American flag that covered Lincoln's casket during the funeral train tour

[David Lockmiller]

The New York Times reports today:

"[A]n 8-foot-long, 37-star American flag covered [President Lincoln's] casket during the funeral train tour after his assassination in 1865.

Millions of mourners turned out to pay their respects as the train made its way from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Ill., where Lincoln was interred. Afterward, Maj. Lewis Applegate, an Army doctor, took possession of the flag.

The Applegate lineage kept it for more than a century, and it was eventually turned over to the Museum of Southern History in Florida. In 2024, the flag was put up for sale at a Guernsey’s auction. Tilman Fertitta, the Texas billionaire and owner of Keens, pounced, buying it for a reported $656,250."

Julia Lisowski, the steakhouse’s general manager, stood beside the curtain and faced the guests. “We are thrilled you are able to join us in the Lincoln Room as we confer the Abraham Lincoln Casket Flag of 1865 to its permanent home,” she said.

She recounted how it was made by the nation’s oldest flag maker, Annin & Company, noting that its 37th star existed in anticipation of Nebraska’s statehood. She told of a curator, Rhonda Hiser, who three years ago discovered the flag languishing behind a bookshelf at the Museum of Southern History.

She went on to thank Mr. Fertitta, the restaurateur and casino magnate who bought Keens two years ago, adding it to a portfolio that includes Rainforest Cafe and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Mr. Fertitta, who was not present for the party, also owns the Houston Rockets basketball franchise and serves as the United States ambassador to Italy and San Marino.

Finally, when the curtain was pulled back, the crowd cheered as the majestic hand-sewn flag was revealed. Along its hoist was Major Applegate’s signature and a marking indicating the date of Lincoln’s assassination.

[David Lockmiller]

The flag and its history should have been part of the Lincoln Memorial in Springfield, Illinois from the first day it opened.

[Steve]

(02-17-2026 01:02 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  The New York Times reports today:

"[A]n 8-foot-long, 37-star American flag covered [President Lincoln's] casket during the funeral train tour after his assassination in 1865.

Millions of mourners turned out to pay their respects as the train made its way from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Ill., where Lincoln was interred. Afterward, Maj. Lewis Applegate, an Army doctor, took possession of the flag.

The Applegate lineage kept it for more than a century, and it was eventually turned over to the Museum of Southern History in Florida. In 2024, the flag was put up for sale at a Guernsey’s auction. Tilman Fertitta, the Texas billionaire and owner of Keens, pounced, buying it for a reported $656,250."

Julia Lisowski, the steakhouse’s general manager, stood beside the curtain and faced the guests. “We are thrilled you are able to join us in the Lincoln Room as we confer the Abraham Lincoln Casket Flag of 1865 to its permanent home,” she said.

She recounted how it was made by the nation’s oldest flag maker, Annin & Company, noting that its 37th star existed in anticipation of Nebraska’s statehood. She told of a curator, Rhonda Hiser, who three years ago discovered the flag languishing behind a bookshelf at the Museum of Southern History.

She went on to thank Mr. Fertitta, the restaurateur and casino magnate who bought Keens two years ago, adding it to a portfolio that includes Rainforest Cafe and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Mr. Fertitta, who was not present for the party, also owns the Houston Rockets basketball franchise and serves as the United States ambassador to Italy and San Marino.

Finally, when the curtain was pulled back, the crowd cheered as the majestic hand-sewn flag was revealed. Along its hoist was Major Applegate’s signature and a marking indicating the date of Lincoln’s assassination.

I have serious doubts that this flag draped over Lincoln's casket.

[David Lockmiller]

(02-18-2026 03:05 AM)Steve Wrote:  I have serious doubts that this flag draped over Lincoln's casket.

Steve, you may want to visit this website: https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/guern...1-million/

Leading the sale was the 37-star United States Applegate Flag, which draped Abraham Lincoln’s coffin in 1865, during the transport of his body about his funeral train from Washington, DC, to Springfield, Ill. The 28-by-37-inch flag was constructed from 15 individual pieces of wool bunting as well as 37 hand-sewn, five-point, single appliqué cotton sheeting stars. It contained a maker’s mark, that read “Annin & Co., 99 & 101 Fulton St. N.Y.,” as well as former owner Lewis Applegate’s signature. The somber flag had provenance to former Senator Edwin D. Morgan, one of Lincoln’s six pallbearers, then by descent through Applegate’s family for more than 150 years.

The 37 stars are in alternative rows of stars as may be seen on the excellent photograph of the flag: 7, 8, 7, 8, 7 = 37.

[AussieMick]

(02-18-2026 11:57 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  

(02-18-2026 03:05 AM)Steve Wrote:  I have serious doubts that this flag draped over Lincoln's casket.

Steve, you may want to visit this website: https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/guern...1-million/

Leading the sale was the 37-star United States Applegate Flag, which draped Abraham Lincoln’s coffin in 1865, during the transport of his body about his funeral train from Washington, DC, to Springfield, Ill. The 28-by-37-inch flag was constructed from 15 individual pieces of wool bunting as well as 37 hand-sewn, five-point, single appliqué cotton sheeting stars. It contained a maker’s mark, that read “Annin & Co., 99 & 101 Fulton St. N.Y.,” as well as former owner Lewis Applegate’s signature. The somber flag had provenance to former Senator Edwin D. Morgan, one of Lincoln’s six pallbearers, then by descent through Applegate’s family for more than 150 years.

The 37 stars are in alternative rows of stars as may be seen on the excellent photograph of the flag: 7, 8, 7, 8, 7 = 37.

David, I had a look at that site and I think Steve may have a point ... I also looked at this site :
https://flag-post.com/adding-new-stars-t...civil-war/
It has

"Lincoln Funeral Flag at Museum of Southern History in Jacksonville Florida"

the shape of the stars differ from those on the auction flag. Also there is a grommet (hole) that seems in a different place (above the stars). Also the stripes seem a different width.

[RJNorton]

Here's another claim re: the flag:

=============================================

"The flag that draped Abraham Lincoln’s casket in Albany, NY in the Erie County Historical Society Archives."

https://www.hagenhistory.org/blog/lincol...il-27-1865

[AussieMick]

Its obviously possible that there was more than one flag used to cover the casket from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Ill.

( I hesitate to suggest that some people might have been given or purloined a souvenir along the way, hence requiring the flag to be replaced.)

[Steve]

Since the flag has already been sold at auction, I don't want to go all in-depth on my reasoning on why I believe the steakhouse/Applegate flag couldn't have been from Lincoln's funeral train. But here's an article from two years ago about the flag which goes more in depth and has better pictures of it and the writing on it:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/...ct-auction

If you read the article carefully, look at the flag images, and really think about the scenario being presented -- it doesn't make any sense at all, to me at least. Even if you disagree the article's still an interesting read.

If after reading the article, you want more information on Edwin Morgan here's his Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_D._Morgan

Here's Maj. Lewis Applegate's Find A Grave page:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1183...-applegate

Assuming my belief about the flag not being from Lincoln's funeral train/casket -- here's my best guess on what the flag actually is. Major Lewis Applegate died in young at only 30 in 1870. I think the flag may be the flag which covered Maj. Applegate's casket during his funeral. There were 37 states in 1870. A relative presumably would've written Maj. Applegate's name on the flag afterward.

Here's a link to another 37-star flag which also has claims to have been associated with Lincoln's funeral:

https://www.flagcollection.com/itemdetai...tem_ID=257

Based on this flag's lack of concrete provenance along with the letter about it's history being written nearly 60 years after the fact, I'm inclined to be pretty skeptical about the authenticity of its story as well---but I think it's at least possible it could turn out to be true with further research, unlike the steakhouse/Applegate flag.

[David Lockmiller]

[quote='Steve' pid='90772' dateline='1771508851']
Since the flag has already been sold at auction, I don't want to go all in-depth on my reasoning on why I believe the steakhouse/Applegate flag couldn't have been from Lincoln's funeral train. But here's an article from two years ago about the flag which goes more in depth and has better pictures of it and the writing on it:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/...ct-auction

If you read the article carefully, look at the flag images, and really think about the scenario being presented -- it doesn't make any sense at all, to me at least. Even if you disagree the article's still an interesting read.

The article reads:

‘Applegate Flag has the best provenance’
To prove the flag’s provenance, Hiser enlisted Jim Ferrigan, a vexillologist (flag expert) who has advised and consulted for the Smithsonian; Steve Levine and Ron Levine, rare collectible dealers and researchers who are not related but own L2 Acquisitions; as well as owners of the historic Annin flag company, which made and supplied the Civil War flags.

Questions have been raised about the authenticity of other Lincoln artifacts, but Hiser and her team are confident this is the real thing.

