head. Like this, and he had told her is mortal,
(10:00):
it is impossible for him to recover. Leo had implored
someone to get brandy and water, which was one of
the medicine practices of the day, a stimulant to the body.
That was the only medication that Abraham Lincoln was to
receive the entire evening. So the three doctors discovered what
(10:22):
to do next. They knew that Abraham Lincoln was going
to die. It wasn't a question of if he was
going to die, it was a question of when and
where Abraham Lincoln was going to die. The three doctors
determined that he would never survive a ride a carriage
ride on the bumpy cobblestone streets of Washington, d c.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
In eighteen sixty five, so they brought him outside.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
The first thing they looked to was a tavern next door,
Tartarbule's tavern, and that's where the bodyguard had gone. They
decided the president couldn't die in a tavern that was
so undignified. One of the reasons they brought him out
of the theater was that it was too undignified for
the president to die in a theater, and certainly he
couldn't die at a tavern.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
So across the.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Street there was a home, and there was a man
standing outside, one of the residents, Henry Safford, and he
was calling them, bring him in here, bring him in here.
So this home was owned by a man named George Peterson.
It was known as the Peterson Home. That's where they
brought Abraham Lincoln. They brought him in a room towards
(11:28):
the back of the home that had been rented by
a Massachusetts private named William Clark. Now Clark was out
celebrating the end of the war like much of Washington,
d C. Little did he know that the President of
the United States was now lying on his bed in
his final hours of life. But there was all these
crazy rumors running through Washington, d C.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
As well.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Andrew Johnson had been assassinated.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Granted been assassinated.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
It was just mass confusion in the city and people
tended to think the worst. It happened that the entire
government had been decapitated. Eventually, most of the cabinet members came.
It was reported that Andrew Johnson arrived at the home too,
(12:15):
but Mary Todd Lincoln did not like Andrew Johnson. At
the inauguration, Andrew Johnson was sick and he tried to
treat that with whiskey, and he became drunk, and he
gave an outrageous inauguration speech, and Mary Todd Lincoln had
really despised him ever since. So reportedly, when Andrew Johnson
arrived at the home, Mary Todd Lincoln was so upset
(12:37):
that she sent him away that wouldn't let him inside.
But the other members of the cabinet did arrive, except
for Secretary of State William Seward, who there was an
assassination attempt that night. They realized that this was an
historic evening and they wanted to make sure that the conversation,
that everything was said was recorded, so they managed to
(13:01):
find someone in a new Shorthand that was just outside
of the Peterson home, the twenty year old veteran named
James Tanner, who had lost both legs during the war,
and at seven twenty one and fifty five seconds Abraham
Lincoln took his last breath. Fifteen seconds later, at seven
(13:23):
twenty two and ten seconds am Abraham Lincoln's heart stop
and he died. It was very appropriate that it started
to reign in the city. Now Reportedly Edwin Stanton said
now he belongs to the ages.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Some people believe that he said.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Now he belongs to the angels, But what was written
down was now.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
He belongs to the ages.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Charles Leal, in an old custom that dated back to
ancient Greece, put coins over Abraham Lincoln's eyes, and it
was a custom where the ancient Greeks believed that those
coins over the eyes of the deceased would help pay
for safe passage across the river of death. And Leo
(14:12):
crossed his arms, crossed Abraham Lincoln's arms, and he smoothed
his hair, and he covered his face with a white sheet.
One of the first questions for the funeral planners was
where Abraham Lincoln would be buried. As always, that decision
is made by the spouse, and Mary Lincoln wanted her
husband buried in Illinois.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
That was their home.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Springfield, Illinois was where they had last lived, It's where
they planned to return to, and that's where she wanted
Abraham Lincoln buried. So now the funeral planners had to
decide how to properly memorialize President Abraham Lincoln in Washington,
d c. And then how to return his body to Springfield, Illinois.
(15:02):
Now the only option was by funeral train. The first
funeral train in history was after John Quincy Adams's death,
but Abraham Lincoln's funeral train would be much larger and
much grander, So the planners decided to generally recreate the
route that Abraham Lincoln had taken in eighteen sixty one
(15:22):
after he was inaugurated and left Springfield, Illinois to come
to Washington, DC for the inauguration. He took a roundabout
route that went north and along the route he'd stop.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
He'd give speeches along the route.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
This was really a way at a time when very
few people saw a president in person. Obviously there was
no television at the time, so in this era, Lincoln
felt that it was important for him to introduce himself
to the north. He tried to stop in as many
cities and as many places on his inaugural route in
eighteen sixty one. So the planners decided to generally recreate
(16:01):
that route in reverse. And there was petitions from governors
of states once they knew that there would be a
funeral trained to have that train stop in their state.
So a ten person committee Congressional Committee was formed to
make arrangements for the funeral train, and the Abraham.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Lincoln funeral train almost becomes.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
A character in the story of Abraham Lincoln. It was
a twenty day pageant. The funeral train was one thousand,
seven hundred miles. One and a half million people personally
laid their eyes on the body of Abraham Lincoln, of
the martyred president. Seven million more people either saw the
(16:48):
funeral train or watch the Hearst pass in the streets
as part of one of the many public processions. It
was nine cars to fit the large delegation of people who.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Beyond that funeral train. The engine was called the Old Nashville.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
A picture of Abraham Lincoln was a fixed to the cowcatcher.
The last car was the sixteen wheeled United States was
the name of the car, and this was a car
that had been specifically designed for Abraham Lincoln. He had
used it during his presidency. It had twelve windows on
each side, an interior paneling of deep chocolate cover. It
(17:26):
was a maroon colored car, and it almost served as
Abraham Lincoln's air Force one when he was traveling the country,
and he had used it several times for trips to
New York City.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
And you're listening to Lewis pecone tell a heck of
a story about Lincoln's assassination and the funeral trade it
took him back home to Springfield. When we come back,
more of this remarkable story here on our American story.
(18:18):
And we returned to our American stories in the story
of Lincoln's assassination and funeral train with Arthur Lewis Pconne.
