150 Years Ago: April 24

On this day in 1865, Lincoln's funeral train left Philadelphia at 4 a.m. bound for New York. At 10 a.m., it arrived at the train station in Jersey City. The coffin was then removed from the funeral car and ferried across the Hudson River. In New York, it was transported to City Hall, where it was carried up the circular staircase to the rotunda and placed on a black velvet dais.

The public was admitted to view the body shortly after 1 p.m. It was reported that at one point more than 5oo,ooo people waited in line to pass by the open coffin. David T. Valentine, who edited and published a series if New York City almanacs, wrote: "A ceaseless throng of visitors were admitted to view the body, while many thousands were turned away unable to obtain admittance. All classes of our citizens, the old and the young, the rich and the poor, without distinction of color or sex, mingled in the silent procession that passed reverently before the bier."

An account from the New York Times speaks of Lincoln's appearance after three days of travel and previous viewings in three cities: "It will not be possible, despite the effection of the embalming, to continue much longer the exhibition, as the constant shaking of the body aided by the exposure to the air, and the increasing of dust, has already undone much of the  . . . workmanship, and it is doubtful if it will be decreed wise to tempt dissolution much further."

It was in New York that the only known photograph of Lincoln lying in his coffin was taken. 

Secretary of War Edwin Stanton had insisted that no photos be taken of Lincoln's lying in his coffin, and Edward D. Townsend, commander of the funeral train, who appears at the right in the photograph, almost lost his job as a consequence. Fortunately for Hudson, he didn't, because his is the only account of what happened when the funeral train stopped here briefly the next day, on its way from New York City to Albany.

At Hudson . . . elaborate preparations had been made. Beneath an arch hung with black and white drapery and evergreen wreaths, was a tableau representing a coffin resting upon a dais; a female figure in which, mourning over the coffin; a soldier standing at one end and a sailor at the other. While a band of young women dressed in white sang a dirge, two others in black entered the funeral-car, placed a floral device on the President’s coffin, then knelt for a moment of silence, and quietly withdrew. This whole scene was one of the most weird ever witnessed, its solemnity being intensified by the somber light of the torches at that dead hour of night. 

Tomorrow night, the scene Townsend described will be re-created near the Hudson train station. The event begins at 8:45 p.m. in front of Kite's Nest at Basilica Hudson, 108 South Front Street, with a choir of women singing a dirge. A torchlit procession led by two women in black will then cross over to the lawn beside the old Dunn building, where the tableau will be installed. All are invited to witness Mourning Lincoln, the re-creation of the scene Townsend described as "one of the most weird ever witnessed."
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK