Speaker 1: These days were all a little skeptical of pretty much
Speaker 1: every politician, right, but it wasn't always that way. Sure,
Speaker 1: there were disagreements about policy and ideology back in the day,
Speaker 1: but when the vast majority of people trusted a president,
Speaker 1: it was to a degree we sadly just can't comprehend
Speaker 1: with that in mind. Got to add another chapter to
Speaker 1: the story of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. There was a sense
Speaker 1: among his cabinet members that the people should have one
Speaker 1: last chance to connect with their martyred president. Thus began
Speaker 1: a train trip through hundreds of towns, with stops in
Speaker 1: thirteen cities, where people got to look at Lincoln in
Speaker 1: his open coffin as his body began to decompose. I'm
Speaker 1: Patty Steele. The funeral train seen in person by fully
Speaker 1: one third of all Americans. That's next on the backstory.
Speaker 1: The backstory is back. Can you imagine the nation respecting
Speaker 1: and loving a political figure so much that millions of
Speaker 1: people turn out to offer a last goodbye when he dies,
Speaker 1: A full third of the US population. As we close
Speaker 1: in on the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's shooting by John
Speaker 1: Wilds Booth on April fourteenth, and of his death early
Speaker 1: the next morning on the fifteenth. We need to understand
Speaker 1: the intense devotion so many Americans felt for him. The
Speaker 1: level of grief people felt was overwhelming, especially since his
Speaker 1: assassination came just five days after the official end of
Speaker 1: the brutal Civil War on April ninth, eighteen sixty five.
Speaker 1: Nobody was ready to let him go, but what to do.
Speaker 1: Mary Lincoln was so freaked out about her husband's death
Speaker 1: she didn't leave her bed in the White House for
Speaker 1: six weeks afterwards. She didn't go to Abes's funeral, and
Speaker 1: she saw almost no one, including her two sons, Robert,
Speaker 1: who was twenty two and Tad, who had just turned twelve.
Speaker 1: Mary had always been sort of jealous of the time
Speaker 1: her husband gave to his job, and now that he
Speaker 1: was dead, she wanted him all to herself. She wanted
Speaker 1: Abe's body to take the most direct route home to Springfield, Illinois,
Speaker 1: where he would be buried. Problem is Secretary of War
Speaker 1: Edwin Stanton felt the nation needed a chance to say goodbye.
Speaker 1: In the aftermath of the Civil War, which again had
Speaker 1: ended just five days before Lincoln's assassination. Stanton pushed Mary
Speaker 1: to approve a whole different trip home, and his plan won.
Speaker 1: That trip would take his body on an almost seventeen
Speaker 1: hundred mile journey through four hundred cities and towns in
Speaker 1: seven states, with stops in thirteen major cities where his
Speaker 1: coffin would be taken to public buildings. Lincoln would lie
Speaker 1: in state with the coffin lid open, while hundreds of
Speaker 1: thousands of people filed past for one last peak. The
Speaker 1: railroad journey retraced the whistle stops Lincoln had made from
Speaker 1: his home in Springfield, the Illinois capital, to Washington, d c.
Speaker 1: The nation's capital, four years earlier, just before his inauguration.
Speaker 1: The funeral car called the United States had actually been
Speaker 1: built as sort of the eighteen sixties version of Air
Speaker 1: Force One, meant to carry Lincoln on any trips he
Speaker 1: needed to make as president. It was state of the art,
Speaker 1: even able to adjust to different sized tracks. It was
Speaker 1: a presidential office on wheels. The car was lavishly decorated
Speaker 1: with luxurious blood red silk upholstery, etched glass windows, paneling
Speaker 1: in walnut and oak, with gilded trim and crystal chandeliers.
Speaker 1: It took several years to build, but Lincoln had never
Speaker 1: ridden in it for two reasons, it was only finished
Speaker 1: several months before his death, and because it was a
Speaker 1: bit ostentatious for his very simple tastes. So the president's
Speaker 1: corpse was carefully prepared for burial, and the long trip
Speaker 1: west a tough task, especially because his body would be
Speaker 1: on display to masses of people. There had been huge
Speaker 1: advances in the embalming of bodies during the Civil War
Speaker 1: that had allowed the unrefrigerated bodies of thousands and thousands
Speaker 1: of soldiers to be sent home to their families for burial,
Speaker 1: so those advancements were also used on Abe Lincoln's body.
