Following his
death by assassination, the body of
Abraham Lincoln was borne from
Washington, D.C. to its final resting place in Lincoln's hometown of
Springfield, Illinois, by
funeral train, accompanied by dignitaries and Lincoln's eldest son
Robert Todd.
The remains of his son,
William Wallace Lincoln, were also placed on the train, which left Washington, D.C., on April 21, 1865 and traveled to Springfield, arriving on May 3, 1865. Several stops were made along the way, in which Lincoln's body
lay in state. The train retraced the route Lincoln had traveled to Washington as the
president-elect on his way to his
first inauguration, and millions of Americans viewed the train along the route. Lincoln's wife
Mary Todd Lincoln remained at the
White House because she was too distraught to make the trip; she returned to Illinois about one month later.
Lincoln was interred at
Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield. The site of the
Lincoln Tomb, now owned and managed as a
state historic site, is marked by a -tall
granite obelisk surmounted with several
bronze statues of Lincoln, constructed by 1874. Mary Todd Lincoln and three of his four sons are also buried there. (Robert Todd Lincoln is buried in
Arlington National Cemetery at
Arlington, Virginia).
Funeral train
At 7 a.m. on Friday, April 21, the coffin was taken to the depot to the funeral car.
Edwin M. Stanton,
Gideon Welles,
Hugh McCulloch,
John Palmer Usher,
Lieutenant General Ulysses......
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