Transport to White House

[loetar44]

(11-30-2014 03:28 PM)Anita Wrote:  Laurie, could this be the same hearse? This article claims that the hearse that took Lincoln from the Petersen house on April 15 and to the train station on April 17, 1865 are one and the same.

"Jerry Sibert found the hearse on a Chambersburg, Pa., area farm in 1990 and bought it for $2,700. One of his first tasks was to clean thick bird droppings off the roof.

Allebaugh contacted Sibert and discouraged him from doing anything with the hearse until it was researched, Sibert said.

In his findings, Allebaugh wrote that on April 15, 1865, the hearse - termed Compound Unit No. 1 - carried Lincoln from the Peterson House to the White House. The coffin was wrapped in a flag and escorted by military personnel, he wrote.

The coffin was loaded back onto the hearse April 17 and taken to the train station, according to Allebaugh's writings. The train took Lincoln to be buried in Springfield, Ill.

A Washington, D.C., mortuary bought the hearse in the late 1860s, Allebaugh reported. He said the hearse, reportedly made by William J. Tickner & Sons Carriage Co. of Baltimore, changed ownership several times in Pennsylvania."

See complete article http://articles.herald-mail.com/2007-01-...al-library

How reliable is this all? The article says: ´ The coffin was loaded back onto the hearse April 17 and taken to the train station, according to Allebaugh's writings. The train took Lincoln to be buried in Springfield, Ill.”

However until April 18 President Lincoln lay in state in the East Room and on April 19 his body was brought to the Capitol Rotunda in an impressive procession. The funeral car then was large. The lower base was fourteen feet long and seven feet wide, and eight feet from the ground. The upper base, upon which the coffin rested, was eleven feet long and five feet below the top of the canopy. The canopy was surmounted by a gilt eagle, covered with crape. The hearse was entirely covered with cloth, velvet, crape and alpaca. The seat was covered with cloth, and on each side was a splendid lamp. The car was fifteen feet high, and the coffin was so placed as to afford a full view to all spectators. It was drawn by six gray horses, each attended by a groom (source New York Times).

Here are two images:
       

Maybe "Allebaugh's hearse" was used in the morning of April 21 when the body was taken from the Capitol Rotunda to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Depot in Washington, D.C.

And in reference to 15 april (Petersen's House --> White House) we still have the account of Noah Brooks: "..... 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. "

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(12-01-2014 02:29 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I'vew seen dark photos taken from a different angle, but I believe it is the same vehicle.

I grabbed the image from the Gettysburg Heritage Center facebook site; it had the following caption "President Lincoln's hearse"

Here is another picture: