The Birthday of Eternity

Abraham Lincoln, died April 15, 1865

The second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as the president of the United States took place on March 4, 1865. A burst of sun during his oath of office was interpreted by Mr. Lincoln as a good omen.

John Wilkes Booth, and some of the conspirators involved with his assassination plans were present in the crowd at the inauguration. Booth attended as the invited guest of his secret fiancée Lucy Hale,  daughter of John P. Hale, soon to become Ambassador to Spain. Booth later told a fellow actor: "What a splendid chance I had to kill the President on the 4th of March." 

John Wilkes Booth

On March 17, 1865, Booth informed his conspirators that Lincoln would be attending a play  at Campbell Military Hospital.  He assembled his men in a restaurant at the edge of town, intending that they should soon join him on a nearby stretch of road in order to capture the President on his way back from the hospital. But Booth found out that Lincoln had not gone to the play after all. Instead, he had attended a ceremony at the National Hotel in which officers of the Indiana Infantry presented Governor Oliver Morton with a captured Confederate battle flag.  Booth was living at the National Hotel at the time, and could have had an opportunity to kill Lincoln had he not gone to the hospital instead.

On March 23, Lincoln, his wife, Mary and their son Tad boarded the passenger ship “River Queen” in Washington, D.C. and arrived at City Point, Virginia the following evening at 9:00 p.m. They would be away from Washington for two weeks.

On March 25, the President, along with a large party of guests including officers and wives,
boarded a train and headed toward Petersburg, Virginia. Among the many sights Lincoln witnessed were hundreds of Confederate soldiers who had been taken prisoner during the Battle of Fort Stedman which had occurred early that morning.

On March 28, the day’s activity centered around the River Queen anchored at City Point.
General Ulysses S. Grant, General William T. Sherman, and Admiral David D. Porter sat down with the President onboard the River Queen.

A few days later, while sleeping on the River Queen, the president had the famous dream that foretold his assassination. Later, the President recounted the dream to his wife and colleagues:

"I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. . . . Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and so shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, some gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. 'Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers. 'The President,' was his answer; 'he was killed by an assassin!' Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which awoke me from my dream. I slept no more that night; and although it was only a dream, I have been strangely annoyed by it since."

On the morning of April 3, Lincoln was informed that Petersburg had finally fallen to Federal troops. He decided to go into the city, and was accompanied by Admiral David Porter, Captain John Barnes, William Crook, and Lincoln’s son, Tad on a special train.

The next day ,the president visited the former Confederate capital at Richmond. Newly freed slaves greeted him there amid the still smoking ruins of the "Evacuation Fire" that leveled much of the city's business district during the Confederate withdrawal. Lincoln toured the grounds of the Richmond State Capitol building that housed both the Virginia and Confederate congresses during the war. He also visited the former home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis during his tour.

On April 8, President Lincoln left the River Queen, came ashore, and with a group including his wife, visited the Depot Field Hospital. Later that evening, a large party was planned onboard the River Queen featuring high-ranking officers and other prominent guests. The party ended at 10:00 p.m. and the ship began its journey back to Washington.

The following day, April 9, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to General Grant at Appomattox Court House and the Civil War.

President Lincoln, his wife Mary and son Tad arrived back in Washington at 6:00 p.m.

On April 11, 1865, two days after Lee's army surrendered to Grant, Booth attended an evening speech at the White House.  Lincoln stood at the window over the building's main door, a place where presidents customarily gave speeches. Reporter Noah Brooks held a light so Lincoln could read his speech, while young Tad Lincoln grasped the pages as they fluttered to his feet. The speech introduced the complex topic of reconstruction. For the first time in a public setting, Lincoln expressed his support for black suffrage. Booth decided on assassination and is quoted as saying: "That means nigger citizenship. Now, by God, I'll put him through. That is the last speech he will ever give."

Booth's assassination of Lincoln took place on Good Friday, April 14, 1865.  Lincoln was shot while watching the play Our American Cousin with his wife at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.  He died early the next morning.