When we last left off, planning had begun for Lincoln's
final journey and his funeral. Let's return to the story.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
So as they brought the coffin outside, Mary Lincoln escorted
her husband and stepped outside and looked across the street
at Ford's Theater and said, oh, that dreadful house, that
dreadful house, before she entered the carriage. About eleven o'clock,
the carriage arrived at the White House and Abraham Lincoln
(19:03):
was brought inside. They performed an autopsy of Abraham Lincoln
inside of the White House. There was seven doctors who
performed the autopsy. Certainly not that many doctors were required.
Everyone knew how Abraham Lincoln had died, but this was
one of those gruesome events where people just wanted to
be there, and this was a time when doctors believed
(19:24):
in the practice of phrenology, where a person's intelligence could
be measured by his brain.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Size or by his skull size.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
So they measured the brain and they found that it
was normal size. After the autopsy, there was undertakers who
were called to the house to embomb Abraham Lincoln's body.
Now they had developed a new embombing practice. During the
Civil War, when seven hundred and fifty thousand people died.
(19:53):
There was a mass death that had occurred in America,
carnage that had never been seen before, and there was
this urged for families to have the remains of their
sons brought back from the battlefield to their hometowns and
they can be buried at home. Now, embalming had existed
for thousands of years. It dated back to the ancient Egyptians.
(20:14):
But during the Civil War the practice of embalming really
became perfected and it also became big business. Embalmers would
set up shop near battlefields and soldiers were able to
basically purchase insurance before going out to battle, where if
they died, their bodies would be embalmed and sent back
(20:35):
to their families. So it became really big business. During
the Civil War, and Abraham Lincoln was the first president
to be embalmed. Now for this very important task, they
called Henry P. Cattle, and Cattle was considered a master Inbalmer.
But even Henry Cattle, being a master Inbalmber, was tasked
(20:58):
with doing something that no nobody else had done before.
Because Abraham Lincoln's body would be above ground for twenty
days while it was being brought around the country for
public viewings open casket public viewings before he.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Was finally placed in a crypt.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
An Obalmer had never done anything like this before. It
had to prepare a body not only for public viewing,
but for three weeks of public viewing. On April eighteenth,
there was a viewing in the East Room of the
White House. This was reminiscent of a dream that Abraham
Lincoln had had several months earlier, and it was a
dream that he had told several people about, including his cabinet.
(21:40):
Were in his dream, he was walking through the White
House and he walked into the East room and he
saw a crowd gather around something that he couldn't see
what it was, and he asked somebody, what's going on here?
And that person told Abraham Lincoln that the President is dead.
He's been assassinated. April eighteenth, His dream was coming true.
(22:02):
Twenty five thousand people lined up and waited hours, as
they would do at the Capitol, and as they would
do in cities all across the country over these next weeks.
They waited hours to somberly walk past the coffin of
Abraham Lincoln. The next day there was a service for
(22:23):
six hundred people, again in.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
The East Room.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Andrew Johnson was at the funeral service and weeping openly.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Sitting beside the coffin was Ulysses S.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Grant. On April nineteenth, the coffin was removed from the
White House and taken to the nation's capital for another
public viewing. This is the template for state funerals that
would occur many times over the years, very similar to
the modern state funeral of a service and a public
(22:57):
viewing at the nation's capital. Before the body is trained
and supported to its final resting place, there was a
military procession, the first of many military processions that would
escort the remains of Abraham Lincoln, and this procession brought
the body to the nation's capital. That there was an
order to this military procession, but entirely by accident. One
(23:18):
of the regiments that was planning to participate in the
military procession was the twenty second US Colored Infantry. Just
by happenstance and by accident, they had found themselves leading.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
The military procession.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
So this was entirely accidental, but entirely appropriate for a
regiment of African Americans to be leading the procession. It
was fifty thousand marchers and it took two hours to pass.
Hundreds and thousands of people stood along the streets. There
was bands that were playing solemn dirges, honorary gunfire, the
(23:53):
church bells were tolling. It was an uncoordinated and unharmonic
carcophony of noise. But the New York Times called it
the greatest pageant ever tended to the honored dead on
this continent. The spectacle has been the most impressive ever
witnessed in the Nation's capital, and this scene would play
out again and and again all throughout cities until Abraham
(24:17):
Lincoln's funeral train reached its final destination. The next day,
there was another public viewing in the nation's capital, where
thirty thousand people waited in the rain hours The next day,
(24:39):
at six am, the dignitaries and cabinet members and paul
bearers arrived in the rotunda. This was the day that
Abraham Lincoln's funeral train would begin. Now, this wasn't intended
to be a ceremonial procession to the train station, but
despite the bad weather and the early hour, massive crowds
(25:02):
were on hand to see this procession. At seven thirty am,
the coffin was placed on board. Now one of the
stipulations for Mary Todd Lincoln for the funeral train, because
originally she wasn't on board with this massive public spectacle,
was she wanted her son, Willie, who had been temporarily
(25:23):
buried in Washington, d c. For the past three years
after he died in eighteen sixty two. She wanted him
very quietly and very discreetly, for Willy to be reinterred
along with his father in Springfield, Illinois.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
So at seven.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Thirty am, when Abraham Lincoln's coffin arrived at the train
station and was placed on board, nobody in the crowd
knew that Willie's coffin had earlier been placed on board
the train as well. And at eight am the train
departed Washington.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Decent, and we're listening to author Lewis Bacone tell the
story of President Lincoln's assassination and then the trip back home.
His body's tripped back home to be buried in Springfield.
And my goodness, what a tale this is. From the embalming.
(26:18):
I didn't know who knew that this was the first
president that was embalmed twenty days in an open casket,
something his bride was not thrilled about. But in the end,
the country demanded it. The country wanted to mourn their leader.
And my goodness did they ever. One point five million people,
we learned, would view Lincoln's body. Another seven almost seven
(26:40):
million would view or see the train pass by enormous
numbers whether then small country of about thirty million. And
what a story we heard about Grant. I can just
see that image, all the carnage that Grant had seen,
all the death, and there he was in front of
that open casket, the great General, weeping, just weeping. When
(27:06):
we come back more of the story of Lincoln's last
trip back to Springfield, here on our American stories, and
(27:37):
we return to our American stories and the final portion
of our story of President Lincoln's assassination and his funeral
train back home to Springfield with Arthur Lewis pcone. Let's
get back to the story here again is Lewis.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
The first stop was involved Baltimore, Maryland. Now Baltimore was
a state that had been a slave state when the
Civil War first started, but it remained loyal to the Union.
