April

Lincoln’s Funeral Train of 9 cars pulled by the locomotive The Nashville left Cleveland at 10:30 p.m. for it’s overnight trip to Columbus. All along the way at every depot, large bonfires were lit to light the way for the Funeral Train. Thousands gathered in the torrential rains that fell all through the night, to catch sight of the passing funeral train. In the car called “America” all the way to the back was the black draped coffin of Lincoln. In the front of the same car was the smaller casket of Lincoln’s son Willie who died in 1862.

statehouse-lincoln-funeral-train-2 — The Nashville in Cleveland waiting to depart for Columbus later in the evening of April 28, 1865.

At 6:32 a.m. the funeral train passed through Lewis Center, then, just as the train was rolling through Worthington at 6:56 a.m., the rains began to let up and by 7:30 a.m. as the train pulled into Union Station, the gloomy overcast skies began to break. The military escort had already assembled and been waiting patiently since 6:00 a.m. to take the coffin to the Statehouse.

That morning in the Saturday edition of The Daily Ohio State Journal an itinerary was published so that mourners would know where Lincoln’s casket would be at what time. Residents were also asked to appropriately decorate their homes along the parade route.

Long before the funeral train arrived at Union Station on the north side of the city, the order of the funeral procession had been determined. A special hearse had been constructed. The black broadcloth draped hearse was big: 17 feet long, 8-1/2 feet wide and more than 17 feet tall (today’s semi trucks are less than 14′ tall). The entire structure resembled a Chinese pagoda. Around the cornice of the canopy were 36 silver stars.

Once the train arrived at Union Station the casket was transfer by the 29 man military escort of veterans to a hearse pulled by 6 white horses, with black blankets across their back and black feathered plumes attached to their head. Besides the military escort, the hearse was also followed by the Mayors of both Columbus and Cincinnati as well as City Council members of both cities. Twenty-two honorary pall bearers including many of Columbus’ prominent citizens (Robert Neil, Fernando Kelton, Lincoln Goodale, and D. W. Deshler). Today, Kelton House is a museum of the Victorian era, and one of the artifacts on display is a lithograph of the funeral procession, along with the actual armband that Fernando wore performing his duties as a pall bearer.

lincoln-car — Lincoln Funeral Car in Columbus at Union Station. Note the standing water in the ditch from the torrential rains that fell during the night.

The entourage traveled south on High Street to Broad, went east on Broad and then turned south on 4th Street. It then traversed through several downtown neighborhood streets until coming back on Town Street to High Street. From there it would go north to the west entrance of the Capitol Building.

All along the way 1000s of mourners lined the streets with the houses and businesses draped in black. Some youths with plenty of stamina, kept pace along side the hearse during the entire route.

abraham-lincoln — Funeral procession headed north on High Street on Saturday morning, April 29, 1865.

At the West Gate of the Statehouse (today, this is where the McKinley Monument stands) an arch was built over the large gate posts. At the center of the arch were the words: “Ohio Mourns”. The Statehouse columns were wrapped in in black cloth to create spirals. Above the columns on the cornice a sign hung with a quote from Lincoln’s last inaugural address:

“With malice to none. With charity for all.”

Each of the Statehouse windows were heavily draped in black. Directly above the west door was placed the inscription

“God Moves in a Mysterious Way.”

Just before 9:00 a.m. the process came to a halt on South High Street near the west gate to Capitol Square. There is a break in the gray clouds and sunlight spreads across those gathered. At about 9:00 a.m., the head of the procession arrived at the west entrance to Capitol Square. The 88th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was acting as special escort. They formed 2 lines on either side of the walk from the west gate to the entrance. Eight Sergeants of the honor guard placed the casket on their shoulders and slowly walked up the walkway and into the Rotunda. All around the Rotunda were fresh floral arrangements.

a-lincoln-casket — Lincoln casket covered in lilacs in the Ohio Statehouse rotunda.

The bier, where the casket would be placed, was covered with lilacs that had just come into bloom throughout the city. When the casket was lowered to the flowery bier which sat upon a carpet that helped cut down on the echo of footsteps across the marbled floor, the 6’6″ long casket with Lincoln’s body, crushed the lilacs in such a way that the room was filled with smell of the fragrant lilacs. Although Lincoln’s body had been embalmed before leaving Washington D.C., the process was not yet perfected and his body had already begun to deteriorate badly giving off a putrid odor that had to be masked by the floral arrangements. To help preserve the President’s body during the 12 day trip back to Springfield Illinois, it would be packed in ice. A mortician also accompanied the body and applied chalk to Lincoln’s face to mask the discoloration.

Two sets of lines formed on High Street, one stretching north to Long Street and another south to Rich Street. It was estimated that 8,000 people an hour walked past the casket.

Photograph of Lincoln's casket superimposed over contemporary color photograph of the rotunda. — Photograph of Lincoln’s casket superimposed over contemporary color photograph of the rotunda.

At 3:00 p.m. on the east side of the Capitol Building, a platform had been erected where state and local dignitaries and military generals spoke about Lincoln’s contributions. The feature speaker was General Hooker.

Funeral hearse waiting for Lincoln's casket to be removed from the statehouse for its return journey up High Street to Union Station. — Funeral hearse waiting for Lincoln’s casket to be removed from the statehouse for its return journey up High Street to Union Station.

At 6:00 p.m. the doors to the Capitol were closed, a bugle sounded the assembly and the soldiers reformed for the final escort back to Union Station following the same route in reverse. From Columbus the funeral train would move on to Indianapolis, then to Chicago, and finally down to Springfield, Illinois for final burial.

After the casket was removed from the Rotunda, the doors to the Statehouse were re-opened and visitors continued to quietly pass through the great room where Lincoln’s body had laid in repose. After the last visitor passed through, the flowers from the bier and the floral displays around the room were collected. These flowers were then auctioned off and the money collected was donated to charity groups throughout the city that were helping wounded veterans returning from the Civil War.

The original plans for the funeral train called for it to travel on to Cincinnati for another public viewing. However, due to the condition of Lincoln’s deteriorating body, it was decided to forgo the Cincinnati stop, and move on to Indianapolis, then Chicago and finally to Springfield, Illinois.

ford-theatre-exterior-2 — Exterior view of Ford’s Theatre after the assassination of the President. Note the black bunting draped across the exterior.

In 1865 this was Good Friday. It had been five days since General Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia, but the War o f Rebellion was still not over. Confederate General Johnson still had 90,000 men under his command. Some thought he could be massing an assault on Grant in Virginia. Even with that lingering threat, the last 5 days were days of celebration in the District. The President had just returned from Richmond where he went to see the total destruction of the Confederate Capital. Near exhaustion he didn’t feel like going to the theatre, but he promised his wife Mary. Plus, his attendance had already been announced for Friday night’s performance.

Mary requested General Grant and his wife to accompany her and the President, but the general had plans to be in Philadelphia so she requested their friends Major Henry Rathbone and his fiance Clara Harris to accompany them. They accepted and the two couples arrived promptly at 8:30 at the theatre.

Presidential double box. Photo taken a few days after. A guard can be seen guarding the entrance on the far right side.

Ford’s Theatre Presidential Box is located on the 2^nd tier and was entered from the Dress Circle through a narrow corridor about 3 feet wide and 10 feet long. The box looked directly down on the right side of the stage. Inside the box were two small chairs, a settee and an upholstered rocker the president used. All of these seats were angled toward the stage except for the settee, which is where Clara Harris sat. The president’s rocker was nearest to the door and the others in the room would have been further forward of his position.

The door to the Presidential Box was unlocked and unguarded when the president arrived. Earlier in the day, one of the actors had cut a small peep hole in one of the doors so he could see the President without being noticed.

At about 10:15 P.M., halfway through Act III, Scene 2, the character of Asa Trenchard, played that night by Harry Hawk, utters his line, considered one of the play’s funniest that always brought hilarious laughter from the audience. It was at this point that the actor standing behind Lincoln knew would be his cue. He quickly fired his .44 caliber derringer. Some in the audience may have heard the shot, but most did not. Perhaps someone dropped something, nothing more. Even in Lincoln’s box, the sound wasn’t immediately identified as coming from their location.

The President’s head slumped slightly forward as if he had nodded off. Thinking the loud sound was part of the on stage clamor, Mary reached over and touched her husband, perhaps so he wouldn’t miss the events on stage. Everyone was laughing. She pulled her hand back and even in the dim light she noticed blood on her fingers. That’s when her screaming began. Everything seemed to happen at once. The actor pushed his way forward. Major Rathbone realized something had happened and reached out to grab the actor’s sleeve as he made his way to the balcony railing. The actor quickly swung a dagger at the major slashing the his arm, then leapt over the railing, landing awkwardly. Now everyone in the large theatre seemed aware something dreadful had happened. The actor shouted a few words that most could not understand then limped across the stage in front of a stunned audience to a side exit.

On the second tier Mary’s screaming intensified when she saw Clara Harris’ evening gown stain bright red, which Mary thought was from her husband’s wound, but was in fact from the major’s wound. The long gash on his arm was bleeding profusely and in just a few moments he had collapsed from loss of blood. The president’s wound, although fatal, there was little bleeding.

peterson-house-room-2 — Photograph of Lincoln’s death bed taken on the morning of April 15 by Julius Ulke, a Peterson House boarder who had an upstairs room. He helped by providing hot water several times. After all the dignitaries left the house and Lincoln’s body was removed, he set up his camera and took 2 photographs. Between images he re-arranged the chair and pillow in slightly different positions.

In the audience Charles Taft, a surgeon was lifted up to the Presidential Box where the president was lying. As the box quickly became swarmed with additional people, it was decided to take him down to someplace where they could find a more suitable place for the doctors to work their miracles.

There would be no miracles tonight. After being carried across the street to a boarding house, the president died the following morning without ever regaining consciousness. The country which had seen hundreds of thousands of its men die in a war that lasted more than 4 years, was suddenly thrust into a national state of mourning.

Thirteen days later the President’s funeral train would be arriving in Cleveland and the following morning in Columbus on its way to Springfield, Illinois. Although embalming had begun to be used, it was not a perfected science. By the time the President’s casket arrived in Columbus, 100s of lilac blossoms were needed to mask the smell of death. The country was facing the awful cost of a tearing itself apart.

April 29: Lincoln Funeral Procession Arrives at the Statehouse

April 14: A Nation Begins to Mourn

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