Moving Lincoln's Body

[RJNorton]

Kevin, i don't know why I didn't think of these books when you first wrote me. I just checked another book titled The Great Abraham Lincoln Hijack by Bonnie Stahlman Speer. Although she uses different words she says pretty much the same thing as Mr. Craughwell.

However, I did come upon what the tour guide may have been referring to in a pamphlet I have written by Dorothy Cashman, wife of George Cashman who was the former Curator of the Lincoln Tomb. She writes that on the night of November 15, 1876, an attempt was made to dig a shallow grave. However, before the excavation was deep enough, water seeped in and filled the trench. So the men quit the digging and tried to decide what to do next. Undecided, they left the coffin on planks and covered it with debris. This was a temporary measure. But it wasn't until November 18, 1878, that the decision was made as described above.