Ford's Theatre

Friday, April 14, 1865, began as a lovely spring day in Washington, D.C.  Hugh McCulloch, the new Secretary of the Treasury, remarked that on that morning, "I never saw Mr. Lincoln so cheerful and happy". For months, the President had looked pale and haggard. Lincoln himself told people how happy he was. 

Lincoln ate breakfast with his family around 8 am; normally he had one egg and one cup of coffee. 

Mary Todd Lincoln

 Mary Lincoln, 46, sat at the opposite end of the table with their sons, Robert, 21, and Tad, 12, at the sides. 

Tad Lincoln with his father

President Lincoln listened as Captain Robert Lincoln discussed his brief tour of duty in the Union Army. Robert had been present at the McLean House in Appomattox when General Robert E. Lee surrendered. 

Robert Todd Lincoln

Mary said she had tickets to Grover's Theatre, but she'd prefer to see Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre. Lincoln called for a messenger and requested that he go to Ford's Theatre and reserve the State Box for the evening's performance. He did not yet know General Grant intended to decline the invitation and leave Washington on a late afternoon train. The management of Ford's was elated when they heard the news of their special guests for Good Friday's Our American Cousin performance.

At 10 am, Mr. Lincoln greeted visitors. One of them was former New Hampshire Senator John Hale who had recently been appointed minister to Spain. (Hale's daughter, Lucy, was Booth's fiancée.)  

John P. Hale

Lincoln met with his cabinet at 11 am, and later had a brief meeting with Vice President Andrew Johnson, the first between the two since Johnson had shown up drunk to take the vice presidential oath on Inauguration Day, six weeks prior.

At around noon, while visiting Ford's Theatre to pick up his mail (Booth had a permanent mailbox there), Booth learned from the brother of John Ford, the owner, that the President and General Grant would be attending the theater to see Our American Cousin that night. Booth determined that this was the perfect opportunity for him to do something.  

Mary Surratt's Boarding House

Booth went to Mary Surratt's boarding house in Washington, D.C. and asked her to deliver a package to her tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland. He also requested Surratt to tell her tenant who resided there to have the guns and ammunition that Booth had previously stored at the tavern ready to be picked up later that evening. She complied with Booth's requests and made the trip, along with Louis Weichmann, her boarder and son's friend. This exchange, and her compliance in it, would lead directly to Surratt's execution three months later.

Intending to take a carriage ride, Lincoln and his wife came out on the White House porch at 5 pm.  A one-armed soldier, hoping to catch sight of Mr. Lincoln, yelled, "I would almost give my other hand if I could shake that of Abraham Lincoln." The president walked toward the soldier and grabbed his hand. Lincoln said, "You shall do that and it shall cost you nothing." The Lincolns then entered the carriage. Two cavalrymen followed the carriage as it started down the gravel White House driveway. The carriage arrived at the Navy Yard, and the president took a short stroll on the deck of the monitor Montauk. Then he got back in the carriage for the short trip back to the White House. When the carriage pulled into the White House driveway, two old friends from Illinois, Dick Oglesby and General Isham N. Haynie, greeted the president. He invited them into his office for a friendly discussion of  "old times." Word that dinner was ready reached Lincoln, and the Lincolns ate as a family. Mary told Abraham that a young couple, Clara Harris, 20, and Major Henry Rathbone, 28, had accepted their Ford's Theatre invitation.

At seven o'clock that evening, John Wilkes Booth met with all his fellow conspirators. Booth assigned Lewis Powell to kill Secretary of State William Seward at his home, George Atzerodt    to kill  Vice President Andrew Johnson at his residence, the Kirkwood Hotel, and David Herold to guide Powell to the Seward house and then out of Washington to rendezvous with Booth in Maryland. Booth planned to shoot Lincoln with his single-shot derringer and then stab Grant with a knife. 

Derringer Pistol that Booth used to shoot Lincoln

They were all to strike simultaneously shortly after ten o'clock that night.