“The facts, deductive reasoning and the overall circumstantial evidence allows for the conclusion that this is ONE of the only known surviving Lincoln coffin flags,” Ferrigan told Sneed.

A 1960 fire destroyed the Annin company’s historic records, but according to Ron Levine, the firm sent a letter this year stating: “After viewing the Annin company stamp [on the flag], Brevet major Lewis Applegate’s signature and the flag’s dignified paperwork, Annin flagmakers are inclined to believe the data presented surrounding these facts support the conclusion that this Annin 37-star flag made in NYC in or around 1865 can very well be the flag that draped Lincoln’s coffin.”

“Of the five dozen or so flags or fragments associated with the assassination and funeral of President Abraham Lincoln, the Applegate Flag has the best provenance and unbroken chain-of-possession attached to the 1800s,” he said.

I would conclude that other flags may have been used in individual memorial ceremonies.

[RJNorton]

https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/history/...a-ds=sophi

'Too many maybes': Expert can't be sure of source of Lincoln casket flag
Steven Spearie
Springfield State Journal-Register

"An authority on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln said there may be holes in the story about an American flag that draped the casket of the 16th president from Springfield.

Keens, a New York City steakhouse, recently purchased the flag for over half a million dollars and first displayed it publicly on the Lincoln's birthday.

But Richard Sloan, an Emmy-winning audio engineer, said a big question lies with the person who supposedly obtained the flag, Edwin Denision Morgan, a one-time U.S. Senator from and governor of New York and a supporter of Lincoln.

Sloan, who lives in Massapequa, New York, said Morgan was never on any list he saw regarding persons on the Lincoln funeral train, which carried the body of the slain president from Washington, D.C. to Springfield, a route of over 1,600 miles, from April 21 to May 4, 1865.

Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865. Lincoln was carried to a boardinghouse across the street and died the next day.

Morgan, who served as chairman of the Republican National Committee when Lincoln was elected president in 1860, may have obtained the flag, but trying to figure that out "is something we'll never probably know," Sloan said in a recent phone interview with The State Journal-Register.

Nothing was indexed in Morgan's personal papers in the New York State Library in Albany about him being on the funeral train, Sloan said. Morgan did keep up correspondence with U.S. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who issued orders about the funeral train, so that might be an opening as to how Morgan got the flag, Sloan said.

Two other New York institutions claim they have casket flags from the funeral train, Sloan pointed out.

The date on the hoist of the flag--April 14, 1865--was also puzzling to Sloan.

"Why wouldn't it have been a date like April 22 or something or whenever Morgan got the flag," Sloan insisted. "The train didn't start its trip until after the White House funeral."

Morgan gifted the flag to U.S. Army doctor Lewis Applegate, who died in 1870. The flag, known as "the Applegate flag," was in the family for more than a century. It landed with two other families before being obtained by a now-shuttered history museum in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1996 and only uncovered in 2023.

"I don't attach any significance to the way in which (the flag) was shoved away," Sloan said.

As for Morgan's getting the flag, that's a bit more of a mystery for Sloan.

"I don't think (Morgan) would have lied if he, in fact, was the guy who got the flag. I don't think he would lie, but I don't think that we can figure that out," Sloan said.

"There are too many maybes and too much conjecture on anybody's part, including my own, to know with any (definiteness) if Morgan got the flag and if it's legitimate."

[ReignetteC]

The NYT ran an article about the flag in its Feb 16, 2026, edition: "Abe Lincoln Fans Gather for Mutton Hunks and a Vintage American Flag-
An old Manhattan steakhouse is the new home for the Stars and Stripes that draped the 16th president’s casket."

In addition to the flag, the article points to other ephemera in the steakhouse:

"Shawn Brennan, an antiques consultant, studied a wall covered in ephemera pertaining to Lincoln’s assassination that included illustrations of Booth firing his gun at Ford’s Theater and Lincoln’s deathbed scene. They appreciated one artifact in particular.

“That’s it, the playbill from April 14, 1865, at Ford’s Theater,” Mr. Hennes said."

However, when I look at the image of the playbill it notes Lincoln's attendance at the evening performance. ????

Did the "original" playbill note Lincoln's attendance?

Also, the article said this:

“That Keens has the program from that very night only makes it a fitting conclusion the flag will be here now, too,” Mr. Brennan added.
... a young man working the coat check, chimed in: “They say it’s the one he was holding, and that there’s a bloodstain on it.”

?????