Conspirators' bodies

[Houmes]

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I have no intentions of learning the embalming process; but after a guided tour of a very old funeral home here in D.C. many years ago, it is my understanding that (at least in the 1860s) the process left the body as cold and hard as marble. How did one insert the proper equipment and get the fluids to move once the initial embalming was/is done?
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Once a mummy, always a mummy. Civil War embalming wasn't a perfect science. A lot of experimenting took place with a variety of chemicals, including alcohol, mercury, zinc, creosote, and arsenic. Formaldehyde didn't become widely popular until the 1890's, although today it's used with other chemicals, if for no other reason than it's carcinogenic and if used alone it turns a body gray. The average cadaver today requires about 3.5 gallons of chemicals. Arsenic was the favorite used during the war. What Civil War embalmers didn't know was that unless dyes and "softening agents" were used along with the other chosen chemicals the cadaver could darken over time and turn hard. Example: the Enid mummy. He was embalmed four times, but during the last treatment it was miscalculated and look what happened. Lincoln was imperfectly embalmed and turned black while he was in New York City. Mummification by most chemicals dehydrates the body and shrinks or destroys the blood vessels, so later attempts at arterial embalming are usually impossible.

Incidentally, in his book Richard Fox describes the condition of Lincoln's body during the multiple exhumations and reburials in Springfield. At the final burial in 1901, spectators were aghast at the color of his face, along with the terrible odor of decay. His face was chalky white as opposed to the last viewing in 1887 when it was black. Answer: mold.