Many of the people from Maryland had Confederate sympathies. When
Abraham Lincoln's inaugural train traveled through Baltimore in eighteen sixty one,
there was reports of an assassination plot. Pinkerton agents were watching.
(28:23):
They were warning Abraham Lincoln about trying to dissuade him
from even going to Baltimore. Abraham Lincoln did go to Baltimore,
but he reportedly switched from one train to another, almost
in disguise under a shawl. But now the city was
eager to show its loyalty. It was very gloomy weather
(28:44):
when the train pulled into Baltimore, and this bad weather
eerily and appropriately seemed to follow the funeral train almost
in every city along the way. But the city was
eager to show its loyalty. There was a bounty that
was created to capture John Wilkes Booth because at this
time John Wilkes Booth was still on the run and
(29:04):
for twelve days he would remain from authorities. So Baltimore
officials chipped in ten thousand dollars for.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
The capture of John Wilkes Booth.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
But this was not a very well organized funeral procession.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
It was the first one.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
It took about three hours for the leaders of the
procession to remove the coffin and to bring it to
the Merchant Exchange Building, which was one of the most
prominent buildings in the city for the public viewing. It
was only about an hour and a half of public viewing,
and there was a lot of disappointed and frustrated people
that had waited online for hours to see the remains.
Now other cities would hear about some of the stumbles
(29:41):
from Baltimore. It almost turned into a competition along the
funeral train.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Each city, the.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Further that the funeral train got would hear reports of
the previous city and would look to outdo it, whether
it was funeral arches, more elaborate funeral hearses. It would
get bigger and bolder throughout the funeral train. In Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
(30:07):
Two of Abraham Lincoln's adversaries boarded the train to pay
their respects, Thaddeus Stevens from the Radical Republicans and fifteenth
President James Buchanan.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
The next stop was in Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
And this was a massive procession to Independence Hall. The
coffin was placed beneath the statue of George Washington.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
The image of.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
George Washington would be prominent throughout the funeral train. The
President who created the Union and the President who.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Saved the Union side by side.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Above the coffin was a sign that read, sooner than
surrender these principles, I would be assassinated on the spot.
Those words were spoken by Abraham Lincoln in eighteen sixty
one when he had visited Independence Hall. Three hundred thousand
people marched past the coffin. Inside Independence Hall, they would
(31:01):
march through on both sides. There would be two lines,
one on the right of the coff and one on
the left of the coff It was written that never
before in the history of our city was such a
dense mass of humanity huddled together. It was a scene
of mass chaos. In New York City. People waited online.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
For three quarters of a mile.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
One of them was Captain Parker Snow, who had commanded
expeditions to both the Arctic and Antarctic circles. He presented
relics of Sir John Franklin's ill fated expedition that consisted
of a tattered leaf of a prayer book on which
the first word legible was the word martyr. So after
(31:42):
the public viewing of New York City, there was another
procession that returned the remains to the train station. Now
this was a procession that was much larger than the
procession that brought the.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Remains to City Hall.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
There was sixty thousand marchers and the procession was five
miles long, and a half million people witness a procession.
The New York City Herald reported the city never saw
a greater throng.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
So a funeral train.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Is a way for the public to participate in this
public morning, and there's several ways that they could participate.
There was the thousands and thousands who could see the
remains of Abraham Lincoln who managed to enter Independence Hall
and New York City City Hall, and the approximately ten
other public viewings that were held throughout the funeral train.
(32:32):
But for the people that didn't live near those cities
or weren't able to gain access. They would gather along
the train tracks and they would light bonfires, and in
the middle of the night two three o'clock in the morning,
there would be thousands of people gathered around the bonfire,
singing and praying. Men would take off their hats. Women
(32:53):
were weeping. Men and women were weeping. People would bring
their children in these distant towns where people didn't have
the means, didn't have the time, didn't have.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
The ability to travel to the larger cities.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
It was an Albany when John wilts Booth was captured
and killed.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
It stopped in Batavia.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
New York, where Millard Fillmore, former President Millard Fillmore, boarded
the train. It stopped briefly in Westfield, New York, and
this was the town where a young Grace Badell had
sent Abraham Lincoln candidate Abraham Lincoln an eighteen sixty a letter.
It implored him that he would look better if.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
He grew whiskers.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
At the time, Abraham Lincoln was clean shaven, but he
took young Grace Bedell's word to heart, and he grew
a beer. Perhaps, if it wasn't for Grace Bedell. Abraham
Lincoln may never had been president. In Chicago, one of
the few cities where the funeral train arrived in good weather,
there was a massive memorial arch that had been created
to prepare for the funeral procession. Some of these arches
(34:00):
were set up so the train would go through the arch.
Some of them had elaborate ceremonies where young women thirty
six young women, one for each state, would be singing.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Near or on these arches. There was also original music.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
The Great Western Light Guard Band played the Lincoln rec reel.
Thirty six high school girls placed flowers on the coffin.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
It was a custom built.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Hearst that was eighteen feet long by fifteen feet tall.
The public viewing lasted twenty seven hours, and one hundred
and twenty five thousand people saw the remains. Finally, on
May third, almost twenty days after Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated,
the train pulled into Springfield, Illinois. Here in Springfield people
(34:47):
knew Abraham Lincoln. They didn't know President Lincoln. President Lincoln
was Washington, DC. In Springfield, he was just old ad.
The grief was deep all throughout the country, no doubt,
but there was much much more pomp and ceremony and
circumstance in these other cities, more of a competition, But
at Springfield there was a very deep sense of personal grief.
(35:10):
There was family members there. The President's horse, Old Bob,
and the President's dog Fido.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Were part of the funeral procession.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
The procession passed his old home on eighth and Jackson Street.
This home was still owned by the Lincoln family. It
was being rented out, and the tenant decorated the home
with evergreens and with black mourning, knowing the attention that
it would get. But this was the home where the
Lincolns planned to return to after being president. It was
likely that Lincoln would return to being a lawyer.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
There wasn't any.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Presidential pensions at this time, so this is where Abraham
Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln were planning to return to.
This was a very personal ceremony that had taken place
in Springfield. It was a relatively humble ceremony at the crypt,
and first Willie's coffin was brought inside of the crypt
and then Abraham Lincoln's. After the brief ceremony at the
tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery, so all throughout the funeral procession,
(36:02):
the twenty day pageant. This was something that was arranged
very quickly, but it went off almost perfectly. With the
advent of the telegraph and the improvement of the railroad lines,
it was really it went off almost without a hitch.
In the end, it cost a government twenty eighty nine
hundred and eighty five dollars and thirty one cents. The
(36:23):
funeral train was one thousand, seven hundred miles. One and
a half million people laid their eyes on the body
of Abraham Lincoln, of the martyred president. Seven million more
people either saw the funeral train or watch the Hearst
pass in the streets as part of one of the
many public processions. An amazing amount of people got their
(36:45):
personal moment on this funeral train, whether they saw it
from the side of the tracks, huddled around a bonfire
where they were one of the people who waited hours
to march solemnly past the coffin. So Abraham Lincoln, like today,
we look at Abraham Lincoln as like this, more of
a monument than a man. It's hard to imagine that
(37:06):
Abraham Lincoln had any.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Adversaries in the North, but he did.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
There were people that just wanted him to end the.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
War regardless of slavery.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
There were people that thought that Abraham Lincoln had become
too powerful of a president. This was the first draft
in American history, so he had a lot of opposition
during the war. But the further that that train traveled,
the Abraham Lincoln that we came to know, the Abraham
Lincoln on Mount Rushmore and the Lincoln Memorial that wasn't
Abraham Lincoln on April fourteenth. That was what Abraham Lincoln
(37:38):
started to become on April fifteenth, And by the time
he arrived in Springfield and was placed in a temporary
tomb on May fourth, he had become the martyred President,
and to many he had been sanctified as a secular scene.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
And a terrific job on the editing, production and storytelling
by our own Monty Montgomery special thanks to Lewis pcone
his book The President Is Dead Lincoln's final trip to Springfield, Illinois.
Here on our American Story
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
For his inauguration in eighteen sixty one, Abraham Lincoln took
a thirteen day train ride from Springfield, Illinois to Washington,
d C. Facing assassination attempts and a union splitting apart
(00:30):
at the seams along the way. Four years in a
Civil War later, he'd take the same trip in reverse
under very different circumstances. Here to tell the story of
Lincoln's assassination and funeral train is Lewis Picone, author of
The President Is Dead, The Extraordinary Stories of Presidential Deaths,
(00:52):
Final Days, Burials and beyond. Take it away, Lewis.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
On April fourteenth, eighteen sixty five, this was Good Friday,
and it was also the first Friday since Robert E.
Lee's surrender to General Grant at Appomattics. This was a
very festive and jubulant Washington, DC, as well as jubulant
Abraham Lincoln. For his entire presidency, Abraham Lincoln had been
(01:23):
fighting the Civil War. One of his children died too,
will He died while in the White House. So this
was a man whose entire presidency was filled with misery,
and for the first time he can be happy, he
could celebrate, He can be joyful.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
So even though it was Good Friday.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Which is probably the most solemn day on the Christian calendar,
Abraham Lincoln, at the suggestion of Mary Todd, Lincoln decided
that evening he was going to go see a comedy
play called Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater. So he
woke up that morning in a good mood, and the
pace people who saw him said that Abraham Lincoln was
(02:03):
more cheerful and jubilant than he had been in a
long time, and probably they had really ever seen him.
He had breakfast with his son Robert Todd. In the
last months of the Civil War. Robert Todd had convinced
his father and mother to allow him to go into
the military because he didn't want to grow old, thinking
that he didn't take part in this seminal event, in
(02:26):
this seminal war of his youth when he was of
age to fight in it. So he finally convinced his
father and Abraham Lincoln reached out.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
To Ulysses S.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Grant, who took him on as an aide. So Robert
Todd Lincoln, the son of Abraham Lincoln, was with Ulysses S.
Grant at the surrender of Robert E.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Lee.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So that morning, Abraham Lincoln was having breakfast with Robert
Todd and he was.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Telling him all about the surrender.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
At about eleven o'clock, he had a cabinet meeting, including
Ulysses as Grant, and at that cabinet meeting they discussed
the the peaceful restoration of the Union. He was committed
to honor his pledge in his second inaugural speech of
malice towards nun and charity for all. That was the
approach that he was taken, not vindictiveness. He wasn't looking
(03:13):
to punish the South. He was looking to welcome them
back in. So he had lunch with Mary after his
cabinet meeting, and then they took a carriage ride to
the Washington Navy Yard. On that carriage ride, Mary Todd
Lincoln later recalled how happy Abraham Lincoln was and how
he was imploring Mary Todd Lincoln that finally this misery
is behind us, we must be happy. They were trying
(03:35):
to figure out together how to move forward as a couple,
and they had talked wistfully about the travel they would do.
Abraham Lincoln wanted to go to the Holy Land. He
wanted to travel internationally for the first time. He can
think more about the day in front of him, and
the week in front of them, and the battles in
front of him, which really makes his assassination just so
much more tragic.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
So about eight thirty.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Abraham Lincoln walked into the theater and they took their
seats in the balcony a little bit late, tried to
be discreet. He arrived during the first act, but Abraham
Lincoln couldn't be discreet in the setting like that, so
he received the standing ovation and the orchestra struck up
Hail to the Chief. So Lincoln acknowledged the crowd at
(04:26):
Ford's theater. There was about seventeen hundred patrons at Ford
Theater that day, and then he took.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
His seat.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
At about ten o'clock. During the performance, Mary Todd Lincoln.
She was holding his hand and hugged him very self consciously, though,
and she whispered, what will miss Harris think of my
hanging on to you?
Speaker 1 (04:46):
So?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
And Abraham Lincoln was trying to make her feel better
and said she won't think anything about it.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
These were Abraham Lincoln's last words.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Now this was before Secret Service protection, but Abraham Lincoln
did have a personal bodyguard that would accompany him. But
once Abraham Lincoln was in the balcony and the door
to the balcony was locked, the personal bodyguard decided he
was going to leave and go out and get a drink,
so there was no guard there. At about ten point fifteen,
(05:18):
John Wilkes Booth entered the balcony during the third act, and.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Booth had performed at Ford's Theater.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Abraham Lincoln had even seen some of John Wilkes Booth's performances,
and Booth was probably one of the most famous actors
in America at the time, very well known, so when
John Wilkes Booth came into Ford's Theater.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
He didn't have to sneak in. People knew him.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
When he went towards the balcony, he went rather freely
because he was John Wilkes Booth, so he was very
familiar with the play too, and he knew one of
the scenes in the third act had a big laugh line,
so he knew when to time his assassination. He planned
that during this big laugh line. The shot would be
(06:02):
muffled by the laughter and it would give him a
little more time to make his escape. So during that scene,
John Wilkes Booth snuck in. He had to cover that
he needed. He had a single shot derringer in his hand.
He would manage to get right behind the president and
shoot the pistol. John Wilkes Booth leaped onto the stage,
(06:26):
jumped off of the balcony. In the process, he got
his foot tangled on a flag and he actually broke
his leg in the fall, but he had a boot
on and in the adrenaline.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
He managed to escape anyway. Even with the broken leg.
He held up.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
His dagger and he yelled the South is avenged seasmper tyrannus,
which was Latin for thus always to tyrants.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
And you're listing to Lewis Pocone tell the story of
President Lincoln's assassination and what would follow on his trek,
his body's trek back to Springfield. More of this remarkable story,
Lincoln's last trip back home here on our American story. Folks,
(07:29):
if you love the stories we tell about this great country,
and especially the stories of America's rich past, know that
all of Our stories about American history, from war to politics,
to innovation, culture and faith, are brought to us by
the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students
study all the things that are beautiful in life and
all the things that are good in life. And if
(07:50):
you can't get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you
with their free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale
dot edu to learn more. And we returned to our
(08:10):
American stories and the story of President Lincoln's assassination and
funeral train with author Lewis Pconne. When we last left off,
amidst the clamor and celebration of a country finally at
peace with itself, the man who had seen it all
to fruition lay dying in a theater in Washington. Lincoln
had gone to Ford's Theater that night with his wife
(08:32):
Mary Todd, Henry Lee Rathbone, and Clara Harris, his wife.
He'd soon be joined by others rushing to his aid.
Let's get back to the story here again. Is Lewis becone?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Someone yelled, is there a doctor in the house? And
there was a twenty three year old assistant surgeon of
the US volunteers there.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Who just happened to be in the audience.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
He had heard that Abraham Lincoln was going to see
the play that day, so he wanted to get a
chance to see Lincoln. His name was Charles Augustus Leal.
He became the chief doctor who cared for Lincoln until
his death.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
The next day.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Despite being the first one there, he found Lincoln on
the floor. Mary Lincoln was trying to cradle him, and
he examined him. He thought he was stabbed because there
was blood everywhere from rathbone. He saw that John Wilkes
Booth had the dagger in his hand, so he just
assumed that Abraham Lincoln was stabbed. He couldn't find the wound,
and he couldn't find the pulse. Finally, he put his
(09:33):
hand behind his head and he discovered.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
The bullet hole.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Two more doctors arrived, Charles Taft and Albert King. Between them,
they basically performed CPR in artificial respiration to get him
breathing again. But Mary Todd asked him is he going
to recover? And Leo was honest because he knew that
no one had ever recovered from a bullet wound to
the head. Like this, and he had told her is mortal,
(10:00):
it is impossible for him to recover. Leo had implored
someone to get brandy and water, which was one of
the medicine practices of the day, a stimulant to the body.
That was the only medication that Abraham Lincoln was to
receive the entire evening. So the three doctors discovered what
(10:22):
to do next. They knew that Abraham Lincoln was going
to die. It wasn't a question of if he was
going to die, it was a question of when and
where Abraham Lincoln was going to die. The three doctors
determined that he would never survive a ride a carriage
ride on the bumpy cobblestone streets of Washington, d c.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
In eighteen sixty five, so they brought him outside.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
The first thing they looked to was a tavern next door,
Tartarbule's tavern, and that's where the bodyguard had gone. They
decided the president couldn't die in a tavern that was
so undignified. One of the reasons they brought him out
of the theater was that it was too undignified for
the president to die in a theater, and certainly he
couldn't die at a tavern.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
So across the.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Street there was a home, and there was a man
standing outside, one of the residents, Henry Safford, and he
was calling them, bring him in here, bring him in here.
So this home was owned by a man named George Peterson.
It was known as the Peterson Home. That's where they
brought Abraham Lincoln. They brought him in a room towards
(11:28):
the back of the home that had been rented by
a Massachusetts private named William Clark. Now Clark was out
celebrating the end of the war like much of Washington,
d C. Little did he know that the President of
the United States was now lying on his bed in
his final hours of life. But there was all these
crazy rumors running through Washington, d C.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
As well.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Andrew Johnson had been assassinated.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Granted been assassinated.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
It was just mass confusion in the city and people
tended to think the worst. It happened that the entire
government had been decapitated. Eventually, most of the cabinet members came.
It was reported that Andrew Johnson arrived at the home too,
(12:15):
but Mary Todd Lincoln did not like Andrew Johnson. At
the inauguration, Andrew Johnson was sick and he tried to
treat that with whiskey, and he became drunk, and he
gave an outrageous inauguration speech, and Mary Todd Lincoln had
really despised him ever since. So reportedly, when Andrew Johnson
arrived at the home, Mary Todd Lincoln was so upset
(12:37):
that she sent him away that wouldn't let him inside.
But the other members of the cabinet did arrive, except
for Secretary of State William Seward, who there was an
assassination attempt that night. They realized that this was an
historic evening and they wanted to make sure that the conversation,
that everything was said was recorded, so they managed to
(13:01):
find someone in a new Shorthand that was just outside
of the Peterson home, the twenty year old veteran named
James Tanner, who had lost both legs during the war,
and at seven twenty one and fifty five seconds Abraham
Lincoln took his last breath. Fifteen seconds later, at seven
(13:23):
twenty two and ten seconds am Abraham Lincoln's heart stop
and he died. It was very appropriate that it started
to reign in the city. Now Reportedly Edwin Stanton said
now he belongs to the ages.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Some people believe that he said.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Now he belongs to the angels, But what was written
down was now.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
He belongs to the ages.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Charles Leal, in an old custom that dated back to
ancient Greece, put coins over Abraham Lincoln's eyes, and it
was a custom where the ancient Greeks believed that those
coins over the eyes of the deceased would help pay
for safe passage across the river of death. And Leo
(14:12):
crossed his arms, crossed Abraham Lincoln's arms, and he smoothed
his hair, and he covered his face with a white sheet.
One of the first questions for the funeral planners was
where Abraham Lincoln would be buried. As always, that decision
is made by the spouse, and Mary Lincoln wanted her
husband buried in Illinois.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
That was their home.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Springfield, Illinois was where they had last lived, It's where
they planned to return to, and that's where she wanted
Abraham Lincoln buried. So now the funeral planners had to
decide how to properly memorialize President Abraham Lincoln in Washington,
d c. And then how to return his body to Springfield, Illinois.
(15:02):
Now the only option was by funeral train. The first
funeral train in history was after John Quincy Adams's death,
but Abraham Lincoln's funeral train would be much larger and
much grander, So the planners decided to generally recreate the
route that Abraham Lincoln had taken in eighteen sixty one
(15:22):
after he was inaugurated and left Springfield, Illinois to come
to Washington, DC for the inauguration. He took a roundabout
route that went north and along the route he'd stop.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
He'd give speeches along the route.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
This was really a way at a time when very
few people saw a president in person. Obviously there was
no television at the time, so in this era, Lincoln
felt that it was important for him to introduce himself
to the north. He tried to stop in as many
cities and as many places on his inaugural route in
eighteen sixty one. So the planners decided to generally recreate
(16:01):
that route in reverse. And there was petitions from governors
of states once they knew that there would be a
funeral trained to have that train stop in their state.
So a ten person committee Congressional Committee was formed to
make arrangements for the funeral train, and the Abraham.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Lincoln funeral train almost becomes.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
A character in the story of Abraham Lincoln. It was
a twenty day pageant. The funeral train was one thousand,
seven hundred miles. One and a half million people personally
laid their eyes on the body of Abraham Lincoln, of
the martyred president. Seven million more people either saw the
(16:48):
funeral train or watch the Hearst pass in the streets
as part of one of the many public processions. It
was nine cars to fit the large delegation of people who.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Beyond that funeral train. The engine was called the Old Nashville.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
A picture of Abraham Lincoln was a fixed to the cowcatcher.
The last car was the sixteen wheeled United States was
the name of the car, and this was a car
that had been specifically designed for Abraham Lincoln. He had
used it during his presidency. It had twelve windows on
each side, an interior paneling of deep chocolate cover. It
(17:26):
was a maroon colored car, and it almost served as
Abraham Lincoln's air Force one when he was traveling the country,
and he had used it several times for trips to
New York City.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
And you're listening to Lewis pecone tell a heck of
a story about Lincoln's assassination and the funeral trade it
took him back home to Springfield. When we come back,
more of this remarkable story here on our American story.
(18:18):
And we returned to our American stories in the story
of Lincoln's assassination and funeral train with Arthur Lewis Pconne.
When we last left off, planning had begun for Lincoln's
final journey and his funeral. Let's return to the story.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
So as they brought the coffin outside, Mary Lincoln escorted
her husband and stepped outside and looked across the street
at Ford's Theater and said, oh, that dreadful house, that
dreadful house, before she entered the carriage. About eleven o'clock,
the carriage arrived at the White House and Abraham Lincoln
(19:03):
was brought inside. They performed an autopsy of Abraham Lincoln
inside of the White House. There was seven doctors who
performed the autopsy. Certainly not that many doctors were required.
Everyone knew how Abraham Lincoln had died, but this was
one of those gruesome events where people just wanted to
be there, and this was a time when doctors believed
(19:24):
in the practice of phrenology, where a person's intelligence could
be measured by his brain.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Size or by his skull size.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
So they measured the brain and they found that it
was normal size. After the autopsy, there was undertakers who
were called to the house to embomb Abraham Lincoln's body.
Now they had developed a new embombing practice. During the
Civil War, when seven hundred and fifty thousand people died.
(19:53):
There was a mass death that had occurred in America,
carnage that had never been seen before, and there was
this urged for families to have the remains of their
sons brought back from the battlefield to their hometowns and
they can be buried at home. Now, embalming had existed
for thousands of years. It dated back to the ancient Egyptians.
(20:14):
But during the Civil War the practice of embalming really
became perfected and it also became big business. Embalmers would
set up shop near battlefields and soldiers were able to
basically purchase insurance before going out to battle, where if
they died, their bodies would be embalmed and sent back
(20:35):
to their families. So it became really big business. During
the Civil War, and Abraham Lincoln was the first president
to be embalmed. Now for this very important task, they
called Henry P. Cattle, and Cattle was considered a master Inbalmer.
But even Henry Cattle, being a master Inbalmber, was tasked
(20:58):
with doing something that no nobody else had done before.
Because Abraham Lincoln's body would be above ground for twenty
days while it was being brought around the country for
public viewings open casket public viewings before he.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Was finally placed in a crypt.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
An Obalmer had never done anything like this before. It
had to prepare a body not only for public viewing,
but for three weeks of public viewing. On April eighteenth,
there was a viewing in the East Room of the
White House. This was reminiscent of a dream that Abraham
Lincoln had had several months earlier, and it was a
dream that he had told several people about, including his cabinet.
(21:40):
Were in his dream, he was walking through the White
House and he walked into the East room and he
saw a crowd gather around something that he couldn't see
what it was, and he asked somebody, what's going on here?
