Did Robert Lincoln Ride the Funeral Train to Baltimore?

[Donna McCreary]

(01-12-2015 09:10 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  

(01-12-2015 09:34 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(01-11-2015 04:24 PM)loetar44 Wrote:  Accounts I've read vary, the history isn't easy to find, at least for me ..... On May 4, 1865, AL’s (and Willie’s) remains were placed in the receiving tomb at Oak Ridge. But where was Robert Todd Lincoln at this very moment? Had he rode in the procession, accompanied by a cousin (John Hanks ?). I remember that I once read this story, and I also read that he and some of the closest friends and advisers (who ?) of AL flanked the doors (of the vault) during the placement of the coffins in the vault. The problem is that I can’t recall where and when I read this. Additional question: where was Tad? Was he with RTL or with his mother in the White House?

Kees, I found some information in Jason Emerson's bio. He writes that RTL rode in the procession accompanied by Elizabeth Grimsley. At the cemetery the obsequies took approximately an hour, and then the receiving vault was locked. The key was given to RTL who then gave it to John Stuart for safekeeping. Jason also writes that after the funeral a Springfield resident went to Stuart's home where she found RTL so despondent that her "heart ached for him." Robert stayed in Springfield for the next three days and then returned to Washington.

Thanks Roger, that's very sad. Poor Robert! Wasn't John Todd Stuart a cousin of Mary's? I wonder why RTL gave him the vault keys instead of keeping them himself? Also in the book "Lincoln's Boys" that was released last year, it said that John Nicolay went into a deep depression after the funeral and remained in Springfield with RTL a few days.

John Todd Stuart would have been the keys because he was a male-blood relative to Mary. Robert first returned to Washington, and then resided in Chicago. As a member of the Lincoln Monument Association and a family member, he was the most logical person to hold the keys. When Mary came to the cemetery, it was JTS who took her and comforted her during her visit.