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loetar44 · (This post was last modified: 11-09-2014 09:26 AM by loetar44.)

Just finished reading a passage of “Washington in Lincoln's Time” (1895), by Noah Brooks in which was said the following:
“Wandering aimlessly up F street toward Ford's Theater, we met a tragical procession. It was headed by a group of army officers walking bareheaded, and behind them, carried tenderly by a company of soldiers, was the bier of the dead President, covered with the flag of the Union, and accompanied by an escort of soldiers who had been on duty at the house where Lincoln died.”

I found exactly the same passage on page 386 of “Lincoln and the Civil War; a profile and a history” (1960), edited by Courtlandt Canby.

What struck me was that Lincoln left Petersen’s House, on a BIER carried by a company of soldiers.

Other accounts say that a detachment of soldiers placed the President’s body in a plain pine coffin (box) and then in a HEARSE and escorted him to the White House.

Was Lincoln’s body wrapped in the Union flag, or is it possible that it was wrapped in a bed sheet and that the coffin was covered with the flag of the Union?

The Washington Chronicle reported on April 16: “Shortly after nine o'clock Saturday morning [April 15] the remains were placed in a temporary coffin, under the direction of [undertaker] Mr. Frank Sands, and removed to the White House.

After using google, I learned that “six young men of the Quartermaster's department” carried the body. They were: John E. Weaver, William Reith, Eli Morey, David Frantz, John Richardson, and Antonis Brigazzi. The sad cortege was headed by Gen. Augur, Gen. Rucker, Col. Pelouze, Capt. Anderson, Capt. Thomas, Capt. Crowell, and Capt. Baker, all walking bareheaded.

I wonder: was Lincoln carried on a bier? Was it a wheeled bier? Or was his body in a temporary (rough pine) coffin in a (horse drawn?) hearse? Was Lincoln’s body wrapped in the flag of the Union or in a bed sheet? And if the body was in a coffin, was this coffin then covered with the flag? I find the different accounts not very clear about this all.

Are there images existing of the cortege passing down the streets to the White House? An artist’s impression maybe?