And that person told Abraham Lincoln that the President is dead.
He's been assassinated. April eighteenth, His dream was coming true.
(22:02):
Twenty five thousand people lined up and waited hours, as
they would do at the Capitol, and as they would
do in cities all across the country over these next weeks.
They waited hours to somberly walk past the coffin of
Abraham Lincoln. The next day there was a service for
(22:23):
six hundred people, again in.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
The East Room.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Andrew Johnson was at the funeral service and weeping openly.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Sitting beside the coffin was Ulysses S.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Grant. On April nineteenth, the coffin was removed from the
White House and taken to the nation's capital for another
public viewing. This is the template for state funerals that
would occur many times over the years, very similar to
the modern state funeral of a service and a public
(22:57):
viewing at the nation's capital. Before the body is trained
and supported to its final resting place, there was a
military procession, the first of many military processions that would
escort the remains of Abraham Lincoln, and this procession brought
the body to the nation's capital. That there was an
order to this military procession, but entirely by accident. One
(23:18):
of the regiments that was planning to participate in the
military procession was the twenty second US Colored Infantry. Just
by happenstance and by accident, they had found themselves leading.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
The military procession.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
So this was entirely accidental, but entirely appropriate for a
regiment of African Americans to be leading the procession. It
was fifty thousand marchers and it took two hours to pass.
Hundreds and thousands of people stood along the streets. There
was bands that were playing solemn dirges, honorary gunfire, the
(23:53):
church bells were tolling. It was an uncoordinated and unharmonic
carcophony of noise. But the New York Times called it
the greatest pageant ever tended to the honored dead on
this continent. The spectacle has been the most impressive ever
witnessed in the Nation's capital, and this scene would play
out again and and again all throughout cities until Abraham
(24:17):
Lincoln's funeral train reached its final destination. The next day,
there was another public viewing in the nation's capital, where
thirty thousand people waited in the rain hours The next day,
(24:39):
at six am, the dignitaries and cabinet members and paul
bearers arrived in the rotunda. This was the day that
Abraham Lincoln's funeral train would begin. Now, this wasn't intended
to be a ceremonial procession to the train station, but
despite the bad weather and the early hour, massive crowds
(25:02):
were on hand to see this procession. At seven thirty am,
the coffin was placed on board. Now one of the
stipulations for Mary Todd Lincoln for the funeral train, because
originally she wasn't on board with this massive public spectacle,
was she wanted her son, Willie, who had been temporarily
(25:23):
buried in Washington, d c. For the past three years
after he died in eighteen sixty two. She wanted him
very quietly and very discreetly, for Willy to be reinterred
along with his father in Springfield, Illinois.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
So at seven.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Thirty am, when Abraham Lincoln's coffin arrived at the train
station and was placed on board, nobody in the crowd
knew that Willie's coffin had earlier been placed on board
the train as well. And at eight am the train
departed Washington.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Decent, and we're listening to author Lewis Bacone tell the
story of President Lincoln's assassination and then the trip back home.
His body's tripped back home to be buried in Springfield.
And my goodness, what a tale this is. From the embalming.
(26:18):
I didn't know who knew that this was the first
president that was embalmed twenty days in an open casket,
something his bride was not thrilled about. But in the end,
the country demanded it. The country wanted to mourn their leader.
And my goodness did they ever. One point five million people,
we learned, would view Lincoln's body. Another seven almost seven
(26:40):
million would view or see the train pass by enormous
numbers whether then small country of about thirty million. And
what a story we heard about Grant. I can just
see that image, all the carnage that Grant had seen,
all the death, and there he was in front of
that open casket, the great General, weeping, just weeping. When
(27:06):
we come back more of the story of Lincoln's last
trip back to Springfield, here on our American stories, and
(27:37):
we return to our American stories and the final portion
of our story of President Lincoln's assassination and his funeral
train back home to Springfield with Arthur Lewis pcone. Let's
get back to the story here again is Lewis.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
The first stop was involved Baltimore, Maryland. Now Baltimore was
a state that had been a slave state when the
Civil War first started, but it remained loyal to the Union.
Many of the people from Maryland had Confederate sympathies. When
Abraham Lincoln's inaugural train traveled through Baltimore in eighteen sixty one,
there was reports of an assassination plot. Pinkerton agents were watching.
(28:23):
They were warning Abraham Lincoln about trying to dissuade him
from even going to Baltimore. Abraham Lincoln did go to Baltimore,
but he reportedly switched from one train to another, almost
in disguise under a shawl. But now the city was
eager to show its loyalty. It was very gloomy weather
(28:44):
when the train pulled into Baltimore, and this bad weather
eerily and appropriately seemed to follow the funeral train almost
in every city along the way. But the city was
eager to show its loyalty. There was a bounty that
was created to capture John Wilkes Booth because at this
time John Wilkes Booth was still on the run and
(29:04):
for twelve days he would remain from authorities. So Baltimore
officials chipped in ten thousand dollars for.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
The capture of John Wilkes Booth.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
But this was not a very well organized funeral procession.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
It was the first one.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
It took about three hours for the leaders of the
procession to remove the coffin and to bring it to
the Merchant Exchange Building, which was one of the most
prominent buildings in the city for the public viewing. It
was only about an hour and a half of public viewing,
and there was a lot of disappointed and frustrated people
that had waited online for hours to see the remains.
Now other cities would hear about some of the stumbles
(29:41):
from Baltimore. It almost turned into a competition along the
funeral train.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Each city, the.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Further that the funeral train got would hear reports of
the previous city and would look to outdo it, whether
it was funeral arches, more elaborate funeral hearses. It would
get bigger and bolder throughout the funeral train. In Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
(30:07):
Two of Abraham Lincoln's adversaries boarded the train to pay
their respects, Thaddeus Stevens from the Radical Republicans and fifteenth
President James Buchanan.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
The next stop was in Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
And this was a massive procession to Independence Hall. The
coffin was placed beneath the statue of George Washington.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
The image of.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
George Washington would be prominent throughout the funeral train. The
President who created the Union and the President who.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Saved the Union side by side.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Above the coffin was a sign that read, sooner than
surrender these principles, I would be assassinated on the spot.
Those words were spoken by Abraham Lincoln in eighteen sixty
one when he had visited Independence Hall. Three hundred thousand
people marched past the coffin. Inside Independence Hall, they would
(31:01):
march through on both sides. There would be two lines,
one on the right of the coff and one on
the left of the coff It was written that never
before in the history of our city was such a
dense mass of humanity huddled together. It was a scene
of mass chaos. In New York City. People waited online.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
For three quarters of a mile.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
One of them was Captain Parker Snow, who had commanded
expeditions to both the Arctic and Antarctic circles. He presented
relics of Sir John Franklin's ill fated expedition that consisted
of a tattered leaf of a prayer book on which
the first word legible was the word martyr. So after
(31:42):
the public viewing of New York City, there was another
procession that returned the remains to the train station. Now
this was a procession that was much larger than the
procession that brought the.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Remains to City Hall.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
There was sixty thousand marchers and the procession was five
miles long, and a half million people witness a procession.
The New York City Herald reported the city never saw
a greater throng.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
So a funeral train.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Is a way for the public to participate in this
public morning, and there's several ways that they could participate.
There was the thousands and thousands who could see the
remains of Abraham Lincoln who managed to enter Independence Hall
and New York City City Hall, and the approximately ten
other public viewings that were held throughout the funeral train.
(32:32):
But for the people that didn't live near those cities
or weren't able to gain access. They would gather along
the train tracks and they would light bonfires, and in
the middle of the night two three o'clock in the morning,
there would be thousands of people gathered around the bonfire,
singing and praying. Men would take off their hats. Women
(32:53):
were weeping. Men and women were weeping. People would bring
their children in these distant towns where people didn't have
the means, didn't have the time, didn't have.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
The ability to travel to the larger cities.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
It was an Albany when John wilts Booth was captured
and killed.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
It stopped in Batavia.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
New York, where Millard Fillmore, former President Millard Fillmore, boarded
the train. It stopped briefly in Westfield, New York, and
this was the town where a young Grace Badell had
sent Abraham Lincoln candidate Abraham Lincoln an eighteen sixty a letter.
It implored him that he would look better if.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
He grew whiskers.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
At the time, Abraham Lincoln was clean shaven, but he
took young Grace Bedell's word to heart, and he grew
a beer. Perhaps, if it wasn't for Grace Bedell. Abraham
Lincoln may never had been president. In Chicago, one of
the few cities where the funeral train arrived in good weather,
there was a massive memorial arch that had been created
to prepare for the funeral procession. Some of these arches
(34:00):
were set up so the train would go through the arch.
Some of them had elaborate ceremonies where young women thirty
six young women, one for each state, would be singing.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Near or on these arches. There was also original music.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
The Great Western Light Guard Band played the Lincoln rec reel.
Thirty six high school girls placed flowers on the coffin.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
It was a custom built.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Hearst that was eighteen feet long by fifteen feet tall.
The public viewing lasted twenty seven hours, and one hundred
and twenty five thousand people saw the remains. Finally, on
May third, almost twenty days after Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated,
the train pulled into Springfield, Illinois. Here in Springfield people
(34:47):
knew Abraham Lincoln. They didn't know President Lincoln. President Lincoln
was Washington, DC. In Springfield, he was just old ad.
The grief was deep all throughout the country, no doubt,
but there was much much more pomp and ceremony and
circumstance in these other cities, more of a competition, But
at Springfield there was a very deep sense of personal grief.
(35:10):
There was family members there. The President's horse, Old Bob,
and the President's dog Fido.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Were part of the funeral procession.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
The procession passed his old home on eighth and Jackson Street.
This home was still owned by the Lincoln family. It
was being rented out, and the tenant decorated the home
with evergreens and with black mourning, knowing the attention that
it would get. But this was the home where the
Lincolns planned to return to after being president. It was
likely that Lincoln would return to being a lawyer.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
There wasn't any.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Presidential pensions at this time, so this is where Abraham
Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln were planning to return to.
This was a very personal ceremony that had taken place
in Springfield. It was a relatively humble ceremony at the crypt,
and first Willie's coffin was brought inside of the crypt
and then Abraham Lincoln's. After the brief ceremony at the
tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery, so all throughout the funeral procession,
(36:02):
the twenty day pageant. This was something that was arranged
very quickly, but it went off almost perfectly. With the
advent of the telegraph and the improvement of the railroad lines,
it was really it went off almost without a hitch.
In the end, it cost a government twenty eighty nine
hundred and eighty five dollars and thirty one cents. The
(36:23):
funeral train was one thousand, seven hundred miles. One and
a half million people laid their eyes on the body
of Abraham Lincoln, of the martyred president. Seven million more
people either saw the funeral train or watch the Hearst
pass in the streets as part of one of the
many public processions. An amazing amount of people got their
(36:45):
personal moment on this funeral train, whether they saw it
from the side of the tracks, huddled around a bonfire
where they were one of the people who waited hours
to march solemnly past the coffin. So Abraham Lincoln, like today,
we look at Abraham Lincoln as like this, more of
a monument than a man. It's hard to imagine that
(37:06):
Abraham Lincoln had any.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Adversaries in the North, but he did.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
There were people that just wanted him to end the.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
War regardless of slavery.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
There were people that thought that Abraham Lincoln had become
too powerful of a president. This was the first draft
in American history, so he had a lot of opposition
during the war. But the further that that train traveled,
the Abraham Lincoln that we came to know, the Abraham
Lincoln on Mount Rushmore and the Lincoln Memorial that wasn't
Abraham Lincoln on April fourteenth. That was what Abraham Lincoln
(37:38):
started to become on April fifteenth, And by the time
he arrived in Springfield and was placed in a temporary
tomb on May fourth, he had become the martyred President,
and to many he had been sanctified as a secular scene.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
And a terrific job on the editing, production and storytelling
by our own Monty Montgomery special thanks to Lewis pcone
his book The President Is Dead Lincoln's final trip to Springfield, Illinois.
Here on our American Story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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