150 Years Ago: TONIGHT

On the night of April 25, 1865, Lincoln's funeral train stopped briefly in Hudson. What transpired was recorded by Assistant Adjutant General Edward D. Townsend, the commander of the funeral train.

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.

Tonight at 8:45 p.m. the scene Townsend witnessed in 1865 will be re-created. The event begins in front of Kite's Nest, 108 South Front Street, at Basilica Hudson, and moves in a procession across to the lawn beside the Dunn building. All are invited to come and witness history re-created.  
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK