PART 2: "Lincoln the Final Journey" Exhibit: The Train, Journey

Replica of the train the transported Lincoln

This is part 2 of the "Lincoln the Final Journey" Exhibit at the B&O Railroad Museum, Baltimore. This blog focuses on the train that carried his body.

The interesting history of this train and it's long journey were originally published by the HISTORY CHANNEL and  posted below.
SOURCE: http://www.history.com/topics/president-lincolns-funeral-train

Replica of the train that transported Lincoln's body

THE JOURNEY BY TRAIN -  On April 21, 1865, a Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad train carrying the coffin of assassinated President Abraham Lincoln left Washington, D.C. for a destination of Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln would be buried there on May 4, 1865.
  The train carrying Lincoln’s body traveled through 180 cities and seven states on its way to Lincoln’s home state of Illinois. Scheduled stops for the special funeral train were published in newspapers.

Tom talks with a field Surgeon of the civil war

THE STOPS ALONG THE WAY -  At each stop, Lincoln’s coffin was taken off the train, placed on an elaborately decorated horse-drawn hearse and led by solemn processions to a public building for viewing. In cities as large as Columbus, Ohio, and as small as Herkimer, New York, thousands of mourners flocked to pay tribute to the slain president. In Philadelphia, Lincoln’s body lay in state on in the east wing of Independence Hall, the same site where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Newspapers reported that people had to wait more than five hours to pass by the president’s coffin in some cities.

Re-enactors and the Union band playing

 THE TRAIN WAS NAMED THE "LINCOLN SPECIAL" - The President's portrait was even attached to the front of the engine above the cattle guard, as it was in the photos from the B&O Railroad Museum.

   HOW MANY WENT ON THE TRAIN RIDE? - According to the History Channel, about 300 people accompanied Lincoln’s body on the 1,654-mile journey, including his eldest son Robert.

Jeff and Tom walking through the exhibits

    LINCOLN'S LATE SON'S BODY ALSO ON-BOARD -  Also on the train was a coffin containing the body of Lincoln’s son Willie, who had died in 1862 at the age of 11 of typhoid fever during Lincoln’s second year in office. Willie’s body had been disinterred from a plot in Washington, D.C. after Lincoln’s death so he could be buried alongside his father at the family plot in Springfield.
 

Rob and Jeff

The surgeon's cabinet

  WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ORIGINAL TRAIN?  - The train in the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore is an amazing Replica. As for the original, the History Channel noted that  in 1911, a prairie fire near Minneapolis, Minnesota, destroyed the train car that had so famously carried Lincoln’s body to its final resting place.
     
FOR MORE INFO FROM THE HISTORY CHANNEL WEBSITE: http://www.history.com/topics/president-lincolns-funeral-train  

NEXT: MODEL TRAINS AND DINNERWARE!