escort to Springfield

[loetar44]

(01-22-2015 07:09 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Hi Kees. I had this information in a file. This is the list of the Veterans Reserve Corps members. These 29 men moved the coffin from place to place during the long funeral journey. All were sergeants except as noted otherwise.

Thanks Roger! Great list! According to Thomas Goodrich in “The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy” (p. 196), Robert Schenck was a member of the honor guard. In private this Union general had detested Lincoln, referring to him as “the baboon” and to Mary as “her royal majesty” . Robert Schenck is not in your list of VRC members. I suppose the guard of honor (the men who moved the coffin) was not the same as the honor guard, which consisted of many more people. Am I right?

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(01-22-2015 07:21 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Wasn't there (or didn't it become) a ritual that the govenor of each of the states passed during the journey boarded and joined the party for the entire distance the train covered in the respective state?

As I’ve understand it, a governor boarded the train at the moment the train reached a state line and rode along as a gesture of honor and respect for Abraham Lincoln. Each governor did not make the trip entirely to Springfield, Illinois but returned when the funeral train proceeded in another state, with another governor.