Contrary to the information Booth had overheard, General and Mrs. Grant had declined the invitation to see the play with the Lincolns.  Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris (daughter of New York Senator Ira Harris accepted.  

George Ashmun

At 7:50 pm, former Congressman George Ashmun arrived at the White House without an appointment. Lincoln decided to see Ashmun; at 8:05 Lincoln's business with Ashmun was still unfinished, and he requested a return visit in the morning. Lincoln wrote out the last message of his life: "Allow Mr. Ashmun & friend to come in at 9:00 A.M. tomorrow." The note was signed "A. Lincoln, April 14, 1865."

Presidential Box at Ford's Theater

The Lincoln party arrived late. about 8:30 pm, and settled into the Presidential Box. The play was stopped briefly and the orchestra played  "Hail to the Chief" as the audience gave the president a rousing standing ovation. Ford's Theater was full with 1,700 in attendance.  

Lincoln's chair was a black walnut rocking chair with red upholstery. It had been brought down from the Ford family's personal quarters located on the 3rd floor above Taltavul's Star Saloon.

Chair that Lincoln was sitting in

Mrs. Lincoln whispered to her husband, who was holding her hand, "What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?" The president replied, "She won't think anything about it".  Those were the last words ever spoken by Abraham Lincoln. It was now about 10:15 pm.

The box was supposed to be guarded by a policeman named John Frederick Parker.  During the intermission, Parker went to a nearby tavern with Lincoln's footman and coachman. It is unclear whether he ever returned to the theater, but he was not at his post when Booth entered the box. 

It was now Act III, Scene II. Booth knew the play by heart, and waited for the moment when actor Harry Hawk would be onstage alone to speak what was considered the funniest line of the play. Booth hoped to employ the enthusiastic response of the audience to muffle the sound of his gunshot. "Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal; you sockdologizing old man-trap!" With hysterical laughter permeating the theater, Booth opened the door, crept forward and shot the President in the back of the head at point-blank range. Lincoln immediately slumped over in his rocking chair, mortally wounded. Mary reached out, caught him, and then screamed when she realized what happened.

Upon hearing the gunshot, Rathbone quickly jumped from his seat and tried to prevent Booth from escaping. Booth dropped the pistol and drew a knife, stabbing the major violently in the left forearm reaching the bone. Rathbone quickly recovered and again tried to grab Booth as he was preparing to jump from the sill of the box. Booth again swung at Rathbone in the chest and then vaulted over the rail of the box down to the stage below (about a twelve-foot drop). In the process, his riding spur became entangled on the flag decorating the box, and he landed awkwardly on his left foot, fracturing his left leg just above the ankle.He raised himself up despite the injury and began crossing the stage. Booth held his bloody knife over his head, and yelled either "Sic semper tyrannis!"the Virginia state motto, (meaning "Thus always to tyrants" in Latin) or "The South is avenged!"

Mary Lincoln's and Clara Harris' screams and Rathbone's cries of "Stop that man!" caused the audience to realize that Booth's actions were not part of the show, and pandemonium immediately broke out. Booth ran out the side door to the horse he had waiting outside.

Charles Leale, a young Army surgeon attending the play, made his way through the crowd to the door at the rear of the Presidential box.  Leale entered the box to find Rathbone bleeding profusely from a deep gash in his chest that ran the length of his upper left arm as well as a long slash in his arm.  Lincoln was slumped in his chair, held up by Mary, who was sobbing. Leale discovered that Lincoln paralyzed was barely breathing. He lowered the President to the floor, believing that Lincoln had been stabbed in the shoulder by the knife. 

Charles Leale

A second doctor in the audience, Charles Sabin Taft, was lifted bodily from the stage over the railing and into the box. Taft and Leale cut away Lincoln's blood-stained collar and opened his shirt, and Leale, feeling around by hand, discovered the bullet hole in the back of his head right next to his left ear. Leale attempted to remove the bullet, but the bullet was too deep in his head; instead, Leale dislodged a clot of blood in the wound. Consequently, Lincoln's breathing improved. 

Leale, Taft, and another doctor from the audience, Albert King, quickly consulted and decided that while the President must be moved, a bumpy carriage ride across town to the White House was out of the question. After briefly considering the saloon next door, they chose to carry Lincoln across the street and find a house. The three doctors and some soldiers who had been in the audience carried the President out the front entrance of Ford's Theatre. Across the street, a man was holding a lantern and calling "Bring him in here! Bring him in here!" The man was Henry Safford, a boarder at William Petersen's boarding house opposite Ford's Theater.  

Petersen House

The men carried Lincoln into the boarding house and into the first-floor bedroom, where they laid him diagonally on the bed because his tall frame would not fit normally on the smaller bed.

During the previous month, John Wilkes Booth had rested on the exact same bed. In March,  actor Charles Warwick had rented the room. One day Booth visited Warwick and fell asleep on the same bed President Lincoln later died in.

A vigil began at the Petersen House. The three physicians were joined by Surgeon General of the Army Joseph K. Barnes, Dr. Charles Henry Crane, Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbot Abbott (a black surgeon in the Army who was acquainted with Lincoln), and Robert K. Stone, Lincoln's personal physician.

One of many illustrations made of death room scene

Robert Lincoln, home at the White House that evening, arrived at the Petersen House after being told of the shooting at about midnight.  His younger brother Tad, who was 12 years old,  was not allowed to go to the house. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton came and took charge of the scene.  Mary Lincoln was so upset that Stanton shouted, "Take that woman out of here and do not let her in here again!" While Mary Lincoln sobbed in the front parlor, Stanton set up shop in the rear parlor, effectively running the federal government for several hours, sending and receiving telegrams, taking reports from witnesses, and issuing orders for the pursuit of Booth.

A large crowd gathered outside in front of the Petersen House.

"A double guard was stationed at the door and on the sidewalk to repress the crowd, which was of course highly excited and anxious. The room was small and overcrowded. The surgeons and members of the cabinet were as many as should have been in the room, but there were many more, and the hall and other rooms in the front or main house were full. One of these rooms was occupied by Mrs. Lincoln and her attendants, with Miss Harris. Mrs. Dixon and Mrs. Kinney came to her about twelve o'clock. About once an hour Mrs. Lincoln would repair to the bedside of her dying husband and with lamentation and tears remain until overcome by emotion.

A door which opened upon a porch or gallery, and also the windows, were kept open for fresh air. The night was dark, cloudy, and damp, and about six it began to rain. I remained in the room until then without sitting or leaving it, when, there being a vacant chair which some one left at the foot of the bed, I occupied it for nearly two hours, listening to the heavy groans and witnessing the wasting life of the good and great man who was expiring before me.

About 6 A.M. I experienced a feeling of faintness, and for the first time after entering the room a little past eleven I left it and the house and took a short walk in the open air. It was a dark and gloomy morning, and rain set in before I returned to the house some fifteen minutes later. Large groups of people were gathered every few rods, all anxious and solicitous. Some one or more from each group stepped forward as I passed to inquire into the condition of the President and to ask if there was no hope. Intense grief was on every countenance when I replied that the President could survive but a short time.

The colored people especially-and there were at this time more of them, perhaps, than of whites - were overwhelmed with grief.  A little before seven I went into the room where the dying President was rapidly drawing near the closing moments. His wife soon after made her last visit to him. The death struggle had begun. Robert, his son, stood with several others at the head of the bed. He, bore himself well but on two occasions gave way to overpowering grief and sobbed aloud, turning his head and leaning on the shoulder of Senator Sumner. The respiration of the President became suspended at intervals and at last entirely ceased at twenty-two minutes past seven."

 ~ Gideon Welles

Lincoln died from the bullet wound to his brain at 7:22 am on April 15, 1865.  He was 56 years old. 

