Lincoln Funeral Train

[RJNorton]

Toia, Scott Trostel writes as follows:

"Three companies of gray clad cadets, numbering one thousand and a detachment of the cavalry from the United States Military Academy, led by General Cullum ferried across by boat earlier. They were drawn up in line as the train arrived for a brief memorial service. Wearing appropriate badges of mourning, all presented arms in impeccable formation. The officers stood in formation separate from the cadets with heads uncovered. The Academy fired salutes from cannons at their post on the west side of the river, while the train was at the station. Two bands played fitting music....Existing reports suggest select Officers and/or Cadets entered the funeral car."

Charles King, a cadet at West Point Military Academy, wrote of his experience as the train came up the Hudson River valley, "A few days later we formed lines parallel with the railway over at Garrisons and with our drums and colors draped in black, stood at the present, as the day was dying and a long funeral train rolled slowly by. On the platforms, and at the car windows, were generals famous in song and story, but we had eyes for only that solemn pile on which was laid all that was mortal of him who had become immortal, whose works and whose wisdom gain in worth and power with every added year, the inspiration of a reunited people so long as the flag shall float and the nation live."