Journey of Lincoln Funeral Train

[Tom Emery]

All:

Here's a historical retrospect I wrote on the Lincoln funeral train's journey from Chicago to Springfield. This was carried by several Illinois newspapers.

I thought I'd post this, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln funeral.



LINCOLN FUNERAL TRAIN DREW THRONGS OF ILLINOIS MOURNERS IN 1865
By Tom Emery

150 years ago this week, the train carrying Abraham Lincoln’s body drew throngs of mourners across Illinois as it completed the last leg of its journey from Chicago to Springfield. Despite the late hours of the nighttime journey, thousands of weeping, embittered Illinoisans paid their last respects to the fallen President.

Following his death on April 15, 1865, Lincoln’s remains were carried on a train that left Washington on April 21 and traversed the North, stopping in most major cities. By May 2, the train had reached Chicago, where it entered the city on a lakefront trestle before pulling into what is today Grant Park.

The train was welcomed by some 50,000 mourners, who escorted the President’s body to the Cook County Courthouse in a continuous drizzle. There, it received another 125,000 attendees. That evening, a thousand men, bearing torches, escorted the coffin to Union Station, where a Chicago & Alton train awaited.

This final train that transported Lincoln’s body was nine cars long, with the President’s Car riding second to last. A “pilot” engine drove ten minutes ahead, to ensure a safe passage for the locomotive and cars to follow.

The administration of the Chicago & Alton went to great lengths to protect against any problems on their trackage. The rails and bridges were inspected the day before the passage, and the brakes of cars on sidings were locked to prevent any runaway rolling.
Guards were stationed at crossings, and all telegraph offices were kept open. Each station was to ring a bell as the funeral train rolled by. Any other train on the line was to head for a siding a half-hour before passage of the funeral procession.

The train left Union Station at 9:20 p.m. on May 2. Since the schedule was well-publicized, crowds soon began lining the tracks, and bonfires were set in several locations. One was at Lockport, where residents with torches stood on either side of the line. Almost every building in Lockport was decorated with mourning cloth, and the fires illuminated numerous signs, including one that simply read, “Come Home.”

For the rest of its journey, the train was similarly met. William Porter, the train’s brakeman, recalled on Lincoln’s birthday in 1917 that “large crowds of people congregated – stern, grim, visaged men, tear-bedimmed women and children – all silent, but with an anxious, expectant look, as of some impending disaster.”

A crowd of 12,000 stood silently in Joliet, where bells pealed, dirges played, and a choir sang as the train rolled under a sprawling arch, bedecked with flags and greenery. In Wilmington, a gathering of 2,000 met the train. Along the rest of the way, in towns like Dwight, Pontiac, Chenoa, and Lexington, dirges were performed amid ringing bells.

The train pulled into Towanda at 4:30 a.m., where a throng was waiting despite the early hour. In Bloomington, the train stopped to take on coal and water and was welcomed by a crowd of 5,000. An arch was erected over the track with the words “Go to thy Rest.”

In Atlanta, some mourners held portraits of their martyred leader. In the President’s namesake town of Lincoln, the depot was saturated in mourning cloth, and ladies’ church choir sang as the train rolled under an arch with Lincoln’s words from his second inaugural address of two months before, “With Malice Toward None, with Charity for All.”

Arches were also waiting in Elkhart and Williamsville before the train finally arrived, an hour late, in Springfield at 9 a.m. The body lay in state at the capitol building, where its discoloration continued to disturb onlookers despite the repeated embalmings performed along the route since leaving Washington.

A local undertaker restored the President’s color with rouge chalk and amber. Still, the many embalmings left the President’s body in a remarkable state of preservation decades later, when the casket was opened several times until 1901.

In addition to the neverending lines of mourners at the capitol, a throng gathered at the Lincoln home. There, Lincoln’s horse, Old Bob, and the family dog, Fido, were both returned for the occasion, adding another measure of sentimentality.

The funeral on May 4 was highlighted by a procession from the State House past the Lincoln home and the governor’s mansion en route to Oak Ridge Cemetery, where the President and his son, Willie, who died in the White House in 1862, were interred in a temporary vault.

The president’s anguished widow, Mary Todd, was not present as she was still in Washington, too distraught to travel with her beloved husband’s remains.

Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville, Ill. He may be reached at 217-710-8392 or ilcivilwar@yahoo.com.