Clothes Lincoln was wearing when shot

Mary Lincoln was not present at the time of his death and neither were his sons. The crowd of men around the bed knelt for a prayer. When they were finished, Stanton made a statement, though there is some disagreement among historians as to what exactly the statement was. All agree that he began "Now he belongs to the ..." with some stating he finished with "ages" while others believe he finished with "angels".

Photograph taken of Bed and Room shortly after Lincoln died

Hermann Faber, an Army medical illustrator, was brought into the room immediately after Lincoln's body was removed so that Faber could visually document the scene.

Lincoln's body was returned by hearse to the White House shortly after 9:00 A.M. Lincoln's temporary coffin was wrapped in an American flag. His remains were transported to the Guest Room which was on the second floor at the front right-hand corner of the building (northwest corner). Nine men were present for the autopsy. Mary Todd Lincoln sent a messenger to request a lock of hair, and a tuft was clipped from the head for her. Dr. Curtis and Dr. Woodward did the actual work of the autopsy.

Lincoln's Death Mask, made at time of autopsy

After the autopsy, Lincoln’s body was taken to the great East Room of the White House; the room was decorated black cloth, white flowers and green leaves. The catafalque upon which the casket lay was about fifteen feet high, and consisted of an elevated platform resting on a dais and covered with a domed canopy of black cloth which was supported by four pillars, and was lined beneath with fluted white silk.  The room was darkened. 

A large number of Illinois politicians were in Washington when Lincoln was assassinated, including the governor, Richard Oglesby, a close friend of Lincoln.  A few hours after Lincoln's death they met in Senator Richard Yates' room at the National Hotel, to arrange a burial in Springfield, Illinois. Governor Oglesby was selected to confer with the Lincoln family on a burial place. Informal conferences were held on April 16. Mary Lincoln was not receiving visitors, but she preferred Chicago or the empty crypt in the U.S. Capitol that had been prepared for George Washington. She finally relented when her son Robert Todd Lincoln was able to persuade her to allow a Springfield burial, by promising to take Willie Lincoln's body along.  Mary Lincoln recalled that Lincoln once had said that he wanted a quiet place for his burial at Oak Ridge Cemetery, two miles from the center of Springfield, Illinois. 

Funeral Procession in Washington, D.C.

On Wednesday afternoon, April 19, 1865, a procession started from the White House at and proceeded up Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol amidst the tolling of bells and the firing of minute-guns. The funeral car was large. The canopy was surmounted by a gilt eagle, covered with crape. The hearse was entirely covered with cloth, velvet, crape and alpaca. The seat was covered with cloth, and on each side was a splendid lamp. The car was fifteen feet high, and the coffin was so placed as to afford a full view to all spectators. It was drawn by six gray horses, each attended by a groom. Despite the enormous crowd, the silence was profound. The funeral car was carried up the steps of the Capitol, beneath the very spot where, six weeks before, the president had delivered his second Inaugural

Hearse in Washington, D.C.

In the rotunda, the remains of the president were open to public viewing the next day, Thursday, April 20, 1865.

Lincoln's death was the first assassination of a U.S. president and sent the nation into mourning. His body was transported 1,700 miles through New York to Springfield, Illinois. His body and funeral train were viewed by millions along the route.

Abraham Lincoln's funeral train left Washington, D.C. on April 21, 1865. It would essentially retrace the 1,654 mile route Mr. Lincoln had traveled as president-elect in 1861 (with the deletion of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati and the addition of Chicago). 

The Lincoln Special, whose engine had Mr. Lincoln's photograph over the cowcatcher, carried approximately 300 mourners. Willie Lincoln's coffin was also on board. Willie, who had died in the White House in 1862 at age 11, had been disinterred and was to be buried with his father in Springfield.  Robert Lincoln rode on the train to Baltimore but then returned to Washington.

Governor Oliver P. Morton of Indiana, Governor John Brough of Ohio, and Governor William Stone of Iowa accompanied the train with their aides.

On Sunday, April 23, long lines of the general public began forming in Philadelphia by 5:00 A.M.  At its greatest, the double line was three miles long. Philadelphia officials estimated 300,000 people passed by Mr. Lincoln's open coffin. The wait was up to five hours.

Philadelphia

The Lincoln Special departed Philadelphia from Kensington Station at 4:00 A.M on Monday, April 24. headed for New York which was an 86-mile trip. The train arrived in an immense train station at Jersey City at 10:00 A.M., but the huge clock inside the station had been frozen at 7:20, the approximate time of Mr. Lincoln's death. Mr. Lincoln's coffin was removed from the railroad car and taken across the Hudson River by ferry. It was then borne to City Hall where it was carried up the circular staircase under the rotunda. The coffin was then placed in a black velvet dais. The public was admitted after 1:00 P.M. At one point more than 500,000 people waited in line to view Mr. Lincoln.   On Tuesday, April 25, at about 2:00 P.M., Lincoln's coffin was placed on a 14-foot long funeral car. It was drawn by 16 horses wearing long blankets. A funeral procession began that went up Broadway to Fourteenth Street, over to Fifth Avenue, up Fifth to Thirty-fourth Street, and across Thirty-fourth to Ninth Avenue to the Hudson River Railway Depot. 

Lincoln Funeral Procession on Broadway, New York City

Windows along the route rented for up to $100 a person. When the procession neared Union Square, it passed Theodore Roosevelt's grandfather's home where the 6-year-old future president was viewing the proceedings from a second story window. 

Teddy Roosevelt watching funeral procession in New York

Shortly after 4:00 P.M. the funeral train was on its way again, headed for Albany (141 miles away). The train arrived in Albany at 11:00 P.M., and the coffin was moved to the State House for public viewing. Throughout the night the local citizenry passed by to pay their last respects to the slain president.

Viewing Stand in Cleveland, Ohio

On Friday, April 28, the coffin was transported Cleveland's Public Park and placed in a pagoda in Monument Square; only in Cleveland was the public viewing done outdoors. Thus the others cities' problems of cramped quarters and thousands left in line were avoided.  In 15 hours, 150,000 were able to pass by the coffin. At midnight the Lincoln Special departed Cleveland for Columbus.  The train arrived in Columbus at 7:30 A.M. 

Columbus, Ohio

The coffin was carried in a 17-foot long hearse to the State Capitol building. Again, thousands and thousands of people viewed the fallen president. At 8:00 P.M. the train departed Columbus headed for Indianapolis (187 miles away).  It arrived in Indianapolis at 7:00 A.M. The coffin was carried to the Indiana State House in a hearse topped by a silver-gilt eagle. Although rain had been almost an everyday occurrence on the journey, it was so heavy in Indianapolis that the giant procession was canceled and the entire day devoted to viewing. Streetcars in Indianapolis bore slogans of mourning: Car #10 said, “Sorrow for the Dead; Justice for the Living; Punishment for Traitors.” Car #13 said, “Fear Not, Abraham; I Am Thy Shield; Thy Reward Shall Be Exceedingly Great.” Car #20 said, “Thou Art Gone and Friend and Foe Alike Appreciate Thee Now.” Late in the evening the Lincoln Special departed Indianapolis destined for Chicago.

The train arrived in Chicago at 11:00 A.M. Chicago's procession for Mr. Lincoln rivaled New York's in size and grandeur. The route went down Michigan Avenue, then Lake Street, and then Clark to Court House Square. The coffin was opened for public viewing at the Cook County Court House on Clark Street at 6:00 P.M. and lasted through the night and all the next day.  At the rate of 7,000 people per hour, mourners passed by Mr. Lincoln's coffin. 

Funeral Procession in Chicago

The body's discoloration, noticeable in New York, had reached the extent of distressing the viewers. 

At 8:00 P.M. the hearse carried the coffin to the depot. The Lincoln Special was now destined for its final stop: Springfield, 184 miles away.  Lincoln's hometown was reached the next morning. Lincoln would lie in state in the State House's Hall of Representatives (the same room in which he gave his famous "House Divided" speech). Mr. Lincoln's face had become further discolored, and Thomas Lynch, an undertaker, using rouge chalk and amber restored the face to near normal color. 

Shortly after 10:00 A.M. the doors were opened to the long line of mourners. 

Additionally, hundreds of people gathered around Mr. Lincoln's home where his horse, Old Bob, now 16 years old, and his dog, Fido, had been brought back for the day.

Lincoln's home in Springfield

Thursday, May 4, the day of Lincoln's Springfield funeral, was a scorcher. At 10:00 A.M. the doors to the State House were closed, and Mr. Lincoln's body was prepared for burial by the undertaker and embalmer. The procession was led by Major-General Joseph Hooker and followed a zigzag route from the State House, past Mr. Lincoln's home, past the Governor's Mansion, and onto the country road leading to Oak Ridge Cemetery. The hearse was followed immediately by Lincoln's horse, Old Bob, wearing a mourning blanket. 

State Capitol Building in Springfield

Lincoln's only two blood relatives in attendance that day were his son, Robert, and his cousin, John Hanks. Mrs. Mary Lincoln was still in mourning in the White House. Upon arrival at the cemetery, the coffin was laid upon the marble slab inside a temporary tomb, along with Willie's little coffin. The crowd then watched as the gates of iron and the heavy wooden doors of the tomb were closed and locked. 

After the burial, the debate over Lincoln's final resting place continued. The National Lincoln Monument Society began again to stoke the fires of creating the grand tomb for Lincoln in the center of Springfield. Mary Lincoln threatened to have her husband's remains taken to Chicago or Washington for permanent burial. "My determination is unalterable," she wrote on June 10 and demanded a formal promise that "the immortal Savior and Martyr for Freedom" would be at Oak Ridge. The association voted, by the narrowest of margins, 8-7, to accept her demands. Oak Ridge Cemetery became the site of the Lincoln Tomb.

When the tomb was completed in 1874, Lincoln's coffin was placed in a white marble sarcophagus in a burial room behind only a steel gate locked with a padlock, where he remained undisturbed for two years. 

In November 1876, Irish crime boss James "Big Jim" Kennally, who ran a counterfeiting  ring in Chicago, decided on a plan for the release of their engraver, Benjamin Boyd, who'd been arrested and sentenced to ten years at the Illinois State Peniteniary. Their plan was to steal Lincoln's body from its tomb, bury it in the Indiana Dunes along Lake Michigan to cover their tracks, and hold it for ransom, in exchange for a full pardon for Boyd and $200,000 ($4,255,319 in 2012 dollars) in cash.  Kennally recruited two members of his gang, Terrence Mullen and Jack Hughes, to carry out the plot. They recruited a third man, Lewis Swegles, to assist them; Swegles brought in a man named Billy Brown as the getaway driver.  None of them had any experience with lock-picking, so they cut through the padlock with a file. They then opened up the sarcophagus, but were unable to move the 500-pound, lead-lined cedar coffin more than a few inches. Mullen and Hughes sent Swegles to retrieve the wagon, but instead Swegles tipped off the waiting law enforcement officials in the vestibule of the tomb; Swegles and Brown were in fact paid informants of the United States Secret Service  (at the time intended to stop counterfeiting, not protect the President).  Swegles had gone to Patrick D. Tyrrell, the Secret Service chief in Chicago, when he received word of the plot. As the lawmen moved in, one of the Pinkerton detectives present accidentally discharged his pistol, causing Mullen and Hughes to flee back to the Hub in Chicago. They were arrested by Tyrrell and his agents the following evening.

After the foiled theft, tomb custodian John Carroll Power was concerned at how close they had come to stealing the body, and worried what would happen if professional graverobbers made a similar attempt to steal Lincoln's body. Power and a select group of trusted confidants elected to hide Lincoln's coffin in the basement of the tomb, the location known only to them. Initially trying to dig a grave in the basement, they found that water seeped in wherever they dug, so they simply set the coffin on the ground and covered it with bits of lumber left over from the tomb's construction, disguising the coffin as a woodpile. Two years later, they managed to find a dry corner in another part of the tomb basement to bury the coffin under a few inches of dirt.

On February 12, 1880, on what would have been Lincoln's 71st birthday, Power and his associates formed the "Lincoln Guard of Honor," to serve as the custodians of Lincoln's body, keeping the President's remains hidden. The only person outside of their inner circle who knew of their efforts was Lincoln's last surviving child, Robert Lincoln. In July 1882, after Mary Todd Lincoln died, Robert instructed the Guard of Honor to bury his mother's coffin wherever they kept his father's. They remained in the basement until 1887, when they were encased in a brick vault. To ensure Lincoln's remains were still there, the coffin was opened by the Guard of Honor, and saw that indeed it was Lincoln in the coffin.

The original tomb was in constant need of repair and deteriorated significantly due to construction on unsuitable soil. In 1900, a complete reconstruction of Lincoln's tomb was undertaken, and the Lincolns' remains were exhumed, before Lincoln was finally placed back in the white marble sarcophagus that Mullen and Hughes had opened so easily in 1876.  

Construction Work on Tomb, 1901

In April 25, 1901, upon completion of the reconstruction, Robert Todd Lincoln visited the tomb. He was unhappy with the disposition of his father's remains and decided that it was necessary to build a permanent crypt for his father. Lincoln's coffin would be placed in a steel cage and encased in concrete in the floor of the tomb.  On September 26, 1901, Lincoln's body was exhumed so that it could be re-interred in the newly built crypt. However, those present (a total of 23 people) feared that his body might have been stolen in the intervening years, so they decided to open the coffin and check.  It was said that a harsh choking smell arose when the casket was opened. Lincoln was perfectly recognizable, even more than thirty years after his death. His face was a bronze color as a result of unhealed bruising from the gunshot wound, which shattered the bones in his face and damaged the tissue. His hair, beard and mole were all perfectly preserved although his eyebrows were gone. His suit was covered with a yellow mold and his gloves had rotted on his hands. On his chest, they could see some bits of red fabric — remnants of the American flag with which he was buried, which had by then disintegrated. It was theorized that Lincoln had been embalmed so many times on board his funeral train that he had been practically mummified.

A second, major reconstruction of the tomb was undertaken in 1930-31. Much deterioration had occurred due to poor construction during the 1900–1901 reconstruction. During the second reconstruction, the entrance to the tomb was reconfigured to better accommodate visitors and the original, white marble sarcophagus was replaced with the red granite marker in front of the place where Lincoln is interred. Souvenir hunters destroyed the original sarcophagus, which was placed outside the tomb during reconstruction. The tomb was rededicated with President Herbert Hoover as the main speaker on June 17, 1931.

Interior of Lincoln Tomb

Lincoln's coffin has been moved 17 times and the coffin opened 6 times.

The site of the Lincoln Tomb, now owned and managed as an Illinois state historic site, is marked by a 117-foot-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 in Virginia).

Lincoln Tomb, Springfield, Illinois

The nose on the bronze head of Lincoln remains shiny due to the tradition of rubbing Lincoln's nose for good luck. Thousands of visitors rub the nose at the base of the tomb each year, preventing the nose from tarnishing and forming the brown patina that covers the rest of the head.

Sculpture at Lincoln Tomb

Ford's Theatre reopened in 1968 both as a museum of the assassination and a working playhouse. The Presidential Box is never occupied.  The Petersen House was purchased in 1896 as the "House Where Lincoln Died".  Today, Ford's and the Petersen House are operated together as the Ford's Theatre National Historic Site.

The bed that Lincoln occupied and other items from the bedroom had been bought by Chicago collector Charles Gunther, and are now owned by and on display at the Chicago History Museum.  The chair in which Lincoln was shot is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.