Abraham Lincoln Funeral Train

Following Lincoln's death at the Petersen House (depicted here), his remains were returned to the White House. Drs. J.J. Woodward and E. Curtis recovered the fatal bullet during an autopsy.

The question of how to mourn Lincoln arose immediately. Mary Lincoln fought to keep her husband’s remains out of the national spotlight, but reluctantly conceded to pleas that a public funeral was in the best interests of the grieving nation.

On Tuesday, April 18, the East Room of the White House opened for mourners to see the casket of the slain president.

The viewing in the White House continued through the morning of Wednesday, April 19.

On Wednesday, April 19, 25,000 people lined Pennsylvania Avenue as Lincoln's casket traveled from the White House to the Capitol. Millions attended religious services nationwide marking the day.

Artist Alfred Waud captured some of the decorations business owners along Pennsylvania Avenue used to demonstrate their grief. Many buildings, including Ford’s Theatre, were draped in mourning cloth.

The train car carrying Lincoln's remains was named the United States. It was completed only a few months before his death. The funeral was the first and last time the president traveled in it.

The front page of the Baltimore Sun carried a notice about the train the day before it arrived, as well as reports about mourning in the city and Lincoln’s assassins. Baltimore added $10,000 to the reward for the capture of John Wilkes Booth.

Despite the terrible weather, a large crowd assembled outside the State House. So many people were waiting to enter the Hall of the House of Representatives, where Lincoln lay in state, that mourners exited through windows after viewing the body.

Lincoln's hearse was pulled by eight black horses with silver-trimmed harnesses. The crowd, described by one reporter as "a living mass of men, women and children," was tormented by pickpockets, triggering a chaotic scene during which one woman broke her arm.

The funeral in New York City lasted for two days, April 24 and 25. Among the million mourners was six-year-old Theodore Roosevelt, who watched the funeral procession as it passed beneath the windows of his grandfather's house (at left).

The New York City Council attempted to ban African Americans from participating in the Lincoln funeral procession, but the order was rescinded at the insistence of Lincoln's Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton.

A police escort was assigned to protect African Americans as they joined in the grandest, most solemn procession ever staged in Manhattan. New Yorkers decorated their buildings in mourning crepe.

New Yorkers, who had once talked of secession, now competed to honor Lincoln. One observer noted, "every house, from pavement to roof, all the way from the Battery to Central Park, was draped in black."

A year after Lincoln's funeral, a casket maker created this advertisement depicting the slain president's casket leaving City Hall.

This pass officially granted permission to the New York Central Railroad to remove Lincoln's body from New York City to Springfield.

The funeral train arrived in Albany around midnight, and the solemn procession carrying the president's remains to the State Capitol was flanked by 100 firemen bearing torches. All through the night, mourners passed the casket at a rate of 4,000 per hour.

The following day, tens of thousands braved the hot sun, crushing crowds and ruthless pickpockets for a chance to glimpse the procession, led by six white horses, as it went from the Capitol Building to the rail station.

At all points along the journey, an honor guard attended to Lincoln's casket, both while it lay in state on public display, and while it was on board the funeral train. This key granted access to the funeral car.

The city had hurriedly constructed an outdoor pavilion in a downtown park, Public Square, to handle the expected crowds.

Wind and rain failed to deter the grieving multitudes who filed by the open casket before it was closed at 10:00 p.m.

The coffin, strewn with elaborate floral offerings, was returned by torchlight to the rail depot for a midnight departure to Columbus.

The locomotive Nashville pulled the funeral train while on the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad. A portrait of Lincoln hung over the cowcatcher.

Once the train arrived in Columbus, mounted cavalry stationed at intersections kept the route clear for the funeral procession.

Ohio's Capitol was dressed for mourning: its columns adorned with black cloth, flags lowered to half-staff, and the words "With Malice toward none; with Charity for all" suspended over the cornice.

After this official stop, there was another night journey past small towns teeming with mourners, many of whom had come in from the surrounding countryside. Others had traveled north from Kentucky, the state of Lincoln's birth.

During Lincoln's funeral service in Indianapolis, the City Band played the dirge composed for the occasion by Charles Hess in honor of Lincoln.

The city's parade featured a regiment of Confederate prisoners of war who had taken an oath of allegiance to the Union. An armed escort guarded Lincoln's funeral car, where Willie Lincoln's remains stayed throughout the journey.

Mourners entering the Cook County Courthouse passed beneath an inscription reading "He Was Sustained by Our Prayers, and Returns Embalmed by Our Tears."

Sketches like this one, of Lincoln’s Chicago viewing, were drawn by artists who traveled with the train. Their works provided the basis for woodcuts that enabled mass production of these images in news magazines.

After the courthouse doors closed at 8:00 p.m., a torchlight procession escorted Lincoln's casket to the depot of the Chicago, Alton, and St. Louis Railroad.

Each leg of the funeral train's journey was carefully planned and timed. Schedules like this one let communities along the way pay their respects as it rolled past.

The mourners included old friends and neighbors, colleagues from Lincoln's lawyer days, political allies and adversaries, soldiers bearing the scars of conflict and children barely old enough to understand the scene of grief.

In Springfield, 75,000 mourners climbed the stairway to the second floor of the domed Capitol.

After the public viewing, tinsmith S.S. Elder used these tools to seal Lincoln’s coffin before his burial in Springfield. He later created this shadow box to commemorate the occasion.

On the morning of May 4, General Joseph Hooker led the final march to Oak Ridge Cemetery, passing the Lincoln home at Jackson and Eighth Streets.

The Rev. Harry Brown, an African American minister well known to the Lincoln family, attended the hearse. Lincoln's rider-less horse, Old Bob, followed just behind.

A final funeral service took place at the cemetery. Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address was read. A local choir sang traditional dirges and pieces composed for the occasion. Bishop Matthew Simpson delivered an oration that left many in tears. Finally, the vault's iron gates clanged shut.