Speaker 1: The chief embalmer was a guy named Charles Brown. He
Speaker 1: told the big wigs and the press there would be
Speaker 1: no obvious change in Lincoln's appearance by the end of
Speaker 1: this lengthy trip west. He told the Chicago Tribune, the
Speaker 1: body of the President will never know decay. Well, not
Speaker 1: so much, but we'll get to that part. At dawn
Speaker 1: on April twenty first, Lincoln's black mahogany coffin was placed
Speaker 1: on a hearse, which in those days kind of looked
Speaker 1: a little like a scary float in a parade. It
Speaker 1: was pulled by horses from the US Capitol, where it
Speaker 1: had spent two nights lying in state, to the train station.
Speaker 1: Soldiers gripped the coffin silver handles and placed it in
Speaker 1: the railroad car, Lincoln's first and last ride in it.
Speaker 1: They also carried in a small all coffin that held
Speaker 1: the body of Willie Lincoln, the president's eleven year old son,
Speaker 1: who had died of typhoid fever three years earlier. His
Speaker 1: coffin had been held in a vault in Georgetown Cemetery
Speaker 1: where his parents could visit him, ironically waiting to return
Speaker 1: to Springfield for burial after his dad left office. Over
Speaker 1: the twelve day trip, the train, pulled by an engine
Speaker 1: with Lincoln's portrait on the front, traveled through four hundred
Speaker 1: cities and towns. No matter the time of day, both
Speaker 1: sides of the track were filled with people paying their respects, praying,
Speaker 1: catching a quick look at the coffin, or just observing.
Speaker 1: Towns had built elaborate decorated archways over the tracks. There
Speaker 1: were bonfires blazing all along it. There were choirs and performances. Trackside,
Speaker 1: there were tiny children and very old people. They all
Speaker 1: wanted to say goodbye and maybe be a part of history.
Speaker 1: There were thirteen major stops where Lincoln's coffin was taken
Speaker 1: off the train, placed on a horse drawn hearse, and
Speaker 1: taken to a public building for viewing. In Philadelphia, Lincoln's
Speaker 1: body lay in state next to the Liberty Bell in
Speaker 1: Independence Hall for twenty hours. During that time, one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand people filed past his open coffin after
Speaker 1: waiting in a line that was three miles long. Even
Speaker 1: larger crowds came out in New York City. There a
Speaker 1: half million spectators, including six year old Teddy Roosevelt, who
Speaker 1: watched from a second floor window in his family's mansion,
Speaker 1: saw sixteen horses pull an elaborate hearse. Hundreds of thousands
Speaker 1: filed past his open casket at City Hall. As the
Speaker 1: days progressed, it became pretty clear the embalmer had overestimated
Speaker 1: his skills. Folks said Lincoln's eyes began to sink into
Speaker 1: his skull, and his skin darkened and withered as he decomposed.
Speaker 1: The New York Evening Post said, it is not the genial,
Speaker 1: kindly face of Abraham Lincoln. It is but a ghastly shadow. Yikes,
Speaker 1: But the Embalmer along on the trip to care for
Speaker 1: the body, pretended all was well, saying to the press,
Speaker 1: no perceptible change has taken place in the body of
Speaker 1: the late President since it left Washington. But he tried
Speaker 1: to hide Lincoln's darkening face by loading it with chalk
Speaker 1: white makeup. As for the smell of rotting flesh, they
Speaker 1: continually doused the body with the perfume of lilacs and camellias,
Speaker 1: which only added to the miasma as you can imagine.
Speaker 1: The funeral train finally reached Springfield, Illinois on May third,
Speaker 1: after a sixteen hundred forty five mile journey. Lincoln was home.
Speaker 1: There was a twenty four hour public viewing there in
Speaker 1: the Illinois state capital. Finally, Lincoln's coffin was closed on
Speaker 1: the morning of May fourth. He and his little boy
Speaker 1: Willie were laid to rest at Oakridge Cemetery inside a
Speaker 1: limestone vault. The doors and iron grating were sealed. But
Speaker 1: during the almost three weeks since his death, over one
Speaker 1: and a half million had seen Lincoln in his coffin,
Speaker 1: and more than seven million, a full third of the
Speaker 1: entire US population, had watched his coffin go by. As
Speaker 1: they waited by the side of the train tracks. President
Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln was finally at rest. Hope you're enjoying The
Speaker 1: Backstory with Patty Steele. Follow or subscribe for free to
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Speaker 1: me if you have a story you'd like me to cover.
Speaker 1: On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.
Speaker 1: I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premieer Networks,
Speaker 1: the Elvis Durand Group and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer
Speaker 1: is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new
Speaker 1: episodes every Tuesday, Day and Friday. Feel free to reach
Speaker 1: out to me with comments and even story suggestions on
Speaker 1: Instagram at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The
Speaker 1: pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.